All the holiday desserts we ate in the ‘90s (and still do now!)
It seems like EVERYTHING is holiday-bedazzled to the extreme out right now, and that’s totally okay with me. It always has been! Ever since I was a kid, I loved going to Target with my parents and picking out all the holiday candies and cookies I could handle. Christmas M&Ms, red and green Hershey Kisses, candy canes —the options were seemingly endless (and endlessly DELICIOUS).
And luckily, most of those desserts have stayed pretty relevant (THANK YOU, ’90s gods!). Holiday desserts were a staple of every ‘90s Christmas, Hanukkah (or whatever else you celebrate!), and they’re still a staple now. Here are some of our favorite sweets we chowed down on when we were kids (and are probably chowing down right now):
Christmas Hershey Kisses
Whenever our parents dragged us to a boring holiday party, we instinctively bee-lined toward the holiday Hershey Kiss bowl and subsequently ate the entire thing one by one. Did we get major Hershey Kiss overdose stomachaches? For sure. Was it worth it? SO WORTH IT.
Our mom’s Peanut Butter Blossoms
Everyone’s parents brought Peanut Butter Blossoms to your 2nd grade class’ holiday party, right? These peanut butter cookies are perfect anytime of the year, but for some reason, we saw a lot of them in December.
White fudge dipped Oreos
I JUST saw these at the grocery store, and it took all my self-discipline (which is not a whole lot, to be honest) to not buy like five boxes. These only come out during the holidays, and the tradition started in the ’90s, but you don’t even need the white fudge to be festive —if you look closely at your Oreo, you’ll notice the cookie has a wreath pattern on it. Ha! Now try to escape the merry holiday season!
Ferrero Rocher
If Ferrero Rocher’s commercials didn’t make you feel fancy, then I don’t know what possibly could. Airing around late-December to New Years, the adverts always depicted some kind of epic gala where the only food WORTHY of the socialites attending was Ferrero Rochers. These were slightly more expensive than a candy bar, so we had to on our BEST behavior at the grocery stores in order for our parents to agree on this purchase.
Pepperidge Farm Gingerman Cookies
Pepperidge Farm, which are known for their exquisite Milano cookies, are also really good at making gingerbread cookies (which they still call “Gingerman,” which is a little outdated, but I forgive you, Pepperidge Farm).
Christmas themed Animal Cookies
If someone left a bag of these in front of 8-year-old Gina, she would have inhaled it like there was no tomorrow. When the holiday colors came out, you could not pry my hands off them.
Jell-o Poke cake
OK, so I’ve never been brave enough to actually try Jell-o cake out before, but I remember seeing this gorgeous confection at every single holiday event. I love Jell-o, and I love cake, so I’m not entirely sure why I haven’t jumped on this bandwagon yet.
Chocolate mint Blizzard from DQ
When I was a kid, I lived in Minnesota, and all the Dairy Queens would shut down for the winter. Except for one. It was at the mall, and apparently enough people bought ice-cream for it be open for business. Every single time my dad took me, I got the Oreo mint Blizzard, because if you’re gonna go to DQ in -20 degree weather, you might as well do it right.
Hostess Holiday Cakes
How lucky were we when we opened our Disney lunch boxes and discovered our parents left us a Hostess holiday cake for dessert? THE LUCKIEST.
Holiday Chips Ahoy
And finally, there was Chips Ahoy!: Holiday Edition. They were basically the same as regular cookies, except the chocolate chips were switched out for red and green ones. Since I know you already have the Chips Ahoy! song stuck in your head right now (sorrynotsorry), let’s just go ahead and really solidify our ’90s nostalgia with this Chips Ahoy! commercial:
