Trick or treat, a penny or sweet, give me something good to eat 🎃
No matter how you remember the rhyme, we all want the answer treat! Where sweets or money are the go to Halloween gift.
One of the oldest holidays celebrated around the world, Halloween spans countries, religions and ages in a variety of ways. All Hallows Eve, All Saints’ Eve, Samhain, no matter what you call it, what is consistent with Halloween is the celebration focusing on food, sweets and candy bars.
From trick or treating, festive gatherings, carving pumpkins and spooky attractions no matter how you celebrate Halloween, sweets are likely to be at the centre of the festivities. But what are the most popular and where? We looked at Google search data to find out the most popular sweets and chocolate in the UK, the USA and across the globe.
UK’s favourite Halloween Sweets
Although the roots of Halloween come from a variety of places, in the UK the tradition of trick or treating stems from Scotland and Ireland in the 16th century and came back via its popularity in the states. But where America is famous for candy corn and jack-o-lanterns the trends in the UK continue to grow.
According to our research Snickers is the most popular sweet treat come Halloween here in the UK. The nutty chocolate bar comes up top for 29 British cities throughout the month of October, with Manchester, London and Leeds among the top Snickers loving cities. You may remember when they were called Marathon bars but their famous ads featuring celebs from Mr T to Joan Collins, Rowan Atkinson and Elton John means that Snickers remain firmly on the map since their creation in the 1930s!
In joint second place is the golden wrapped hazelnut and chocolate Ferrero Rocher and the classic Cadbury Dairy Milk with 13 cities each. Their Halloween popularity showing that timeless tastes never go out of style.
USA’s Halloween Sweets
Trick or treating has been popular in the US since the 1930s with children donned in fancy dress every October 31st ready and raring for candy and chocolate!
M&M’s have taken the US crown for the number one spot, with Texas, California and Florida among the top states declaring it their favourite, the colourful printed candy shells with a milk chocolate filling making the perfect Halloween sweet. Famous for their sugary characters, M&M’s Red and Yellow continue to grace our screens with their shenanigans going global.
The famous Halloween confectionary Candy Corn came in second place with 6 states claiming it as their favourite. The sugary sweet corns are synonymous with Autumn but their packaging makes them difficult to hand out as a trick or treat favour.
Global Halloween Sweets
Halloween is celebrated in a variety of ways all over the world - but when it comes to favourite treats during the spooky holiday season, Oreo takes the biscuit globally. Revealing that the classic American cookie with a creamy filling is popular across the world with the peanut and caramel Snickers bar in second place when it comes to Halloween favourites.
Airport classics Toblerone and Milka are also world famous, so although the holiday is known for its sweet tooth, chocolate continues to take the crown!
How to celebrate Halloween in 2021
From Halloween games at home, to film nights, baking sessions and pumpkin carving there are plenty alternatives to trick or treating!
You can creep it real with homemade slime and apple bobbing for a family filled party or curl up on the sofa with petrifying coloured popcorn and classic Halloween films for all ages! Creepy classic The Addams Family hits Netflix this October or animated favourites like Hotel Transylvania can get your fearsome fix!
Want some more Halloween ideas? Find out how we’re celebrating All Hallows Eve at Parkdean Resorts this half term.
Methodology
We analysed keywords using Google Adwords, which takes the historical search volume for the keyword and projects the number of impressions* that the keyword would potentially get over the next 12 month period. We then looked at the impressions prediction for October 2020 to pinpoint Halloween sweet favourites.
Impressions: How often a keyword may show in Google for a user - essentially how many times this keyword will be seen by a searcher, which approximates the search volume for the year.