The 16 Best Dollar Tree Foods To Buy This Holiday Season

Preparing your kitchen pantry for the holidays can get expensive. While there are some legitimate reasons to think twice before buying food at the dollar store, such as there being more highly processed products than at some other retailers, you can still find a lot of quality items on the shelves. Dollar Tree is one place where you can purchase merchandise from trusted regional and national manufacturers, and many of these are suitable for your upcoming holiday celebrations.

If you stocked up on Dollar Tree foods for Thanksgiving and have some left over, you may still find use for them during Christmas and New Year's, such as Idahoan Original Mashed Potatoes and Swanson Natural Chicken Broth. Alongside those items are others that you can use to make holiday dishes and desserts, from flour and frosting to seasonings and canned vegetables. You'll also find some ready-to-eat foods — such as snacks, candies, and pies — as well as beverage options like apple cider and hot chocolate. As you peruse the list below, keep in mind that availability and prices can vary by location.

If you don't do a lot of baking but still plan to make a few cupcakes or cookies for the holidays this year, this 2-pound bag of Nancy Jane All Purpose Flour is the perfect amount for just $1.25. Some people have noted that this brand is clumpy, but that's nothing a little fluffing can't fix. Not fluffing your flour before baking is a serious mistake anyway. Stirring it up creates aeration that loosens the powder so that it doesn't get heavy and you don't get more than your recipe needs.

Pillsbury was Daily Meal's favorite brand of vanilla frosting during a taste test because of its balanced sweetness and smooth, thick texture. Whether you're piping a Santa hat or candy cane on cupcakes or cookies, the 10-ounce Pillsbury Radiant Red Vanilla Frosting Tub will do the job. It's only $1.25 at Dollar Tree, and you can grab a tub of green frosting to pipe Christmas trees and wreaths.

Making delicious treats is part of the fun of celebrating the holidays. If you want to make yours even more magical, though, sprinkle a bit of Twinkle Edible Shimmer Powder on them. You might only get 0.3 ounces for $1.25, but that little bit will go a long way.

You don't have to make a crust from scratch for your pie to taste great. Among the types of pie crusts and the best fillings for them, graham cracker is ideal for chocolate and coconut cream pies – both of which are fantastic holiday desserts. Best of all, you can grab this Bama 9-in. Graham Cracker Pie Crust at Dollar Tree for just $1.25.

Whether you want to add some flavor to meat, vegetable, soup, or casserole dishes, you can't go wrong with a blend of thyme, oregano, marjoram, basil, rosemary, and sage. You could buy all the individual ingredients to create this Italian seasoning, or you could save some time with this blend from Supreme Tradition. At Dollar Tree, you can get a 1.23-ounce bottle for only $1.25. Best of all, you can use it on more dishes outside of the holiday season, including pasta and pizza.

The Del Monte brand's low-sodium variant of cut green beans made it on Daily Meal's list of canned vegetables to buy for its affordability and only having 190 milligrams of sodium per serving. Although Dollar Tree has the regular Del Monte Harvest Cut Green Beans, the sodium content is still reasonable at 200 milligrams per serving, drained. Plus, it's just $1.25 per can. Green beans aren't the only canned vegetable you can get at Dollar Tree. The Del Monte Harvest Sliced Carrots are the same price and have even less sodium at 170 milligrams per serving, drained.

If you're planning to make a stew for some warmth over the holidays, try adding a can of Margaret Holmes Tomatoes, Okra & Corn. This classic Southern dish is seasoned with sugar, salt, dehydrated onion and garlic, and other spices for a balanced soup that you can serve by itself alongside a main dish. Or, add it to a soup recipe like stew. The 14.5-ounce can is $1.25 at Dollar Tree.

When it comes to macaroni and cheese, Kraft is often a go-to option. You can get that at Dollar Tree, but the store also offers the Premier Pantry brand. Customers who have purchased this brand express how much they love the powered-cheese version on Reddit. Meanwhile, the Premier Pantry Original Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese is worth the $1.25, and the Shells & Cheese variant is another solid option for the same price. Some people noted that they like adding other ingredients, such as pesto and hot sauce, to their Premier Pantry mac and cheese. If you feel like yours needs some extra pizzazz, there are actually many ways to make the boxed mac and cheese taste better, such as adding bacon, Greek yogurt, or your favorite seasonings.

Kars has become a go-to brand since it started selling salty roasted nuts in 1933, and its sweet and salty mixes are an especially big hit. If you enjoy a bag every now and then, don't miss out on the Kars Sweet and Salty Holiday Mix at Dollar Tree. Peanuts and sunflower kernels provide the salty, savory element, while holiday cocoa candies and raisins provide the sweet component. You get six servings in each 6-ounce bag for just $1.25.

Kids and the young at heart might find the Palmer Rudolph Snack Mix a more magical snack mix. That's because, alongside salty pretzels and roasted peanuts, it contains tiny, peanut butter-filled chocolates in the shapes of characters from the 1964 "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" stop-motion animated television special. For just $1.25, you get a 3-ounce bag with about 2.5 servings.

Since 1868, Martinelli's has been bottling apple cider, pressed and pasteurized from a blend of the finest fresh apple varieties. The brand took the fourth spot in Daily Meal's ranking of the 10 best store-bought apple ciders. Along with being a refreshing complement to holiday food, you can use Martinelli's Sparkling Cider as an alternative to champagne and sparkling wine for kids and those who avoid alcohol for toasts. You can get 8.4-ounce bottles of the drink at Dollar Tree for $1.25 each. And, if you like other fruits mixed in with your cider, you may like Martinelli's apple-grape, apple-mango, and apple-cranberry offerings, too.

One of the most nostalgic things you can do during the winter holidays is curl up with a cup of hot chocolate, and Dollar Tree has you covered with Swiss Miss Milk Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix. The box comes with six 0.73-ounce packets of mix that don't contain any artificial colors for just $1.25. Additionally, the variant with mini marshmallows is available for the same price. For a velvety rich hot cocoa with double the chocolatiness, consider using chocolate milk as the base instead of plain milk.

Other than marshmallows, there are a few unexpected ways to improve a classic hot chocolate, such as drizzling in salted caramel and adding spices like cardamom and nutmeg. Another option is to let these Peppermint Flavored Candy Cane Spoons melt into your warm beverage. Plus, you can remove the spoon as soon as you reach the perfect amount of peppermint flavor so that it's not overpowering. These spoons are also an alternative if you're having trouble finding the peppermint variant of Swiss Miss.

While you could make your own version of holiday marshmallow Peeps with various cookie cutter shapes, grabbing a package at Dollar Tree won't require the same level of cleanup. Around Christmastime, the brand releases several special variants, including gingerbread men, snowmen, candy cane-flavored chicks, and trees. While the snowmen and trees don't have a distinct flavor and come in packs of three for $1.25, the gingerbread men and candy cane variants are named after their respective flavors and come in packs of three and five, respectively, for the same price.

Making the best-ever butter cookies can be a time-consuming process, so there's no shame in picking up one of the iconic blue tins of Danish cookies that arrive in stores around Christmastime. While you may not find the enduring Royal Dansk brand at Dollar Tree, the Cambridge & Thames Danish-Style Butter Cookies are no slouch, according to customers on Reddit and YouTube. The 4-ounce tin has about 24 cookies in it for just $1.25.

If you're only having a small gathering or want to have a small amount of multiple desserts for the holidays, consider getting Edwards Frozen Chocolate Crème Pie Slices. These two decadent frozen slices of pie are made with real chocolate but no artificial dyes or high fructose corn syrup. At Dollar Tree, you can purchase a box for $3.