A Look Back At McDonald's Halloween Boo Buckets Through The Years

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While some kids trick-or-treat with generic plastic pumpkin buckets, others go for the roomy pillowcase, but loyal McDonald's customers know that Boo Buckets are the coolest candy collectors around. In the 1980s, the fast food chain first commemorated the Halloween season by swapping its recognizable red Happy Meal boxes for these festive buckets instead. In October 2025, McDonald's Boo Buckets will return with 2 new spooky characters, so there's no time like the present to reminisce on these limited-edition goodies.

Boo Buckets — also called "Halloween Pails" by McDonald's — started out as simple vessels meant to hold your McD's order before storing your candy haul come All Hallows' Eve. Since then, the buckets have gone through many incarnations, with each one being special to a certain generation of kids. Some versions came with toy-like extras, just like more traditional Happy Meals, while others were emblazoned with famous children's characters.

Unfortunately for kids everywhere, McDonald's Boo Buckets vanished for a few years starting in 2016 after 30 years of memories. However, the discontinuation built a ton of hype for their eventual return in 2022, and the excitement has only grown since. Below, we've rounded up the most memorable Boo Buckets from throughout the promotion's long history. With this knowledge, you'll be ready to debate about how the 2025 version matches up to its predecessors.

Before Boo Buckets, McDonald's released Halloween Pumpkin Happy Meals with the chain's original trick-or-treat pails. First debuting with a test run at select restaurants in 1985 before nationwide distribution in 1986, these cute and classic-looking pumpkin buckets came with three different faces known as McPunk'n, McBoo, and McGoblin. '80s kids have fond memories of storing marbles, crayons, toys, and other trinkets in these fast food prizes months or even years after their release.

By 1989, McDonald's Halloween pails came in three designs: a white ghost, a green witch, and an orange pumpkin. The set got a nifty update in 1990 when the ghost bucket became glow-in-the-dark, surely turning it into the most coveted of the bunch. McDonald's put out a delightfully spooky commercial for the Boo Buckets starring the McNugget mascots, another '80s- to '90s-era fixture fondly remembered by Millennials.

In 1991, McDonald's replaced Boo Buckets with vinyl "McBoo Bags," which were not received very well by most customers. Naturally, the restaurant brought the beloved buckets back in 1992 with a new addition that would stick around for a few years. Removable cookie cutters were built into the lids, allowing you to bake goodies shaped like pumpkins, ghosts, or a black cat's face. McDonald's brought twice the treats to lucky kids that Halloween.

The year after their debut, the cookie-cutter Boo Buckets got a cosmetic update with goofier face designs. Funny faces aside, 1993's buckets looked largely identical to 1992's, with the exception being that the witch bucket turned purple in lieu of green. Surprisingly, this was the final year for the faithful ghost, pumpkin, and witch trio before they disappeared for a long while. McDonald's went in rather different design directions during the rest of the '90s onward.

In 1999, the final year for cookie-cutter Boo Buckets, McDonald's released only two designs that featured iconic McDonaldland characters. These included an orange pumpkin decorated with a wraparound scene of Grimace and Birdie in a pumpkin patch and a white bucket with a bat-shaped cutter featuring a scene of Ronald McDonald frolicking in a graveyard with the Hamburgler. Additionally, the orange bucket came with the classic pumpkin cookie cutter from previous years.

2010 marked the first crossover Boo Buckets, as Hasbro's Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head joined forces with McDonald's to create an orange pail with a skull-shaped handle and a fluorescent yellowish-green one with a pumpkin handle. The real kicker was that the buckets came with sticker sheets to "dress up" the blank-faced Potato Heads on the exterior. You could stick on some eyes, mouths, clothing, and more, just like when playing with the classic toys.

The Mr. Potato Head Boo Buckets started a sticker trend that would go on for a while. In 2011, two new buckets debuted at McDonald's, with an orange Jack-o'-lantern and a green Frankenstein's monster-like design. The buckets were given to customers completely blank, and kids could use accompanying stickers to add eyes, a nose and mouth, and other features to build their own unique face design. Advertisements encouraged customers to "trick out" their Happy Meal pail.

The Halloween season is the best time to catch some "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" reruns, and McDonald's got in on the action in 2012 with Boo Buckets themed around the classic cartoon. The Mystery Inc. gang decorated a trio of white, green, and dark blue buckets with pail handles shaped like the show's logo. Of course, a sheet of decorative stickers came with every purchase; the white bucket, for instance, allowed you to dress up Scooby in goofy disguises.

In 2013, McDonald's got freaky-fabulous with "Monster High" Boo Buckets, featuring characters from the popular spooky franchise. Sales for the Mattel doll line were wildly successful that year, and obsessed kids could get their Happy Meal in a pink bucket printed with Draculaura, a purple pail with Clawdeen Wolf, or a blue one with Frankie Stein. The pails also had special "Monster High" handles and came with (you guessed it) sheets of stickers for decorating.

Many customers fondly remember 2016's "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" Boo Buckets, but McDonald's also hurt a lot of feelings that year by discontinuing its Halloween tradition. From 2017 to 2021, the chain didn't release any new buckets, but at least they went out on a high note. These adorable blue and orange pails decorated with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Linus celebrated the classic Halloween cartoon's 50th anniversary (and came with the now-requisite stickers).

By 2022, Boo Bucket fans may have long given up on the possibility of a return, so when McDonald's finally brought the Halloween item back after 6 years, customers were floored, to say the least. McBoo, McPunk'n, and McGoblin returned in their famous ghost, pumpkin, and witch designs, though their plastic lids were replaced with cardboard covers. Sticker sheets also came with each pail, giving the nostalgic Boo Buckets a modern touch.

After unleashing waves of nostalgia with its 2022 buckets, McDonald's went in a more novel direction in 2024. That year's line of four Boo Buckets in white, orange, green, and blue featured friendly, furry monster faces on the outside and handles shaped like the famous yellow "M." Notably, Ronald McDonald finally saw some competition that October, as Dunkin' took on McDonald's with its own Halloween buckets.

Set for release on October 21, 2025, this year's Boo Buckets are looking fresh, yet reasonably faithful to their older counterparts. White ghost, orange pumpkin, and green goblin designs bring some throwback charm, while brand-new red zombie and black cat faces round out the collection. Each character is available with three different expressions, so kids (and some adults) are about to eat a lot of McNuggets and fries in order to nab every last bucket.