Boo Buckets

I was alive in 1986, when McDonald's first served its Halloween-season Happy Meals in pumpkin-shaped pails nationwide. This first iteration of what were later dubbed "Boo Buckets" featured bright orange pails with expressive jack-o-lantern faces printed on the side, pumpkin-top lids to match, and black handles. Although I don't remember owning one myself, I'm pretty sure my sister got one of these original pumpkin pails when she was a kid. 

A recent TastingTable article looked at the full history of these buckets. I hadn't remembered there being so many different editions of the buckets over the years—though considering I aged out of ordering Happy Meals before 1990, this is no surprise.

With my youngest needing a pail for trick-or-treating this year, and both my sons still young enough for Happy Meals, I recently decided to treat them to Boo Buckets.

While I would have preferred orange pails (since that's what I remember seeing most as a kid), the McDonald's we visited had only white buckets available that day. My boys enjoyed them regardless.

Since it had been decades since I'd seen a real-life Boo Bucket, I was a little disappointed that they lacked lids and seemed a little flimsier than expected. However, I thought it was cool that the food came covered with a round cardboard card that had glow-in-the-dark stickers on one side (for customizing each pail—a plus when you have multiple kids). Printed on the other side was a Halloween-themed maze (though the activity cards may vary). I was pleasantly surprised that the Happy Meals cost about $4 each.

From the YouTube channel The Haunted Drive-in, here is a 1986 commercial for the original Halloween Pumpkin Happy Meals: