8 Most Confusing Holiday Snacks at the Grocery Store

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: the time that all the whacky seasonal foods come back to grocery stores. It seems like every year, food corporations scramble to come up with a new gimmick in time for the holidays, and 2023 is already a doozy.

They’re not all bad —some actually sound kind of good. But they all have us suspecting that after years of trying to outdo one another, these companies might finally be running out of ideas. Here are the eight most confusing holiday foods we found in North Texas grocery stores.

Gingerbread Toast Crunch

It’s not that we think this is a bad idea. It’s just that seasonal cereals for children are kind of a dangerous game. It’s pretty common for a kid’s favorite cereal to be their daily go-to and a staple of the parents’ regular grocery run. If a kid decides their favorite cereal is Gingerbread Toast Crunch, who’s going to tell them it won’t exist anymore after Christmas? Hint: It won’t be General Mills.

Rice Krispies (Red and Green Color Mix)

Seeing how Rice Krispies are used in many recipes, it makes complete sense that they would release red and green Krispies to save customers the trouble of dying them. What we feel the need to call out is the fact that at Walmart, the 10.3-oz. holiday variety box costs almost two dollars more than 18-oz. family-sized box. That much extra for a box where most of the cereal isn’t even dyed is outrageous. Color your own Krispies, Dallas.

Signature Select, Eggnog Ice Cream Sandwiches

Just in general, pushing ice cream in the winter is weird. We know temperatures in Texas are still averaging around 80 degrees, but they won’t be in December. (Or at least we hope they won’t.) But if we must have ice cream in the winter, this one at least gets points for originality.

Ghiradelli, Milk Chocolate Gingerbread Cookie

Every chocolate company releases a holiday flavor every year, so there’s not anything strange about this one, on paper. But think about it for a second: gingerbread and milk chocolate. Who else is doing that? Per our research, not that many major companies. Maybe Ghiradelli is on top of next year’s weird seasonal trend. Or maybe the flavor will bomb and we'll never hear about it again.

Goldfish, Elf Maple Syrup Grahams

Elf is turning 20 this year, so we’re sure that plenty of other promo products will pop up in the coming weeks. The confusing thing here is that the maker of Goldfish, the snack that is renowned for smiling back, had to change the shape of most of its crackers for this promo to make sense. The elf hats and syrup bottles are cute, but fish they are not.

Blue Diamond Almonds, Snickerdoodle “Naughty and Nice Edition”

Almond companies have been busy for years taking the snack that’s popular because it’s a healthy alternative and making it as unhealthy as possible. On that note, meet the “Naughty and Nice Edition” of Blue Diamond Almonds. It has the flavor of healthy food minus the health. This sugary snickerdoodle flavor will have you wondering why you didn’t just reach for a real cookie.

Skinny Dipped Almonds, Dark Chocolate Peppermint

See the above entry. Seriously, we’re so confused about what the point of almonds even is anymore. There’s no way this is that much better for you than candy.

Oreo, Hot Cocoa Flavor

Oreo is known for putting out bizarre limited-edition flavors, but they may be running out of ideas. Correct us if we’re wrong, but isn’t “hot cocoa flavor” just chocolate? It’s a chocolate cookie and they already have a version with chocolate filling. The weird thing about this one is that it’s just not as weird as we’d like it to be.