And there we have it. Halloween 2026 is in the books! Staring at the holiday in the rearview I have a similar feeling to last year: the whole thing was a whirlwind. When the kids go back to school in September my calendar starts to get busy, but when sports and activities begin in October it turns in a hellish landscape of multi-coloured squares.
The crazy real life stuff actually helped me in one of my endeavours this year: to try and not let the trappings of Corporate Halloween charm me with her siren song. I'm a sucker for a good brand tie-in and all, but I can't help but feel like the fast food joints and junk food vendors have been playing it safe the last few years and in all truth, it's less about trying to eat healthier and save money as it is about being bored with the same old offerings.
That said, I can't let the year go without chronicling some of the things I enjoyed this Halloween and also some of the things I did my best to avoid!
Coffee XVI: Pumpkin Spice Lives!
I can't really do a Halloween recap without bringing up coffee, but at the same time I don't really have much to report. The usual suspects were in full swing. Tim Hortons still had their Pumpkin Spice Cold Brew, which was my kick-off to the season way back in late-August.
It's delicious, but they did continue with the same recipe as last year with the pumpkin-infused cold foam. I'm sure I've brought this up before, but one year it had chocolate cold foam and it was bonkers. The thing is, all-in this thing must be a million calories and a week's worth of sugar. I actually opted this year to just get my usual iced coffee (cream, no base, one sweetener in case you were wondering) and add one pump of pumpkin. It had all the flavour, none of the sugar, and handled my cravings perfectly.
I did, of course, get my yearly Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino from Starbucks, which makes Tim Horton's cold brew look like child's play. I'm pretty sure this thing is a pre-cursor to Type III diabetes. Regardless, I allowed myself my yearly indulgence and it was as good as ever.
They also had a Black Cat Frappuccino that they held back until later in October, which featured a surprise tie-in with, get this, Salem the Cat from the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV series. Talk about left-field! I did not partake, however, both because I had already satisfied my annual itch for this style of drink and also because I didn't want to poop green for a few days.
Return of the Drac
It wouldn't be Halloween without spooky cereal! As usual, General Mills brought back Count Chocula for the season. And, as usual, he was without any of his friends again this year. The funny thing is that I'm not a fruity cereal guy and Count Chocula would be the one I'd pick out of the big three, but come on! Throw is a bone and give us Franken Berry and Boo Berry every few years! Spice things up!
The box art was in-line with the US at least and featured the latest edition of the Jim Henson artwork. One cool thing to note was that this year they brought back the cut-out papercraft on the back of the box. For like 15 year straight, you could use your trusty scissors to make a quick and dirty Count Chocula mask. This time around, you got a cool puppet! A definite upgrade in my books and something to occupy the kids with for a solid half hour.
The real star of the Halloween cereal aisle, however, was the return of Pumpkin Spice Mini-Wheats!
I can't recall when these last graced the Great White North, but as a guy who pays close attention to this sort of thing, it hasn't been in recent memory.
I will start with saying I'm a mark for Mini-Wheats in general. I like cereal that's just slightly soggy and I don't think any other cereal takes to it quite as perfectly as Mini-Wheats.
I was a little worried about the pumpkin spice flavour when I picked these up. As much as I like pumpkin coffee, I find other PS-flavoured food more miss than hit, but I was more than pleasantly surprised with this cereal! It was the perfect blend of flavour and sugar. Not too much of either. I think we polished off two boxes of them before October even rolled around, which is saying something when Chocula is in the pantry.
2 Fast 2 Furious
This is usually where I regale everyone with the myriad of Halloween-themed fast food items for the year, but honestly this year it's more like the lack thereof.
Wendy's did Frosty Frights again, which I think might actually win best in show here in Canada? It's re-hash of last year (and I think the promo is in its third year in the US), but they had fun designs and I still think it's worth it. I tried to snag one early in the season, but my Wendy's didn't have any yet and I just never made it back. If my kids did want some burgers, though, I would've happily taken them to Wendy's for some garrishly-coloured PVC Frosty's without any qualms.
I wish I could say the same for McDonald's. They, yet again, did Boo Buckets. It's hard to imagine a world where I'd be sick of this Happy Meal considering how long of a draught we had, but I think the bucket thing is so played. I didn't partake last year, although fate intervened and I did end up with one. This year I would've abstained again, but I had a hungry 7 year old that wanted a quick bite after hockey practice and only McD's would do.
This year they actually did a weird cross-promotion with Disney and the Boo Buckets were all themed after movie villains, like Ursula the Sea Witch and Cruella Deville. This is one of those ideas that I think seems good on paper, but didn't exactly pop in reality. I can't recall seeing much if any advertisement for it, except for an obligatory social media post and email. Usually when you have Disney on the line, you give it the moon push. But not so here.
Anyway, I just think the time for Halloween buckets is nigh. I mean, you could get them at Home Depot and Canadian Tire at this point. You know you've jumped the shark if Canadian Tire is on the bandwagon. It's time to sunset Halloween buckets and bring back Halloween McNugget Buddies, Ronnie!
But you know what, you can at least say McDonald's tried. That's more than Burger King had to offer this year.
Last year BK went pretty big with a brightly-coloured orange Whopper, and some retro-themed buckets. In the US they also had Mummy Chicken Fries and Vampire Nuggets you could dip in faux "blood" sauce. I was actually expecting BK to more or less rehash the same promo this year, but actually bring the full menu to Canada, but instead they duffed the whole thing and went with an ice cream and a strawberry Sprite?
The ice cream was different regionally, but equally as boring. I think it was werewolf-themed here. The Sprite was fine and all, but I have to say I found it so strange that it was offered as an expensive solo item. I turns out in the States it had a special sour candy straw, which made the premium price tag a little easier to swallow. There was no such straw here in Canada, from what I could tell. Just a slightly sour, strawberry Sprite. I mean, it was a fun adventure while I waited for my kid to finish swimming one night, but not nearly what I've come to expect from BK this time of year.
Rumour has it they're taking the Halloween menu from last year and dropping it in November with a fresh coat of paint for Nightmare Before Christmas, which would be kinda lazy, but would at least score them some points, in my book.
Thirsty For More?
I would be remiss not to mention the one other thing BK had going for it this Halloween season: they were the lead-in for Ghoul-Aid finally making its way up North! They were including Zom-Berry Ghoul-Aid with their kids' meals, which I think was a definite win. And thankfully, it was just a precursor to a full launch at grocery stores! It was certainly far too sugary for my tastebuds, but my kid - who is a die hard blue raspberry enthusiast - gave it full marks. I think we're even getting a Christmas-themed Kool-Aid this year!
Mountain Dew and Fanta are still holding down the fort for chilling soft drinks. Last year Fanta had Chucky adorning a special seasonal beverage and this year it was Ghost Face! I wish it had a zero sugar variant, but I thought it was great. They also ran with designs on their regularly available products, but instead of other horror movie characters like they've done the past few years, they had a generic vampire and scarecrow. They still looked cool, though, and I can understand wanting to pool the resources to get a Scream tie-in.
Mountain Dew is still doing their Trolli cross-promo. I think it's weak myself. I get that VooDEW might have run its course, but I have pretty much zero interest in whatever Trolli candy is. Maybe go with something with more stature, like Skittles or Starburst? I dunno.
If you were looking for something a little healthier, Bubly had these cool Halloween mini cans this season. I only tried one, strawberry lime, but I personally was a big fan! I just wish they did them in full 355mL cans! These would be cool to give to trick 'r treaters, which I assume as the intended draw, but I can equally imagine lots of kids just shaking them up and using them to soak their friends instead of drinking them.
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I just want to give a shout out to ol' Faithful, Canada Dry Cranberry. This is something that I think is more on an American's Thanksgiving radar, but it drops here much earlier in October and remains an important part of our Thanksgiving and Halloween seasons. And I just love it.
Tricks or Treats!
I didn't really indulge in much of the seasonal treats this Halloween - or at least I tried not to - but there were a few standouts.
For one, we finally got those Reese Pumpkins with the Peanuts wrappers. A small victory on this one, but I recall these were a popular item last season and I don't know why it took them a year to make their Canadian debut. Whatever, they were delightful and I'm glad I got to have them.
As far as snack food goes, the big winner in my book goes to Pumpkin Spice Jos Louis! For any of my American friends that might be reading this, Jos Louis is the flagship snack cake of the Vachon company. I guess this is like our version of Hostess, except way better! Jos Louis consist of two chocolate snack cakes with a white cream filling robed in milk chocolate.
That already sounds amazing, I know, but swap out the chocolate cake for a spice cake and we're talking gamechanger! As I mentioned before, I'm hesitant with pumpkin spice flavoured stuff, but these were calling to me and honestly, I'm in love. I dunno if I'd even really hammer home that it's a "pumpkin" taste? I think that was just for marketing. This, IMO, was more a generic spice cake and let me tell you, I think it surpasses the original. If these were around all year I'd be 300 lbs, but very happy about it.
The Other Guys
Ah, the miscellaneous category. A definitely least, but not last situation this year. Herein lies some of my highlights of Halloween!
Last year I was picking up some stuff in Walmart in late-August when I saw this incredible, purple haunted house blow mold. I knew immediately that I wanted it, but it was August and I figured there'd be time a little later in the season. How wrong I was! These bad boys sold out immediately and all I was left with was regret.
Over the last few years, I've noticed this weird blow mold renaissance, but for some reason the figures are always really small. And usually some kind of tie-in, like The Grinch. This haunted house was a full-size blow mold, just like something you would've seen in the 90s, in all its purple splendour.
Needless to say, when I saw it again early this year I wasted no time getting it into my cart. It was the only new decoration I picked up this year, but what else could compare? It's hard to capture just how awesome it looks lit in the dark, but I think you can agree.
Some of the best things Halloween and Autumn have to offer don't cost a dime, like this; my very own homegrown pumpkin, Gourdon!
I've attempted to grow pumpkins in my yard the last three years. The first year was a bad year for bees and there wasn't enough pollination. I did get a pumpkin, but he was a tiny little guy. Last year, we had a terrible draught in Nova Scotia and although I did my best to keep the plants watered, they didn't yield much of anything. This year I grew six seeds indoors, but ultimately only one of them took root out in the garden. It grew a long and mighty vine, though, which brought Gourdon into my life!
He's the biggest pumpkin I've grown to-date. He was still mostly green by the time Halloween actually came around, but he did have some orange to him! Once he's enjoyed a nice stay indoors for the next few weeks, we'll extract his seeds for a nice snack and I'll set some aside for next year. Here's hoping for lots of little Gourdons next Halloween!
And I think that about sums it up! Honestly, this season went by like a blur. Even more than any other year. I did much less seasonal watching, that's for sure. I almost committed heresy and just managed to get John Carpenter's Halloween in on October 29th! The night itself more than made up for it all, though.
We took the kids trick 'r treating with friends and everyone had a blast. By the end of it, they all had sore feet, gigantic bags of candy, and great memories. And that's really what it's all about!
I hope you had a great Halloween season! And if you partake, I hope you're looking forward to the upcoming holidays! I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all, but in the next few weeks I'm sure I'll be trading in pumpkin ale for egg nogs, Monster Mash for Jingle Bells, and Michael Myers for Santa Claus.
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