The Easter Candy Debate

Ever since the second century, Christians have been celebrating the holiday of Easter. Easter marks the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his death. There are 60 countries that celebrate Easter. Nowadays, most kids know Easter for the bunny who hides eggs full of candy in your house. The candy has become a major part of Easter, coming in second, just behind Halloween, in holidays with the most candy sales. But for a long time, there has been a debate about what is the best easter candy and it needs to be settled. This debate could be broken down into two sub-topics, chocolate, and non-chocolate candy.

Many people could be questioned about their opinion on this topic but the most valuable opinion comes from children. 13-year-old Peyton Hepler said her favorite candy is the “Fruity pebbles white chocolate bunny because I love fruity pebbles and white chocolate reminds me of spring.” Since it is impossible to determine a population’s favorite candy from just one person’s opinion, a poll was conducted to get closer to the real answer. After a select number of students at Pennridge High School were polled, it was found that about 37 percent of them said Reese’s Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs were their favorite candy. Coming in second place was Cadbury Creme Eggs with only 14 percent saying that they were their favorite. Overwhelmingly, it seemed that Reese’s Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs was taking the title.

Jelly beans became an Easter tradition around 1930 and have risen in popularity ever since. This brings up the debate over which non-chocolate Easter candy is the best. According to the National Confectioners Association, more than 16 billion jelly beans are made each year in the U.S. for Easter, enough to fill a giant egg measuring 89 feet high and 60 feet wide. But the other main competitor is Peeps because each Easter season, Americans purchase more than 700 million Marshmallow Peeps. Pennsylvania-based candy manufacturer Just Born, founded by Russian immigrant Sam Born in 1923, began selling Peeps in the early ’50s. They have also risen in popularity to the point where statistically speaking, they are the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy. But now, there might be a new favorite item children want in their Easter eggs.

It has been a tradition to hide Easter eggs with candy in them on Easter Sunday and have kids run around and try to find them, but there may be something new that kids want in their eggs. In an interview with Landon and Peyton Hepler, they both said how the one thing they hope to see in their Easter eggs when they open them is money. In conclusion, the most popular Easter candies seem to be Reese’s Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs and marshmallow Peeps. So come this Easter season, those would be the items consumers should buy.