What’s driving Halloween snacking?
- Party Rings’ 2025 Halloween range recruited over 200,000 shoppers and generated more than £650,000 in incremental category sales, according to FBC.
- Savvy forecasts UK Halloween spending of £705m in 2026, with interest extending to savoury snacks and ready-to-eat party food.
- Solely and Unreal are bringing fruit-based treats and ingredient-led choices into seasonal assortments.
- Goldfish, Hi-Chew and Pringles are using interactive packaging, mystery flavours and unusual promotions to encourage participation and sharing.
Goldfish bags that glow in the dark, Hostess doughnuts with orange centres and a Pringles-shaped urn offer rather different interpretations of Halloween. Across this year’s launches and returning ranges, brands are experimenting with how their products look, taste and entertain, while keeping the familiar flavours that existing customers know.
Seasonal variations can also bring in new buyers. Fox’s Burton’s Companies (FBC) says Party Rings Trick or Treat Minis recruited more than 200,000 shoppers to the brand and generated over £650,000 in incremental category sales during the eight weeks to 2 November 2025, citing Numerator by Worldpanel data. The biscuits are back for 2026, joining a seasonal assortment that stretches from fruit gummies to frozen sandwiches.
Retail and shopper marketing agency Savvy forecasts UK Halloween spending of £705m this year, up 6% on 2025, with 31 October falling on a Saturday. Its survey of 1,002 UK shoppers found that 78% of families planned to celebrate, compared with 46% of shoppers overall, while around a third of Halloween shoppers expected to attend a party or gathering and 22% planned to host one.
Although 71% of Halloween shoppers wanted to celebrate without spending a lot, their interest extended well beyond confectionery: more than half would consider themed savoury snacks and 48% would consider ready-to-eat party food. Bakery and snack brands are therefore competing for several purchases within the same household, from treats handed out at the door to food served to guests or opened during a film.
Party Rings and Goldfish put the fun in the bag
Party Rings Trick or Treat Minis are back in UK stores with Halloween-inspired shapes, including bats, cats and pumpkins, and seasonal icing. The recommended price remains £2.10 for 10 x 21g bags, with a promotional price of £1.75.
“Halloween has turned from a one-day event into a six-to-eight-week trading opportunity in recent years,” says Jo Harwood, FBC’s chief sales and trade marketing officer.
Having been on shelves since 25 August, the biscuits have already had nearly eight weeks of selling time before the final Halloween rush. Their individual bags suit everyday snacks and lunchboxes as well as handing out to trick-or-treaters, giving the range several uses during that extended season.
Meanwhile, Goldfish’s returning US Halloween multipacks make the packaging part of the entertainment. The individual bags glow in the dark after at least a minute in direct sunlight, adding an activity to crackers intended for parties, lunchboxes and trick-or-treating.
The range includes a 24-bag multipack at a suggested $12.49 through retailers including Aldi, Target, Walmart and Kroger, alongside a 65-count pack at BJ’s for $14.99. While Party Rings uses shapes and icing to give its biscuits a seasonal identity, Goldfish leaves the novelty to the bags, keeping the familiar crackers inside.
Hostess has carried the Halloween treatment through to its Frightfully Frosted Donettes, combining classic chocolate frosting with an orange cake centre. They join returning Spooky Chocolate Cake Twinkies, Pumpkin Spice Flavoured Twinkies, Maple Glazed Donettes, ScaryCakes Cupcakes and Iced Pumpkin Flavoured Cupcakes.
The assortment spans Halloween designs and broader autumn flavours, with maple and pumpkin giving shoppers alternatives to the explicitly spooky cakes. That mix allows Hostess to cater for parties alongside the breakfast, coffee break and snacking occasions already served by its brands.
Solely and Unreal offer alternatives to traditional treats
Savvy’s research found that 72% of Halloween shoppers wanted healthier food and drink options alongside traditional treats, while the same proportion would consider buying Halloween sweets or chocolate. Those interests aren’t mutually exclusive, particularly when households are buying for people with different tastes and preferences.
Solely has launched its first Halloween variety pack, the Berry Scary Snack Pack, containing 10 fruit gummy packs split equally between mango and strawberry and mango and blueberry. Priced at $10.99, it’s available through Solely.com, Sprouts and Thrive.
Each variety contains two organic fruit ingredients and no added sugar, according to Solely. The pack combines its existing gummies in a Halloween assortment for shoppers looking for a fruit-based treat, retaining the chewy format associated with conventional sweets.
Boston-based Unreal is using established confectionery favourites to address American shoppers’ ingredient preferences. Its Dark Chocolate Coconut Bars and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups return in limited-edition Halloween packaging, supported by Bars & Cups Variety Packs and the newer Peanut Butter Drops.
The brand emphasises simple ingredients and lower sugar, alongside claims that its products contain no artificial preservatives, flavours or colours. Coconut, chocolate and peanut butter remain central to the range, with the Halloween treatment concentrated in seasonal packaging and assortments.
A 26-count Bars & Cups Variety Pack carries a suggested price of $19.99, with a promotional price of $16.99, while a Target-exclusive 20-count pack is suggested at $16.99, or $14.49 on promotion. Peanut Butter Drops are also appearing on Halloween displays at Target and Whole Foods.
Pringles and Hi-Chew turn Halloween into entertainment
Popcorn Shed is catering for the evening at home with a three-product Halloween bundle containing Toffee Apple, Pecan Pie and Toasted Marshmallow gourmet popcorn. Aimed at film nights and party tables, the selection gives UK shoppers three distinct flavours to share, drawing on familiar autumn desserts and treats.
JM Smucker’s Uncrustables peanut butter and honey spread sandwiches have also had an autumn makeover, with limited-edition ‘fallin’ for flavor’ graphics on packs. The sandwiches are now fridge-friendly, so US consumers can eat them straight from the refrigerator without waiting for them to thaw.
Hi-Chew’s Halloween Mystery Mix asks consumers to identify a mystery flavour scheduled to be revealed on Halloween. Its supporting Mystery Manor Tour visits five US cities between 17 and 31 October, combining sampling with clues, themed scenery and merchandise.
The guessing element gives visitors a reason to pay attention to the flavour and compare answers after trying the sweets. With the reveal held until Halloween, the brand can continue the activity throughout the tour rather than ending the experience when visitors finish their samples.
Bitchin’ Sauce has created a Halloween arcade with games including Night of the Living Dip and Dip Defenders, bringing its dips into the season through digital entertainment. Pringles has chosen a more macabre route with its US ‘Once You Drop’ promotion, inviting fans to sign a ‘will and taste-ament’ for the chance to win a can-shaped urn and a prize described as 200 years’ worth of Pringles.
The promotion draws on the story of Pringles can inventor Fredric Baur, whose ashes were partly buried in one of the containers. By making the distinctive can the subject of the campaign, Pringles has found a Halloween connection that doesn’t depend on changing the crisps or borrowing a seasonal flavour.
Pringles is giving fans something to post as well as something to win, inviting entrants to share a downloadable ‘seal of commitment’ on social media. That fits with Savvy’s finding that 73% of Halloween shoppers were likely to buy something for the occasion inspired by their feed. While Hostess supplies the seasonal flavours and Goldfish supplies the glowing bags, Pringles is betting that its familiar can – with a sufficiently outlandish story attached – can do the Halloween selling.
