With September almost over, spooky season is nearly here -- but will McDonald's beloved Halloween Boo Buckets return for 2024?
As of Monday, Sept. 23, the Chicago-based burger chain has not made an announcement as to whether the popular pails would return for the 2024 Halloween season. However, rumors are abuzz online, with food bloggers appearing to have leaked this year's design -- and some fans are not lovin' it.
A Sept. 5 post from the Instagram food blog account Snackolater claims that Boo Buckets are returning to McDonald's stores for 2024, but with a "whole new look from the last few years."
The post goes on to say that the buckets pictured in the photo may not be the exact ones coming to U.S. stores.
First introduced in 1986, the trick-or-treat pails, known as "Boo Buckets," were a Happy Meal staple of the spooky season for several years before they "vanished for a while." Following a prolonged absence, three iconic, throwback buckets returned for 2022 on Oct. 18.
They also returned in 2023, with the same throwback designs -- Monster, Skeleton, Mummy -- plus a purple Vampire bucket, a nod to the "OG purple Boo Bucket."
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The rumored designs for 2024 appear to stray away from Boo Buckets of years past, leaving some on social media to long for the nostalgic ones.
"I think you all misunderstood why we liked the boo buckets thing," one commenter wrote on Snackolater's post. "We like the nostalgia."
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"Meh," another said. "its the nostalgia we want!"
In previous years, McDonald's has announced if Boo Buckets will return -- and what they will look like -- in early October, with the buckets in stores beginning in mid-October while supplies last.
