Last updated 5 months ago | Originally Published: September 3, 2021

Halloween Candy History And Traditions 

The term “trick or treat” was first printed in 1927 in an Alberta, Canada newspaper. However, the backstory of trick or treating goes way back, to medieval times and traditions.

So what historical sparks led to the huge surge in candy buying and giving we now see each year around Halloween? And what candies have remained some of the most preferred around the holiday? 

The History of Halloween Candy

Have you ever wondered why we go trick or treating on Halloween? The origins of this modern-day quest kids take each year for candy are a mixture of old pagan and Christian traditions.

It’s believed that during the Celtic Samhain celebration, people would leave offerings outside their doors for the dead who came back to earth on October 31st in order to placate them. When Christianity starting spreading through Celtic regions in the 9th century this tradition mixed with the Christian holiday All Souls’ Day, turning into something called “Souling”.

Souling stemmed from the idea that souls couldn’t enter heaven until enough people had prayed for them. To facilitate more prayers for their loved ones on All Souls’ Day, households would give out homemade soul cakes to the poor when they came to their door on the holiday in exchange for the poor praying for the household’s deceased.

The Global Spread Of Halloween Culture And Traditions 

As time passed, more people began traveling between countries, and aspects of these traditions spread from Celtic islands, such as Ireland and Scotland, to other places. 

When many Irish immigrated to the United States during the great Irish potato famine in the mid-1800s, the idea of giving out treats on All Hallow’s Eve or Halloween started to grow solid roots in the U.S. But, instead of store-bought candy, people gave out homemade treats, coins, small toys, or fruit during from this time until the 1930s-1940s. 

So, what about the “trick” part of trick or treating? Well, at this time, adults and youth would sometimes perform a “trick” in exchange for the treat, such as singing or giving some kind of small performance.

More ancient roots of tricks related to Halloween centered on the idea of people dressing up in animal skins or as ghosts or as evil creatures in order to trick and drive away evil spirits on Samhain or All Souls’ Day.

Trick Or Treat America

Trick or treating really took hold in the United States after World War II when sugar rationing was lifted. In fact, the phrase “trick or treat” was standard in the U.S. by 1951.

It was also around this time that candy companies decided to take advantage of the holiday to market their candy. After all, store-bought candy was a lot more convenient for households to use on Halloween than taking the time to prepare homemade goods 

Now, Americans buy around 600 million pounds of candy each year for Halloween. When it comes to the holiday, candy is serious business.

Top 20 Halloween Candy

Now that giving out store-bought candy is the norm on Halloween, favorite candies to receive on the holiday have emerged. Wondering if your favorite made the cut? This list showcases 20 of the most popular Halloween candies that have adults smiling and kids screaming with delight.

1. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

If you want to give out a candy people love, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups is a good bet. The little pieces of chocolate with a peanut butter center have long been a Halloween favorite. Just look for the bright orange packaging, you know what they look like! 

2. Snickers

Nougat, peanuts, caramel, and chocolate make Snickers a flavorful, satisfying chocolate bar. You can spot these candy bars from their brown wrapping with their name in bold blue across the front. You know the one! 

While this tasty candy may make you snicker with happiness when you bite into it, that’s not the reasoning behind its name. This beloved Halloween candy was named after the creator’s family horse! Getty Up Snickers! 

3. M&Ms

Something a little more on the simple side, M&Ms maintain a high Halloween candy rank. Perhaps it’s because the colorful, small pieces of candy are an easy way to indulge in chocolate.

These hard-shelled little chocolate candies are so popular that they were the first candy chosen to go to space (in 1980) in the astronauts’ food supply.

4. Candy Corn

This strange, tri-colored candy appears every fall and has been a Halloween favorite for decades. It was created back in the 1880s with the original name “chicken feed” and was first associated with being a fall treat before it gained its well-known Halloween reputation. Whether you truly love the candy or not, its appearance around the holiday is practically a tradition.

5. Skittles

Some people prefer fruity candy on Halloween over chocolate as evidenced by the popularity of skittles. The chewy, colorful, bite-sized pieces of candy come in a variety of fruity flavor groups such as the original (including grape, lime, strawberry, lemon, and orange) to bags containing tropical flavors, sour flavors, berry flavors, and more.

6. Hershey’s Chocolate Bars

Before the Hershey Company started producing chocolate in the United States, chocolate was a lot more expensive and therefore harder to get in the country. 

Hershey’s chocolate bars changed that when they first were sold in 1900, and now the creamy chocolate bars can be found worldwide in every city, town, village, or hamlet. You can buy plain milk chocolate or dark chocolate bars or shake things up with white chocolate or bars that have the delicious crunch of different nuts inside.

7. Starburst

With the tagline “unexplainably juicy”, starburst candy points at its fruity flavors that make your mouth water while eating them. 

The chewy little squares are individually wrapped in bright colors, making them visually appealing as well as appealing to your taste buds. They come in bags with different flavor sets. However, if you have a favorite starburst flavor, you can even purchase bags containing just that flavor. 

8. Airheads

Airheads are another favorite, taffy-like candy. Apparently, the candy’s name comes from the creator, Steve Bruner, asking his children what they would call someone if they did something silly. Instead of bite-sized pieces of candy, Airheads come in individually wrapped taffy bars. They come in a bunch of different favorite fruit flavors.

9. Twix

A shortbread cookie bathed in caramel and chocolate makes a Twix candy bar. Typically, two bars come in gold packaging with the candy’s name in bold red across the front. The name Twix is either a mix of the words “twin” and “stix” or “twin” and “mix” in reference to how you traditionally get two candy bars in each package.

10. Kit Kats

Since 1970, Kit Kats are chocolate-covered wafer sticks. Four connected wafers come in a standard, bright red wrapper, and you can enjoy snapping them apart before eating them. They also come in smaller, fun-sized packaging, which holds two small wafers and is great for giving out at Halloween.

11. Dum Dum Pops

If you’re looking for Halloween candy that comes with many flavors and that most people can enjoy, Dum Dum Pops are an excellent choice. The little suckers have so many flavors to choose from, including their mystery flavors, which are fun to guess. Also, Dum Dum Pops are free from most allergens. That makes them a pretty safe choice if you are worried about loved ones and trick-or-treaters with food allergies.

Rumor has it that these suckers were named Dum Dums because it was easy for kids to say.

12. Tootsie Pops

Remember wondering how many licks it took to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? This sucker with chocolate, tootsie roll center is still a well-loved treat. With flavors like cherry, grape, raspberry, orange, and more, it provides a way for you to get your fill of both fruity tastes and chocolate. It’s also fat-free!

13. Milky Way

Like the galaxy it’s named after, this chocolate candy bar has many great things inside. It’s made of nougat and caramel covered in milk chocolate. It’s a creamy, sweet party for your taste buds. You can get them in full-size bars (and be a favorite house for trick or treaters) or buy bags of the fun-sized bars for convenience.

14. Blow Pops

Sucker meets bubble gum in the ingenious creation called a Blow Pop. This candy is the most popular of all gum-filled suckers. The pink bubblegum center is surrounded by a hard sucker. 

Sucker flavors include traditional fruit flavors such as green apple, grape, strawberry, and cherry as well as favorites like kiwi berry blast and blue razz. Each sucker is covered in a white wrapping with stripes of color representing what flavor it is. You can buy them in bags. 

15. Jelly Beans

While it’s not certain when jelly beans were first created, they’ve been around since at least the mid-1800s. And, apparently, they are here to stay because people still love the sweet-tasting, bean-shaped candy. 

Whether you get them in fun-sized little baggies or in bulk, it’s always an adventure to discover what flavors you ended up with. Some jelly bean makers have as many as 49 different tasting jelly beans. 

Plus, in the spirit of tricking someone on Halloween, you can always get some jelly beans with…less than savory flavors for pranking purposes.

16. Mike and Ike’s

Similar to jelly beans, Mike and Ike’s are small, oval chewy candies. They come in different fruit varieties based on which brightly colored box you grab. Getting a box of Mile and Ike’s on Halloween is indeed a score! 

17. 3 Musketeers

Another Halloween favorite is the 3 Musketeers bar. This chocolate-coated candy bar holds a fluffy, creamy, whipped chocolate inside, almost like a chocolate mousse. 

Interestingly, this candy originally got its name because each package contained 3 smaller bars with different flavorings inside: one chocolate, one vanilla, and one strawberry. Time showed that people preferred the chocolate inside, and so it remained while vanilla and strawberry disappeared from the candy.

18. Swedish Fish

These vivid red gummy candies shaped like fish are packed with the flavor believed to be lingonberry, a sweet, fruity flavor that reminds some people of cherry. True to their name, Swedish Fish candy did originate in Sweden, but it became popular in the U.S. starting in the 1960s.

An added benefit of Swedish Fish as a Halloween treat is that they are vegan! They don’t contain gelatin, unlike a lot of other gummy candies.

19. Butterfinger

If you want a satisfying crunch with your candy bar, you can count on a Butterfinger to do the trick. This candy bar is filled with peanut butter made crispy by being mixed with cooked sugar candy. This solid peanut butter filling is layered inside a chocolate coating.

There’s a legend that the name Butterfinger was the winner of a contest held to name the candy.

20. Almond Joy

An almond nestled on a bed of sweet coconut shavings and tucked in by being covered in milk chocolate makes up the candy bar called an Almond Joy. It’s produced by The Hershey Company today, but it was originally created by a man named Peter Halajian who would go door to door selling homemade treats, making this Halloween treat’s origin story basically the opposite of trick or treating.

There’s more than Candy in Your Halloween Stockpile

It’s amazing to think about how candy became a modern-day staple of Halloween. While we no longer set out food offerings to placate spirits or hand out treats to get strangers to pray for our loved ones, we still gain something from these ancient traditions. We get to enjoy dressing up, having some fun, and eating our favorite candies as communities. 

Halloween nowadays is more about enjoying ourselves and creating great memories for kids to look back on, but whether we go back to trick or treating roots or look at it from today’s perspective, it’s still about people coming together for something and exchanges made to benefit everyone.

So, while you’re munching on your Halloween Candy stockpile this year, you can enjoy the spirit behind trick or treating candy as well as your favorite treat.