Favorite Holiday Candies Ranked

 Growing up, my mother would always have holiday candy lying around in a small white bowl shaped like a basket. If there was a holiday, that little basket bowl was out on a living room end table filled with holiday candy. Candy corns or pumpkins, M&M's in delightful colors, little pillows of hard candy, Cadbury Mini Eggs! I am now in possession of that little basket bowl and seeing it reminds me of childhood and of my mother.

The truth is holiday candies are lit AF. I wish normal candies would be as much fun. Although, maybe my waistline does not wish that. 

I often rank in my head which holiday has my favorite holiday candies. I think tops for me is Easter. Cadbury Mini Eggs are my favorite (and now Cadbury has mini egg type situations at every holiday but the eggs still reign supreme for me), followed by the Peanut Butter Egg M&M's, and then who doesn't love a classic jelly bean. Or what about Robin's Eggs which are just better than regular whoppers! You can't leave out the Reese's Peanut Butter egg either, which is pretty much a meal unto itself it is so rich. They are all so good. No wonder kids love the Easter bunny!

The next favorite holiday specific candy for me is Christmas. Mainly because I am obsessed with the Holiday Mint M&M's - I wait all year for those babies to come out and then I hide the bag from my family because I am very selfish. I just love chocolate and peppermint so Christmas candy shines for me. Also, around Christmas some local candy stores stock this gummy candy called sugared plums that are TO DIE FOR good. They are so jammy and fresh. 

Then we come to Halloween. For a holiday that is so centered around candy, I'm shocked there isn't better Halloween-specific candy! What gives? Candy corns are gross as are their cousins the mallow pumpkins. Yes, I can eat one or two but then I have a stomachache. I will give it to the Reese's PB pumpkins as being pretty decent. But otherwise it's just kind of like nothing excites me about Halloween candy. Even when I go to buy treats to give away on Halloween night I'm sort of like here kids, sorry this piece of candy is so tiny. I used to think I was being economical buying the smaller sized candy bars but now I think it might be just as cheap to buy the large candy bars from Costco. 

Halloween can step up it's game in the candy aisles is all I'm saying! My little white basket bowl is looking sad right now. It's like Halloween, please be Easter! 

The other day, though, I did buy a bag of Halloween colored M&M's and put them in my little white basket bowl. My kids were delighted as they passed the bowl and snuck a M&M when they thought I wasn't looking. It made me happy. It felt like my mom had just been to our house to drop off a little treat and brighten our days. 

While this is mostly a story about candy, it's also one about the beauty of grief. When someone you are close to dies, they don't leave you. They just do not. They truly are there with you like they've been absorbed into your soul. And it usually manifests itself in small ways - like seeing holiday candy in a bowl and feeling like it's possible your dead mother put it there just for you. 

All this to say, I love holiday candy for the delicious yumminess and the nostalgia and memories it has given me over the years.