From Popcorn Balls to Fun Size: How Halloween Candy Took Over Trick-or-Treating

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Episode 157

How did Halloween go from homemade popcorn balls and apples to Fun Size candy bars and houses famous for handing out full-size Snickers?

In this Snack Society episode of Pop Culture Passport, we're digging into the history of trick-or-treating and the treats that have filled Halloween bags over the years.

We'll discover why early trick-or-treaters might have come home with cookies, nuts, coins, and homemade treats; how candy corn went from “Chicken Feed” to a Halloween icon; and how PEZ transformed from an Austrian peppermint marketed to adults into the character dispensers we know today.

We'll also look at the Halloween candy safety panic of the 1970s, why individually wrapped candy became so reassuring to parents, and the surprisingly contentious history of the words “Fun Size.”

So grab your plastic pumpkin and let's go trick-or-treating through a century of Halloween candy history.

In this episode:

• What trick-or-treaters received before candy took over
• How candy corn became a Halloween staple
• The wonderfully weird Nik-L-Nip
• How PEZ went from anti-smoking peppermint to character candy
• The Halloween candy-tampering panic
• How individually wrapped treats changed Halloween
• The surprisingly complicated history of Fun Size candy bars
• How the full-size candy bar house became neighborhood royalty

You ready? Let’s roam.

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