The cantonal breads are by no means the end of the story. Within the cantons there are many varieties, and there are also numerous breads baked for special occasions.

One typical Swiss product is the so-called "sculpted bread", which bears an elaborate decoration, the meaning of which has often been lost in the depths of time. In the eastern canton of Appenzell, for example, they make a round bread, called a File loaf, whose decoration consists of a tress with whorls around it, which some people think represent snails emerging in the springtime. In the Lötschental in the southern canton of Valais, godparents have a christening loaf made, called Mitscha, decorated with a cross and the Christian monogram IHS. The baby is given half the loaf, and the godparents divide the rest between them.

Some breads are baked to commemorate particular saints. St Nicholas is a popular example. The bread effigies sold on his day have different names according to the region they come from: Hanselmanne, Grittibänz, Bonhomme are just a few. Some experts think these are a hangover from pre-Christian days, when Celtic tribes made effigies of their gods.

In Schwyz another saint has the bakers' favours: St Agatha, who protects against fire, has bread rings made in her honour, which are blessed in church and then either eaten or hung up in houses to stop them burning down.

Many areas know the custom of blessing bread and handing it out, often to children, probably in memory of past famines - at one time not a rare event, hard though it may be to believe in today's Switzerland. For example, at carnival time in Schwyz a clown figure known as the "Blätz" goes around with loaves spiked on a broom handle, and gives bits of them out to the crowd. In Wil, in canton St Gallen, any child who has made a lantern for the New Year procession is rewarded with a bread figure known as the Old Years Man.