Holiday Treats

What defines holidays more than those special foods prepared or available only during those times? I can’t fathom a Valentine’s without those cute but chalky little conversation hearts or an Easter without the Cadbury Creme Egg Bunny hawking those delicious English eggs. Decades down the line, people insist the Reese’s peanut butter eggs taste different than their halloween bats, and many a kid spent a Halloween night weeding all the Smarties rolls out of their candy basket to force on younger siblings. Maybe your family made their own popcorn balls, Christmas divinity or jelly bean nests? What 80s holiday treats did you most look forward to?

Spring

Valentine’s Day

1. Brach’s cupid mix
2. Cherry Jelly hearts
3. Chocolate covered whipped marshmallow hearts
4. Brach’s Cherry Cordials
5. Conversation Hearts
6. Little Debbie Be My Valentine cakes
7. Little Debbie Be My Valentine iced brownies

8. Heart shaped Mellow Cremes

9.

St. Patrick’s Day

1.McDonald’s Shamrock Shakes (make your own with the recipe on our 80s recipe page!)

2. Irish Potatoes candy

Easter

1. Cadbury’s Creme eggs
2. Cadbury’s Mini eggs
3. Brach’s Easter Mix
4. Jordan Almonds
5. Panorama Sugar Eggs
6. Coconut Nests
7. Jelly Beans
8. Foil Eggs
9. Palmer’s chocolate crisp coins, bunnies
10. Chocolate Crosses
11. Chocolate figures in dark, white or milk chocolate

12. PAAS dye kits
13. M&M’s pastel Easter candies
14. Hershey’s Chocolate bunnies
15. Hershey’s pastel Easter kisses
16. Hershey’s pastel Miniatures
17. Whopper’s Robin Eggs
18. Marshmallow Peeps
19. Jelly Bird Eggs
20. Brach’s Jelly Bean Nougat
21. Brach’s Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Eggs
22. Reece’s Peanut Butter Eggs
23. Mon Cheri Easter Eggs
24 Little Debbie Easter Basket Cakes – vanilla or chocolate
25. English Easter Eggs

26. Sunkist Fruit Gems

Giant Marshmallow Eggs (with the thick , hard pastel sugar coating on the ouside)

Winter

Christmas

1. Chocolate “gold” coins
2. Brach’s mellowcreme Christmas mix
3. Hershey’s Christmas kisses
4. You mom’s or church’s or scout’s cookie exchanges
5. Whitman’s Chocolate Samplers
6. Russell Stover’s Chocolate candy boxes
7. M&Ms Christmas red and green candies
8. Brach’s Christmas Peppermint Nougats
9. Nestle Crunch Christmas Bells
10. Cadbury Christmas Decorations
11. Chocolate Advent Calendars
12. Brach’s Holiday Mix (hard candy)
13. Brach’s Cut Rock
14. Christmas Ribbon candy
15. Brach’s Spice Drops
16. Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes
17. Little Debbie Christmas Tree Brownies
18. Candy Selection Boxes
19. McDonald’s Eggnog Shakes

20. Pecan log

21. McDonald’s Peppermint Sundae

22. McDonald’s McNuggets with holiday sauce

23. Royal Dansk tinned butter cookies

24. Pies- peanut butter, grasshopper, fruit, cream, oecan

25. Hickory Farms and Swiss Colony food gifts

26. Christmas Rainbow Poke Cake

27. Chocolate yule log cake

28. Eggnog in a carton

Fruitcake

Cathedral Cookieos

Cut out cookies

Stained Glass cookies

Pecan Tassies

Cherry chocolate cookies

Layered Christmas Gelatin/ layered Gelatin desserts

Cheese balls and crackers

Fluff Salads- Pistachio fluff, Pineapple Fluff, Cherry Fluff, Ambrosia

Rum Balls

Thumbprint Cookies

Hershey Kiss Peanut Blossoms

Peanut Brittle

Ribbon Candy

Gingerbread men

Pfefferneuse Cookies

Fudge

Waldorf Salad

Christmas pudding

Tinned Christmas Cake

Mince Pies

Chocolate Selection Boxes

Spritz Cookies

M&Ms cookies

Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies

Christmas hampers

Candy Tins- Quality Street, Mars, Roses, Heroes

Trifle

Christmas Wreath cookies

Family biscuit selection boxes

Christmas themed cereals- Cap’n Crunch Christmas Crunch

Boxes of Nuts or fruits as gifts

Boxed shelled nuts that included a nutcracker

Terry’s Chocolate Oranges

Cadbury’s Roses box

Fruit Slice candies

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

Linzer Tarts

Sprinkle cookies

Brach’s Deluxe Hard Candies

Christmas / Holiday *stuff

1. McDonald’s gift certificates in your stocking
2. Lifesavers candy books
3. Arby’s Christmas collectible glasses
4. Collectible holiday themed glasses and ornaments from McDonalds
5. Rodney Reindeer toys at Burger King
6. Burger King/ McDonald’s Seasons Greetings printed paper food bags
7. Parties featuring fondue and yuppy appetizers like cocktail weenies
8. Driving around to look at neighbourhood Xmas lights
9. The best holiday ads every created for TV
10. Christmas crackers at dinner
11. Christmas Wish Books from the major retailers- Sears, JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, Alden’s, Argos
12. Pictures with Santa at the mall
13. Carriage Rides and Piano players at large department store29. Danbury Mint, Bradfprd Exchange, Lennox holiday plates

    30. Popcorn window decor- Santa the Reindeer, candles, etc

    31. Blow Mold Xmas yard decorations

    32. Paper window Xmas decorations from Eureeka, Hallmark, etc

    33. Snowflake clings for windows

    34. Fake Snow sprayed over stencils on windows

14. Magazines showing winners of fancy Gingerbread house contests
15. Making Christmas cookies
16. School Christmas parties
17. Church Christmas pageant/ Manger scenes
18. Hot chocolate
19. Putting up the Christmas tree
20. Christmas carolling
21. Christmas school concerts
22. Christmas postage stamps
23. Advent Calendars – chocolate or picture windows
24. Candlelight Christmas eve services
25. All the Christmas TV specials and movies
26. The Radio Times / TV Times programming guide
27. Holiday TV guide covers
28. Making paper snowflakes at school, church, scouts, home
29. Shopping at Woolworths, GC Murphys, Kmart, Hills, Ames, Dollar General, etc for your parents’ gifts
30. Burning through whole strings of Christmas lights because one bulb blew

Autumn

Hallowe’en

1. Candy corn
2. Brach’s Autumn Mix
3. Reese’s Pumpkins
4. Mallow Pumpins

5. Fun Size candy bars

6. Popcorn balls

7. Tootsie Rolls

8. Tootsie Rolls fruit chews

9. Double Bubble Gun

10. Bubble King Gum

11. Pixie Stix

12. Sixlets

13. Chex Party Mix

Mr Bones Puzzle Candy

Monster Candy

Candy cigarettes

Razzles

Bottle Caps

Gobstoppers

Sour balls

Fireballs

Good ‘n Plenty

Mike ‘n Ikes

Abba-Zabbas

Mallow Cups

Jawbreakers

Mary Janes

Necco Wafers

Milk Duds

Sour Patch Kids

Black and Orange wrapped taffy

Candy / Caramel apples

Wax Lips

Wax sticks/ bottles with sweet liquid inside

Tootsie Pops

Nerds

Hershey Kisses

Jujyfruits

Dots

Ring Pops

Charms Blowpops

Full sized Candy bars from rich houses

Little Hugs juices

Bit O’Honey

Laffy Taffy

Now and Laters

Sweet Tarts

Sugar Daddies, Sugar Babies

Lifesaver Pops

Safety Pops

Hallowe’en *stuff

1. Unicef boxes to trick or treat with
2. Little printed paper bags of candy given out on hallowe’en
3. Costume parade at school
4. Community Costume contests/ parties at Civic Centres/ Schools/ Fire stations/ Grange halls
5. Change wrapped in foil given out
6. Using a pillow case as a candy bag
7. Going through candy at the end of trick or treating with sibs/ parents/ friends
8. Dental tablets that turned your teeth pink where they needed brushed better
9. Trick or Treating until lights went out at houses, always on 31st October regardless of what day of the week it fell on
10. Kids trick or treating with older sibs or groups of kids- parents often didn’t go
11. Not going out to trick or treat until after dark
12. Pumpkin smashing, egging houses
13. Walking miles to get candy
14. Making our own costumes
15. Picking out a character costume with those extremely hard to breathe in masks from a 5 and Dime store, hardware store or department store
16. Haunted houses and hallowe’en parties
17. Watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
18. Getting an older sibling to sneak us into Hallowe’en movies
19. Parents freaking out about rumours of razor blades in candy and apples, drugged stickers and candy, needles
20. Colder Hallowe’ens- being made to wear coats over your costumes to go out
21. Making your own Hallowe’en decorations for the house – there was always one rich house in your neighbourhood paying for tons of lights in their yard and big displays

Popcorn window decor- Black Cat, Witch, Ghost, Pumpkin, etc

Paper window decorations from Hallmark, Eureka, American Greetins, etc

Thanksgiving / Fall

1. Brach’s Harvest Mix
2. Brach’s Indian Corn
3. Kraft Milk Caramels (for caramel apples)
4. Candy apple kits (dips, wrappers)
5. Little Debbie Fall Party Cakes
6. Little Debbie Fall Tree Cakes

Back to School

1. Kinder Eggs
2. Little Debbie Zebra Cakes
3. Tootsie Pops
4. Charms Blo-Pops

coconut slice candy

Brach’s Pick-a-Mix

Circus Peanuts

Hostess fruit pies

Jello 1-2-3

Chef Boyardee Pizza Kits

Pop-tarts

ALL the cartoon breakfast cereals

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese

“Juice” Bubble Gum (came in a mini juice carton)

Minute Maid Juice bars (frozen, in the little paper triangle)

Lik-m-Aid Fun Dip

Amazin Fruit

Bonkers

Handi-Snacks

Whistle Pops

School *Stuff

Back to school shopping

Summer