6 Dollar Tree Christmas Candies To Stock Up On (And 3 To Avoid)

With Christmas right around the corner, plenty of companies are releasing new goodies, and whole aisles are dedicated to holiday cheer in nearly every store you walk into. From the best Christmas food advent calendars to McDonald's Grinch Meal and beyond, the holidays are definitely in full swing for those in the food world. But one store you may have overlooked is Dollar Tree, which has a great selection of small Christmas candies that I personally adore for my children's stockings. Of course, not every item this affordable store stocks is well worth the purchase. Figuring out which sweet treats are worth grabbing and which deserve to be left on the shelf can feel tricky.

Thankfully, you can skip much of the guessing games because I was given the opportunity to try nine Dollar Tree Christmas candies and report my findings back here. My judgments were based purely on taste, and I used my food industry experience to make my determinations. Ready to discover which Dollar Tree Christmas candies should be on your holiday shopping list? Here are six excellent options to grab, along with three you'll want to avoid.

The Palmer Cookies and Creme Snowmen feel like a great deal for $1.25. You get a small 4.5-ounce bag of oval-shaped candies, which feature snowmen faces on the wrapping paper, wearing black top hats and pink-ish beanies. What I most liked about this option, before my taste test, was that you get a good amount of candy for such a small price, allowing you to grab a single bag if you have multiple Christmas stockings to fill. For this reason, I sincerely hoped the taste would live up to my expectations because I had this option earmarked for my own children's gifts.

I won't say that the candy is going to be the best-tasting you've ever had. However, I think it's perfectly acceptable and a real bargain for what you pay for it. The chocolate had a very light artificial taste, but it's not enough to ruin the experience. Like the bag says, the candy is quite creamy and melts in your mouth, which I really loved. It's interspersed with tiny cookie bits, which provide a textural complexity I enjoyed. I definitely recommend stocking up on these if you're looking for a cheap but relatively tasty stocking stuffer or a cute holiday snack.

There only ended up being three Dollar Tree Christmas candies that I didn't like, which I think is a pretty good ratio in a store that's known for cheap products rather than those of high quality. Unfortunately, this Palmer Double Chocolate Frosty the Snowman was the first thing I simply couldn't recommend. I really wanted to love this, because the packaging is cute and eye-catching, featuring a smiling Frosty with his broom and magic hat. The frosty blue and white of the exterior plastic wrapper was very on-theme, which I appreciated as someone with a background in marketing.

No matter how cute I think this product is, I simply can't get over the ultra-low quality of the chocolate. From the first bite of what was supposed to be Frosty's hand, I was greeted by a chalky flavor with only hints of chocolate in it. A lingering chemical aftertaste made me grimace. Despite the fact that the little crispy rice particles in the chocolate added a nice textural complexity, I couldn't bring myself to even take a second bite. Avoid this chocolate snowman by Palmer and choose something better tasting but equally festive instead.

Peeps have come out with a wide range of unique flavor varieties throughout the years, and many of them have been hits with me — although a handful have been downright weird or gross. If you're interested in trying other flavors, be sure to check out our ranking of 15 Peep flavors to see which are most worthy of your taste buds.

I did level my expectations here slightly, since I was paying only a little over a dollar for five white and red chicks. But honestly, even if I hadn't leveled those expectations, I would have been quite pleased with these Peeps Candy Cane Marshmallows. I'd also like to offer a quick note that I think the packaging here is adorable and very much on-theme, featuring festive red and white stripes across the plastic wrapper.

The chicks pulled apart with the soft, gooey texture I've learned I can reliably expect from Peeps' products. From the moment I opened the package, I was greeted by an intense minty scent that was very reminiscent of traditional peppermint candy canes. Being a big mint fan, I appreciated this and hoped the scent translated to the flavor. I'm beyond thankful to say it did. These chicks feature a deep peppermint flavor that wasn't so much that I felt overwhelmed, interspersed through a light, fluffy marshmallow. I highly recommend grabbing a pack (or two) of these adorable little chicks to keep in your home during the holidays.

Haribo is, in my personal experience, a fairly reliable brand that puts out quality gummies. Here, we have a cute green plaid packaging with a reindeer and bear festively dressed on the front. Inside, you'll find happy little gummy reindeer in an assortment of colors, including orange, yellow, and green. The labeling says that these are supposed to be both sweet and sour, so I prepared myself for some lip puckering goodness.

I popped one of the small gummies into my mouth and was pleasantly surprised at the light sourness it exuded as I chewed. I'm not the world's biggest fan of overly sour treats, so this light flavor was perfect for me. This quickly faded into a mild sweetness, which was enjoyable without being overdone. Gummy bears take on an interesting crunchy texture when frozen, and I think these candies would work nicely the same way. I think this is the perfect Dollar Tree Christmas candy for someone looking for a treat that's not chocolate and isn't too sweet.

My single complaint is that I wouldn't call this bag "share size" by any stretch of the imagination. While I highly recommend you stock up on these, I suggest getting each person their own individual packages if you want everyone to feel satisfied.

I'll admit that I've bought these (or a product incredibly similar) for my children in the past, because they look so festive sticking out of the top of a stocking. However, I'd never actually tried them myself, and now that I have, I won't be buying them for my kids anymore, either.

I believe these are meant to be a knock-off of M&Ms, based on the holiday-themed red and green round candies filling the see-through candy cane base. However, these are a prime example of a low-quality chocolate that isn't even worth the dollar you'll spend on them. If you're looking for the tastiest option, you'd be better off splurging on the actual M&Ms instead — be sure to check out our ranking of 13 M&Ms flavors.

The candy coating exterior tasted like pure artificial ingredients, and it surrounded a "chocolate" that I hesitate to even call that. It had a chalky, fake taste that I could barely recognize as chocolate, and overall, the experience was just awful. Skip the Christmas Cane Chocolatey Flavored Candy, no matter how cute it looks.

I mentioned this previously, but I'm not a huge fan of super sour candies. Of course, that's kind of the whole Warheads experience, so, after forming my own initial opinion, I enlisted the help of my partner. He's an absolute fiend for mouth-puckering candies, and firmly believes that the more sour a food is, the better it is. Between the two of us, I thought we could come to a fair opinion of the Warheads Sour, Sweet, and Fruity Holiday Mix Gummy Candy.

My first impression was that the box was cute, simple, and very on-theme. My first bite of the candy inside was initially very sour, which I wasn't a huge fan of. However, as I chewed on the gummies, this first transitioned to a mild sourness that I found enjoyable, and then to a fruity sweetness I adored. My partner really enjoyed the initial sourness and asked me to grab more from the store. Needless to say, sour candy fans will definitely want to stock up on these holiday Warheads.

I know that not everyone is a big fan of cotton candy. After all, even the original product is no more than spun sugar with artificial coloring or flavoring. But, if you enjoy cotton candy, like I do, this pack of six flavored candy canes by Fun Sweets isn't to be missed. But, before I dive into how amazing the taste is, I do want to make a note that the packaging here isn't terribly on-theme. True, candy canes automatically make you think of Christmas, but nothing about the pink and blue design featuring flamingos would give me a clear indication this was Christmas-themed otherwise.

Packaging faux pas aside, I couldn't get over how spot-on this cotton candy flavoring was. It was sweet and sugary, with faint hints of strawberry and blue raspberry mixed with vanilla tones. With six of these candy canes for just over a dollar, you really can't beat the price. I suggest grabbing a few boxes to place on your Christmas tree as edible decor — at least, that's what my family does each year. When you're in the mood for a sweet treat, simply snag one off the tree.

I'll say that the one thing I like about these specific gummies is that they're made in the U.S.A. and have a gluten-free certification on the packaging. Other than that, however, these are an absolute let-down. The packaging does feature pictures of the holiday-shaped gummies, but otherwise isn't terribly festive or eye-catching. Normally, this wouldn't be a huge issue, but we are specifically talking about Christmas candies, so it bears mentioning.

The gummies themselves didn't have a hugely defined taste. If anything, there were the faintest hints of artificial fruitiness paired with faint sugary tones. It almost tasted like if you were drinking watered-down Kool-Aid, but in solid form, if that makes sense. The texture was exactly what I was expecting, and the smell was as artificial as the flavor. Avoid these and either opt for a different candy entirely or choose a stock-worthy gummy to fill that spot in your holiday shopping list.

The Palmer Chocofluff Marshmallow Filled Snow Balls are my favorite candy on this list, hands down, no competition. If I hadn't purchased these myself, I wouldn't have believed they were so-called "cheap" Dollar Tree candies. For starters, the packaging is obviously winter-themed, featuring something reminiscent of a light snowfall across the plastic and bright foil wrappings, which reminds me of Christmas ornaments. It's certainly not overdone, but does make the point that it's for the holidays.

Moving on to the taste, I was blown away. The outer chocolate shell had a rich taste that reminded me of hot chocolate, while the marshmallow core was sweet and creamy. Although the balls were fairly large, they were very delicate and easily melted in my mouth. They also turned out to be quite moreish, and I'd already eaten a handful of these before I forced myself to stop. Definitely stock up on these for either Christmas stockings or something to keep on hand when your chocolate craving strikes.

I chose Dollar Tree Christmas Candies based on their availability at my local store in Vineland, New Jersey. Of the available options, I aimed to pick an assortment of offerings that included different brands and different candy types, as much as possible. Each product was judged solely on taste, although I did create notes about the appearance, texture, and festivity of each option for this article's purposes.

To decide whether an item should be avoided or stocked up on, I relied primarily on more than fifteen years of experience in the food industry, during which I cross-trained in hot foods and bakeries. My work in bakeries allowed me to both create several candy types and regularly work with chocolate. Previous experience with Dollar Tree Christmas candies and creating rankings for the Daily Meal also contributed, including my previous candy ranking of Hershey's Kiss flavors. Although personal preference played a role in this ranking, I aimed to be as unbiased about product quality as possible.