16 Best Holiday Foods And Drinks At Costco

Everybody has that friend who won't stop talking about how much they love Costco. If you're not that friend, you may have found yourself wondering what in the world is so special about the bulk goods giant. Who needs a 1.5-gallon bucket of laundry detergent? Who on earth has the space to store 30 rolls of toilet paper? Is it humanly possible to eat your way through a 48-ounce bag of almonds before they go rancid?

Search "Costco" on Facebook, and you'll find a plethora of social groups dedicated to Costco: Favorite products, seasonal finds, rants and raves, and more. Clearly, your Costco-loving pals are onto something. Besides offering quality products at a (sometimes quite steep) discount, Costco changes out its products seasonally — but unlike many other big box retailers, it really leans into it. Costco has seasonal items ranging from warm, fuzzy blankets to gingerbread houses to hardy evergreens ready for decorating, and it's tough to walk through one of these stores in late November through the end of December without feeling inspired with holiday cheer. Feeling overwhelmed with the whimsy? Don't despair: We've put together a list of the absolute best seasonal food and drinks at Costco for you to review before you hit the trenches. Prices may vary.

Costco fans love to rave about the low prices on beer, wine, and liquor at their favorite store — and you'll be hard-pressed to find a better price on booze if you're buying in bulk. With lots to celebrate between late November and the new year, it's not a bad idea to stock up and store some Champagne for special occasions. Enter Costco's Kirkland Signature Brut. Like many of Costco's signature liquors, Kirkland Champagne is not actually manufactured by Kirkland. Rather, it's produced by Manuel Janisson, a highly-regarded vineyard in Verzenay in the Champagne region of France (as explained by The New York Times).

Veuve Clicquot and Dom Perignon drinkers may turn up their noses when you pop open your bottle of Kirkland Champagne, but with a price tag of $19.99, this is nothing to sneeze at (it can Kirkland). Kirkland Champagne boasts a crisp, citrusy scent, classic Champagne-tasting notes like green apple and toasty baked bread, and a delightfully dry finish. Be sure to stock up on Kirkland Champagne for Christmas morning mimosas or New Year's Eve bubbly on your next trip.

Bitter dark chocolate drizzled over salty pretzels. Velvety white chocolate cups filled with nutty peanut butter. Oreo-like cookies dipped in sweet chocolate and covered in colored sprinkles. Rich, buttery caramel corn and crunchy almonds covered in sprinkles... what's not to love? Barton's Holiday Mingle mix (a dupe for Trader Joe's Jingle Jangle mix) contains all of these items tossed together in a 24-ounce bag for just under $10, and it's developed a devoted group of followers over the last few years.

Holiday Mingle mix is sweet and savory, and its contents' textures take the taster on a journey from sticky to crunchy to silky and everything in between. Holiday Mingle is sure to be a welcome after-dinner treat at a December graduation reception or a Hanukkah celebration, but fair warning: Once you've tasted this razzmatazz of a snack mix, you may find yourself rushing back to Costco for another package.

New at Costco as of this year, a creamy cranberry jalapeño dip from La Terra Fina is making waves with members who've managed to snag a batch. The creamy cranberry jalapeño dip is made with buttery cream cheese, juicy cranberries, and piquant jalapeños. It's ultra-versatile and can be served hot or cold, so while it's great on its own or on a meat and cheese board, there are infinite possibilities for taking it to the next level.

This bold take on combining savory, spicy, and sweet flavors may not be a smash hit with everyone on your Christmas Eve cocktail party guest list, but the beauty of combining these wildly different tastes is that the creamy dip can be used in almost any scenario: Dinner, breakfast, dessert, appetizer, brunch, you get the drift. Try smearing the cranberry jalapeño dip on a bagel, mixing it with leftover chicken or turkey for a salad, or stuffing it into seeded fresh jalapeño peppers and wrapping them in bacon to elevate traditional cream cheese-stuffed peppers.

Simply mentioning the topic of fruitcakes can incite some strong emotions and opinions. These spongy amalgams are made up of a pretty bizarre combination of spiced fruit, herbaceous spirits, nuts, and cake, and chances are you have an aunt or grandma who still has a piece of last year's fruitcake hiding in the back of their freezer. Love it or hate it, fruitcake is a holiday tradition, and there's a distinct possibility that at least one friend or family member will be enraged if fruitcake fails to make an appearance on the Christmas dinner menu.

There are plenty of homemade fruitcake recipes available, but between soaking fruit, whipping up the cake, and actually cooking the dessert, it can be a bit time-consuming (not to mention expensive) to make your own. Luckily, store-bought fruitcakes make perfectly acceptable dessert contributions, and you can pick up a fruitcake at your local Costco. Costco's fruitcake is considerably pricey (the online price starts at $69.99 without coupons or discounts), but at a whopping 4 pounds and 14 ounces, it's sure to feed those in your crew who are Team Fruitcake.

The best cheese boards incorporate three to five different cheeses for maximum flavor pairings: Ideally, a soft, creamy cheese (Brie, goat cheese), something sharp (cheddar, Asiago), a cheese with a funky flavor and aroma (blue cheese, gorgonzola), and one or two other options for variety. If you're serving a cheese tray at a holiday get-together (or just looking for a festive cheese to set out for casual munching), Costco's cranberry cinnamon goat cheese log is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. The cranberries provide pockets of tart flavor within the sweet, creamy goat cheese, and the spicy cinnamon brings it all together for an absolute banger of a snack.

Much like the creamy cranberry jalapeño dip mentioned above, while the cranberry cinnamon goat cheese is very tasty eaten on its own (or on crostini with some jam and walnuts), it's easy to get crafty with these versatile cheese logs. Try wrapping it in puff pastry and baking it for an upgraded take on baked Brie, cooking it down with cream and herbs for a pan sauce, or stuffing it inside a split chicken breast for a bright and elegant protein-packed meal.

The holidays wouldn't be the same without our furry friends, and luckily, Costco has Fido covered with the Advent calendar for dogs. The calendar features 16 dog treats ranging from pumpkin spice pretzels to gingerbread people to apple pie-flavored "little stars," all of which are, of course, made with canine-friendly ingredients. Toy-wise, we're talking plushies, ropes, balls, and a whole host of playthings that should theoretically help keep Buddy distracted from crinkly wrapping paper and loud shrieks while your two-year-old rips into their gifts. The treats and toys are pretty high-quality for a big box store Advent calendar. Says one Redditor, "The toys are very high quality. I have a power chewer and she hasn't destroyed anything yet! The treats are plentiful as well! Several pieces in each package! It's a great buy!"

That said, the Advent calendar for dogs will run you close to $40, while competitors like Trader Joe's offer both cat and dog Advent calendars for under $10 (though critical Amazon reviews of the Trader Joe's product note that Trader Joe's dog Advent calendars don't amount to much bang for your buck, citing fewer and inferior products for the considerably lower price). Regardless, Costco's Advent calendar for dogs — whether you're purchasing for your own pup or gifting the calendar to a friend — presents a fun variety of products for a relatively low cost.

The most expensive item on this list by far, Costco's Jamón Ibérico Bellota ham leg (which comes with its own knife and stand) retails for a whopping $549.99. The price tag comes from the insanely complicated process behind jamón ibérico. The pigs used to produce the Spanish ham are fed primarily on acorns for most of their lives. Once the pigs have been slaughtered, the aging process for jamón ibérico can take anywhere from two to four years — Costco's version is aged for over three years, and the pigs used are guaranteed to have at least 2.5 acres to wander freely in the Valle De Los Pedroches in Southern Spain.

The product description page for this Costco item says that "The vegetarian diet of the Iberico Breed pigs based on acorn and grass from the pasturelands and their free range conditions are the factors that underpin the unmistakable personality and quality of our product." A whole ham leg (and Iberico ham at that) may not be the most traditional American holiday dinner, but it's a guaranteed crowd-pleaser if you're hosting a large event.

If you've never had a praline, you're missing out. Pralines are a confection made from brown sugar, nuts (usually pecans), and vanilla. Typically, pralines are made by boiling down pecans with butter, sugar, and cream and then forming the mixture into patties to harden, almost like a bark. Costco somewhat inverts the idea of a praline with their Kirkland Signature praline pecans, which are whole pecans covered in a buttery, sugary coating.

Kirkland Signature praline pecans are not strictly a seasonal item, but there's something special about sugary, candy-coated nuts around the holidays. These nuts don't have a strong pecan-like taste. As CostCuisine notes, "The flavor of the pecans was masked just slightly by the sweetness of the coating, but that didn't mean I enjoyed the pecans any less." These buttery pecans make a sweet addition to a meat and cheese plate, taste lovely when chopped and added to homemade cookies, and add another layer of flavor to a platter of bacon-wrapped dates.