Punchbowl Blog

This post was written by Stephanie Fader, Sr. Marketing Manager

Chocolate bars and gummy worms and candy corn – oh my! It’s probably no surprise that Halloween is officially the sweetest holiday of the year. It beats out Easter, Valentine’s Day, and Christmas. In fact, Halloween candy sales average about 2 billion dollars annually in the U.S. alone. With bags of candy on store shelves for weeks in advance of the holiday, it has us wondering how Halloween became synonymous with candy in the first place?

We did a little digging and came up with this timeline:

• 1940s: Trick or treating became more widespread in the U.S. However, rather than candy, trick-or-treaters received nuts, cookies, cakes, coins, and toys.

• 1950s: The rise of trick-or-treating gave candy producers an opening to market their products aimed at kids. Candy was also easy to buy and economical, which made it the optimal choice for those entertaining trick-or-treaters.

• 1960s: The growth of Halloween candy was still on the rise, though it was often in the form of a small bag of loose candy like candy corn, Hershey Kisses, or Tootsie Rolls.

• 1970s: Parents were less comfortable with homemade or unwrapped treats, which gave way to the idea that commercially wrapped candy was seen as the safest option.

• 1980s: Candy manufacturers produced smaller versions of their full size candies on a large scale. Trick-or-treating as we know it became about dressing up and collecting as much candy as possible.

Here are a few more tidbits to satisfy your sweet tooth:

• Halloween is responsible for 75% of all candy corn sold during the year — you can celebrate this fact on October 30th, National Candy Corn Day!
• 90% of parents admit to sneaking goodies out of their kids’ Halloween candy stash
• 73.5% of households plan to hand out Halloween candy this year

Want another way to incorporate candy into your Halloween celebration without the calories? Make your own Halloween candy costume! Check out these 5 Halloween candy costume ideas that you can make at home for yourself or the kids.

All this talk of candy make you want to host a Halloween party? Start planning yours today!