Boo’s who in the candy bowl

DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

Fall temperatures dropped this week like a speedometer needle when a driver spots Moore County’s finest camped out at the Volunteer Fire Department.

Now come the ghosts and goblins, headed for Trunk-or-Treat at Lynchburg Elementary School and Halloween in the Hollow on the Square. For the kids, that means one thing: a candy grab.

Both events are Saturday, Oct. 31. LES welcomes everyone from 4 to 5:30 p.m., while trick-or-treating on the Square begins at 5 p.m. There should be plenty to sort through afterward.

Then the haul hits the kitchen table.

Chocolate goes here. Gummies go there. Anything worth trading gets its own pile. A parent wanders through, spots a peanut butter cup, and announces a quality-control inspection. Funny how nobody ever needs to inspect the raisins.

Behind those little wrappers is a surprisingly lively pecking order. Some candies have held their ground for generations. A few old favorites now exist mostly in the memories of people who still insist candy tasted better when it cost a nickel.

A sweet dispute

The receipts offer competing answers about who rules Halloween.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups finished first by ounces sold in Instacart’s 2026 Halloween report, which examines 2025 orders. DoorDash also named Reese’s its top Halloween candy for the third year in a row, based on orders from October 2025. Chocolate and peanut butter apparently remain a sound domestic partnership.

CandyStore.com’s projection for Halloween 2026 gives M&M’s the crown, followed by Sour Patch Kids and Skittles, with Reese’s fourth. Its ranking uses 18 Halloween seasons of sales data, measured in pounds across states where each candy placed among the top three. Different shopping baskets produce different winners; this year’s trick-or-treaters haven’t weighed in yet.

Here in Tennessee, there’s reason to Snicker. CandyStore.com identifies Snickers as the state’s winner. The bar also topped the retailer’s separate 2026 customer survey of favorite Halloween candies, bumping Reese’s from first place.

Still on a roll

Popularity is one thing. Staying power requires a little more chew.

Consider the Tootsie Roll. According to the company’s history, it arrived in 1896 and originally sold for a penny. That makes the chewy little veteran 130 years old this year. Tootsie Pops followed in 1931, eventually giving generations something to ponder: How many licks does it take to reach the center?

There is something reassuring about a Tootsie Roll. The wrapper opens, the chewing begins, and for a moment you could be standing beside your grandmother’s candy dish again.

Reese’s has put in its time, too. H.B. Reese created his peanut butter cups in 1928. M&M’s dates to 1941, when the first plain chocolate candies were made for the U.S. military, according to Mars. These are old hands at disappearing from a candy bowl.

A kernel of controversy

Then there’s candy corn, which has spent generations being both purchased and prosecuted.

Its roots reach into the 1800s. The Library of Congress notes that it was originally sold as “Chicken Feed,” long before it became closely tied to Halloween. Somewhere along the way, a tiny imitation vegetable became one of America’s most dependable seasonal arguments.

CandyStore.com’s 2026 customer survey named candy corn the worst Halloween candy. Its sales-based projection nevertheless ranks it eighth nationally. For something with so many critics, it certainly gets around.

From the candy crypt

The candy graveyard holds a treat that really has vanished: the Seven Up bar, still mourned by its devoted fans.

This ambitious chocolate bar contained seven sections with different fillings. Those fillings changed over the years, but included cherry cream, fudge, coconut, and orange jelly. Think of a candy assortment whose members had agreed to carpool. It was discontinued in 1979.

Its absence still rates a question on Pearson’s Candy’s website. The company says it lacks the manufacturing capabilities to make the bar and has no plans to bring it back soon. For devoted fans, that’s seven kinds of disappointment in one answer.

Before declaring another childhood favorite dead, though, check for a pulse.

Necco Wafers, whose history dates to 1847, returned in 2020 after a two-year absence. Spangler Candy bought the brand out of bankruptcy and brought those familiar rolls back to shelves. They remain in the company’s lineup today. In Halloween terms, that qualifies as a successful resurrection.

Make your candy run

Here at home, there’s still time to help fill those buckets. Organizers of LES’s Trunk-or-Treat need volunteers and donations of individually wrapped candy. Consider that your chance to influence the contents of somebody else’s candy bucket.

For families heading downtown, Halloween in the Hollow’s jack-o’-lantern judging begins at the gazebo at 2 p.m. The Square closes to traffic at 3:30 p.m. for trunk-or-treat setup. Costume contests begin at 5:15 p.m., with divisions from Pre-K through adults, plus groups.

The Headless Horseman rides through at 6:40 and 7:30 p.m., with a dance party beginning at 6:45 p.m.

Afterward, it’s back to the kitchen table. Nostalgia has a sweet tooth, and somebody always remembers exactly which wrapper they hoped to find at the bottom of the bag.

This Halloween, the kids will negotiate their trades while the grown-ups explain what a nickel used to buy. And someone will quietly pocket a Reese’s.

Quality control never takes a holiday.