The holidays belong to candy

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Nearly every holiday involves candy. Just ask the poor souls at Reese’s who have to contort peanut butter cups into a thousand festive shapes like they’re balloon animals. But not all holidays are created equal. Three of them stand out on the candy calendar: Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and Easter. (No disrespect to candy canes or gelt.) Trick Treat or Treat. If you’re celebrating Halloween, candy’s a part of the picture. Every October, Americans spend billions on the sweet stuff, and the most popular activity on the big day is handing out candy. But that’s a relatively new phenomenon. According to the Sugar Association trade group: Modern trick-or-treating didn’t really take off in the US until the late 1940s. Even then, children would frequently get things like cookies, coins, and toys. Wrapped candy became popular in subsequent decades due to (mostly unfounded) concerns about poisoning. Powered by hugs and kisses: This Valentine’s Day, 56% of US consumers were projected to buy candy, outpacing other popular gifts like greeting cards and flowers, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. There’s no question that innovation in confectionery has made the holiday what it is today: Richard Cadbury, of chocolate egg fame, popularized heart-shaped chocolate boxes in the 1860s, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Milton Hershey’s Kisses hit the market in 1907. Candy hearts that said “Be Mine” and “Kiss Me” entered the conversation in 1902, per History.com. Basket case: Candy is also the most popular Easter purchase category, with Americans spending $3.3 billion on Peeps and other themed treats, according to the NRF. There’s plenty of Easter-themed fare to choose from, like chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, and marshmallow Peeps, which, in most states, were the most beloved Easter treat last year, according to a USA Today analysis of Google search data. Just try not to eat any plastic grass this year.