When it comes to holiday candy, Halloween sweets get all the attention. It's for good reason, we guess, given how hard you have to work for it, with all that trick-or-treating. But here's a fact that'll blow your mind: Easter's actually the day that earns candy companies their biggest payoff. According to Nielsen data, candy sales reached $823 million in American last Easter. Surprised? You shouldn't be. Remember uncovering these gems in your basket?
Starburst Jellybeans
The fact that you got to enjoy the classic Starburst flavors without painstakingly unwrapping individual candies was clutch.
Bubble Gum Eggs
If you want to date yourself, you'll admit to being a fan of Eggums — tiny bubble gum eggs that came in a Styrofoam carton. Nowadays, the gum comes in see-through plastic cartons.
Bunny Peeps
While everyone else was losing their minds over chick Peeps, you knew the bunny versions were the best: More often than not, they came 12 to a package, whereas the chicks were served in measly packs of five.
Pastel M&M's
How were these different than the classic primary-colored ones, you ask? They weren't, they just indicated that spring and Easter were upon us — and that school was a mere two months from letting out.
Reese's Pieces Carrots
We wish the marketing genius who came up with this packaging idea — and allowed us to act like candy was a vegetable — a lifetime of happiness.
Reese's Easter Egg
This Reese's treat didn't win our hearts for its shape, but for its amazing peanut butter-to-chocolate ratio. A couple years ago, someone actually confirmed what we knew all along: The egg beats all but one other Reese's treat shape for its percentage of peanut butter per treat.
Whoppers Robin Eggs
Hand us Whoppers in a movie theater and we'd revolt. Give us Whoppers Robin Eggs in our Easter basket, and we'd be BFF for life.
Nestle Crunch Eggs
Full-size candy bars could really capitalize your candy intake (or at least the candy intake your parents allowed), so this mini egg version of a Crunch bar was lifesaving.
Cadbury Eggs
The crème egg is delicious, but its lesser-known relative the caramel egg is just as good. If you put either in the microwave for five seconds (minus the foil wrapper, obvi), you'd end up with the perfect ooey-gooey treat.
Lindt Gold Bunny
As if we'd write this list without including a chocolate bunny. Lindt's mini milk chocolate one was disappointing in its hollowness, but we could never resist that classy-*ss gold wrapping.
Easter Pez
Having an Easter Pez dispenser or two didn't mean you were a full-on Pez collecting weirdo. It just meant you enjoyed the finer activities in life … like snapping a bunny's head back to reveal a tiny rectangle of pure sugar.
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