I’ve been prowling the store shelves since October to see what’s back this year in seasonal favorites and what might be new.
I’ve been pretty excited so see so many old favorites returning plus a few new additions. The flavor combinations of pumpkin spice, peppermint bark and gingerbread continue strong showings with a few egg nog and chili pepper items out there, too.
This is by no means a definitive list, but I’ve tried to actually find the announced products in stores before adding them to my list.
Hershey’s
• Twizzlers Tree Shaped Cherry Candy (new)
• Hershey’s Candy Cane Bar Mint Candy with Candy Bits (new - review)
• Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses (old review when they were made with real white chocolate)
• Hershey’s Mint Truffle Kisses (review)
• Hershey’s Cherry Cordial Kisses (review)
• Hershey’s Mint Miniatures (white creme with nonpareils, Special Dark with mint and Milk Chocolate with mint - here’s an old review when the white chocolate was made with cocoa butter)
• Reese’s Trees (just like the Eggs)
• Reese’s Bells (foil wrapped bell shaped candies about the size of the regular miniatures)
• Reese’s Snow Board Santa (kind of like the big Reester Bunny around Easter)
• HersheyEts (review) - I’ve seen these at the Hershey’s store before in bags but also in those candy cane tubes at major retailers.
• Hershey’s Collection Almond Clusters & Chocolate Covered Pretzels (new) - packaged in cardboard gable box
• Giant Hershey Bars (1 Pound)
• World’s Largest Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (1 Pound - review)
• Hershey’s Kisses Santa Hat just a large kiss with red and white foil
• Hershey’s Giant Kisses
Just Born
• Peeps Chocolate Covered Peppermint Trees (Milk & Dark Chocolate)
• Peeps White Snowmen (I like the snowmen because they’re one of the few varieties that doesn’t have artificial colors)
• Peeps Green Trees
• Peeps Peppermint Chocolate Dips
• Peeps Gingerbread Men
• Mike and Ike Merry Mix
Nestle
• Wonka Gobstoppers Snowballs
• Wonka Frosty Nerds (watermelon, wild cherry & punch)
• Wonka Nerds Holiday Rope (photo)
• Wonka Holiday SweeTart Gummis (red & green and I think they’re shaped like Oompa Loompa faces - photo)
• Nestle Butterfinger Jingles (review)
• Nestle Crunch Jingles
• Butterfinger and Nestlé Crunch Medallions kind of like coins, about an ounce, but not wrapped in foil
• Wonka SweeTarts & Spree Candy Cane Tubes (new)
• Wonka Pixy Stix Powder-Filled Candy Canes (new) these are actual hard candies filled with sour powder. Definitely an innovative item.
• Wonka Candy Canes in Spree, SweeTart and Gobstopper flavors
• Wonka Nerds & Fun Dip Fantastical Fun Books like the classic Life Savers story books
• Wonka Giant Pixy Stix Giant Canes are just canes filled with the plastic Pixy Stix ... lots more plastic than candy
• Perugina Baci (review) in holiday packaging - they’re much easier to find during the run up to the holidays than usual
Mars & Wrigley’s
• Life Savers Tin - holds 7 rolls of three different varieties - comes in Butter Rum, Cherry or 5 Flavor package design
• Life Savers Sweet Story Candy Rolls and Gummies (the box that looks like a book and has a collection of Life Saver Rolls in it)
• Life Savers Hard Candy Holiday Mix (cherry, apple & candy cane)
• M&Ms Holiday Mint (revew)
• M&Ms Cherry Cordial
• M&Ms White Chocolate Peppermint (review)
• Dove Peppermint Bark (in foil wrapped Promises & boxed bark review)
• Dove Promises Snowflake Assortment (round pieces in milk, dark & caramel with snowflakes molded in them)
• Dove White Chocolate with Creamy Center - I don’t think these are the same as the Promises I tried last year
• Snickers Nutcrackers (review)
• Snickers Peanut Butter Santas (review)
• 3 Musketeers Hot Cocoa with Marshmallows in minis size
• Twix Santas like the Twix Eggs, they’re like a double wide Twix bar.
• Twix Gingerbread (review)
• Mars Heritage Tins - pencil box sized tins filled with miniatures - designed like classic candy bar wrappers - come in Snickers, M&Ms, Twix and Milky Way)
• Skittles Holiday Mix - features Strawberry, Wild Cherry, Lemon, Grape and Green Apple in red and green.
Ferrara Candy (Ferrara Pan, Farley’s & Sathers + Brach’s)
• Brach’s Christmas Nougats in Peppermint & Wintergreen and Cinnamon (review)
• Brach’s Gloria Mix (classic straw & filled candies)
• Brach’s Holiday Mix (classic filled candies)
• Brach’s Holiday Mints (pillow mints with a green minty jelly filling)
• Brach’s Spicettes (gumdrops in green & red)
• Ferrara Chocolate Oranges (review)
Tootsie
• Tootsie Roll Candy Cane Pop Drops (review)
• Tootsie Roll Candy Cane Pops (review)
• Tootsie Roll Banks (Tootsie & Midgees)
• Tootsie Roll Holiday Midgees (I have no idea what these are - the package doesn’t say)
• Christmas Dots (review)
• Andes Peppermint Crunch (white chocolate with crunchy peppermint candies)
• Andes Cherry Jubilee Thins
• Andes Toffee Creme Thins
• Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch (review)
Russell Stover
• Ribbon Candy (I suspect this is just a repackage of Sevigny’s)
• Marshmallow Snow Man (large ones - come in regular milk chocolate covered and chocolate covered in milk chocolate)
• Peppermint Bark Snowman - made with real white chocolate
• Marshmallow Santas review
• Coconut Wreath review
• Strawberry Cream Santa- review
• Milk Chocolate Coconut Santa - review
• Maple Cream Santa in milk and dark chocolate now - review
• Peanut Butter Santa - review
• Gingerbread Santa (review)
• Peppermint Cream Santa (review)
Cadbury/Adams
• Swedish Fish (red & green) in bags or theater boxes
• Sour Patch Kids (red & green) in bags or theater boxes
• Cadbury Solid Milk Chocolate Balls (like the mini-eggs - sold by Hershey’s in the United States)
Ghirardelli Chocolate
• Ghirardelli Hollow Chocolate Nutcracker
• Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark (review)
• Ghirardelli Squares Holiday Impressions milk chocolate squares with white chocolate “cameo” centers
• Ghirardelli Holiday Squares - egg nog & peppermint bark (review)
Other Items of Interest
• Giant Toblerone Bars
• Toblerone Snow Top - a milk chocolate bar with white chocolate cap on the triangles
• Terry’s Chocolate Oranges (Milk with Orange, Dark with Orange and White with Orange)
• Maxfield’s Assorted Chocolates (I haven’t tried these boxed chocolates yet, they’re less expensive than Russell Stover and probably on par with Elmer’s)
• Fannie May Mint Meltaway & Pixies (individually wrapped - pixie review & meltaway review)
• Ritter Sport Peppermint (review)
• Florida Tropic Oranges in a variety of flavors - review
• Zachary Confections Egg Nog Candy Corn (I add these to my list every year, but I still haven’t seen them in stores)
• Zachary Confections Candy Cane Corn
• Nips Egg Nog (review)
• Dark Roca
• Dark Chocolate Peppermint Roca
• Mocha Roca
• TicTac Holiday Twist either red and white or green and red Tic Tac mixes
• Lindt Hollow Chocolate Santas, Snowmen & Bears
• J&Ds Sriracha Candy Canes (spotted at Cost Plus World Market)
• Au’Some 3-DEEs Santa Gummis
What are you looking forward to most? And what are you having trouble finding this year? What did I leave out?
Lindt snowman truffles. They have some other ones, too, but the names escape me now.
I find it fun to search TJ Maxx/ Home Goods / Ross / Marshalls for holiday candy. My favorite which I haven’t spotted this year is King Leo Peppermint Bark. I picked up some Harry and David peppermint bark in a nice cardboard box rather than a tin (1 pound for $10.99).
I’ve noticed at my local World Market that Perugina is now making a white chocolate Baci. Haven’t tried it, yet.
Notice ya didnt have peeps sugar cookie… not sure if its just a regional thing or if ya missed it? Found it at my local grocery hy-vee. Got it but havent tried it yet.
Can’t find the Hershey’s Mint Miniatures this year. I’m in Michigan and would like to find them for my son. Thank you!
It may be a bit late, but Walmart had Milk Chocolate Gingerbread M&Ms;. They were not much different than last year’s Cinnamon ones, except with a bit of a ‘curry’ flavoured finish.
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