‘Tis the season: Mondelez shares holiday insights
With brands like Oreo and Ritz, the company celebrates with timely innovations year round.
Snacks, sweet baked treats, and other munchable foods are part of many holiday celebrations. Such products can offer convenient, flavorful ways to feed guests while they’re having a good time, and with seasonal innovations, producers can add to the fun and secure an invite to the parties.
Mondelēz International has a long list of brands that introduce limited-time cookies, crackers, and other snacks when holidays roll around. To learn more about the company’s holiday launches, as well as notable movie tie-ins and partnerships with celebrities, we connected with two company leaders:
- Koen Burghouts, category present for sweet
- Steven Saenen, category president for savory snacking
Jenni Spinner Chips Ahoy, Oreo, and Ritz are longtime brands that have had a lot of fun with LTOs over the years, especially recently. Could you please tell us about some of those notable limited-time flavors, movie and music tie-ins, seasonal treats, etc?
Koen Burghouts: Our brands don’t just show up in culture; they shape it. We do this by offering unique experiences to our consumers that allow us to drive culture and, in turn, grow the snacking category.
This year, Oreo successfully disrupted the market with celebrity collaborations with Post Malone and Selena Gomez, and popular mashups such as Oreo x Reese’s, while Chips Ahoy partnered with Stranger Things to appeal to Gen Z, blending fandom and culture.
Steven Saenen: Ritz is a beloved 90-year-old iconic cracker. That’s a great foundation to build on, but we also need to evolve the brand from a trusted classic cracker to a modern savory snack. Culturally-driven marketing and partnerships tied to bold innovation are key drivers in propelling Ritz to a leading brand in the broader Savory landscape. This year, we launched a Sunkissed Ritz Cracker in the summer, and our football-shaped LTO dropped on December 1 to enhance game day entertaining moments. Ritz is driving relevancy with key audiences by offering them new, exciting experiences through our partnership with Inter Miami CF, presence at Bad Bunny's Puerto Rico residency, and return to the Super Bowl for the second time in 2026.
JS: Then, let’s talk about holidays—could you please tell us about the seasonal offerings you’ve introduced over the years?
SS: Holidays are a meaningful time for Ritz, and we’ve built a strong seasonal lineup that brings comfort, warmth and a bit of indulgence to the table. Our Ritz Fudge Covered holiday crackers remain one of our most anticipated offerings each year, and our Ritz Holiday Shapes offer a playful, seasonally themed twist on our iconic cracker. These seasonal offerings tap into the comfort and nostalgia consumers look for during holiday gatherings.
KB: The holidays are a joyful moment for our cookie brands.
Our lineup includes several fan-favorite seasonal offerings, including our classic and indulgent Oreo White Fudge Covered Cookies and our new Limited Edition Oreo Festive Cookies, featuring five unique holiday-themed embossments with cutouts and dual-layered red and green colored original creme. Our Oreo Winter Joy Cookies also returned this year with six new winter designs, red colored creme, and refreshed festive packaging.
With Chips Ahoy, we leaned into cozy, nostalgic flavor profiles—like our new Cookie Butter Inspired Cookies—to match the season’s warm, comforting energy.
JS: Let’s talk Halloween—could you share a bit about this season’s offerings and how the 2025 spooky time fared for these and other Mondelez brands?
KB: Halloween continues to be one of the most playful and high-energy moments of the year for our cookie brands, and this year our seasonal lineup delivered strong consumer excitement and double-digit growth.
Our Limited-Edition Oreo Spooky Colored Creme Cookies featured the classic chocolate cookie with five Halloween-themed embossments and dual-layer green-and-orange creme—a first for the brand. We also returned with Oreo BOO! Cookies, a fan favorite with five playful Halloween designs and orange-colored cream. For something cozy and nostalgic, we introduced Oreo Apple Pie A La Mode, which pairs apple pie and vanilla-flavored creme with our golden cookies.
More broadly, we’re seeing a real shift in the category: packaged cookies are becoming a must-have for Halloween celebrations. Consumers are looking for nostalgic treats, shareable snacks for themed gatherings, and alternatives to candy, and we’re well-positioned to meet that demand.
That’s also why Chips Ahoy had such a strong season. Our limited-edition Chips Ahoy Stranger Things collaboration, launched earlier this year, became a natural fit for Halloween thanks to its chocolatey base, bold strawberry “Upside Down” center and glow-in-the-dark packaging.
JS: I believe I spotted some of your winter holiday goodies being rolled out before the Halloween treats were even off the shelves—could you please share a bit more about your Christmas goodies for 2025? Please share what you can about returning items, as well as anything new for this year.
KB: This season is filled with nostalgia, celebration, and small moments of joy, and that’s exactly where our brands play. Our goal is always to bring small joys to consumers.
This year, we’re introducing our new Limited Edition Oreo Festive Cookies, which feature the classic chocolate cookie embossed with five new holiday-themed designs and filled with a dual-layered red and green original creme. We’re also bringing back our Oreo Winter JOY Cookies, which return with six refreshed winter designs, red-colored creme, and updated packaging.
SS: Consumers are planning their holiday season earlier than ever, and our Ritz seasonal items have become a must-have for holiday hosting. We want to make sure we’re showing up right when those moments begin.
This year, we’re thrilled to bring back our beloved Ritz Fudge Covered Crackers, which have really grown into an iconic seasonal treat with demand growing year-over-year.
We’re also rolling out our Ritz Holiday Shapes Crackers, which turn the classic Ritz round cracker into festive shapes and include a fun holographic feature on pack to add more charm into the snacking experience. You can expect us to continue leaning into that mix of tradition and innovation across the Ritz portfolio: the holiday items returning to shelves reflect our commitment to offering something both nostalgic and new for every type of celebration.
Courtesy of Mondelez InternationalJS: One of the things I appreciate as a consumer is recipes for “semi-homemade” treats—items that use a finished product like an Oreo or Chips Ahoy cookie, or a Ritz cracker as a base to add little touches to make something fun. You’ve got recipes online to inspire folks. Please tell us about those, and how your brand team uses those creative site sections and other avenues to encourage/inspire consumers.
KB: Oreo and Chips Ahoy have been part of family traditions for generations, and we know that during key occasions—especially the holidays—our cookies often become the base of treats that families make year after year. Those recipes evolve into favorites that get passed down, re-created, or reinvented as families gather and celebrate. Our fans constantly surprise us with their semi-homemade creations. It’s become a never-ending conversation where new ideas from our brands are as valued as the new ideas from our fans.
That’s a big reason why we invest so heavily in inspiration on our site and social channels: we want to spark creativity and help consumers make memories with our brands, whether they’re building festive Oreo bark, mixing Chips Ahoy into celebratory desserts, or creating playful, cookie-based treats. Innovation works best when it enhances those joyful, nostalgic moments, and cookies naturally lend themselves to celebration.
SS: Ritz plays a similar role, especially around entertaining occasions. For so many families, Ritz Crackers have been on holiday tables, snack boards, and party trays for decades, and those semi-homemade recipes really allow people to make the brand part of their own traditions.
Through our digital channels, we share a wide variety of easy, semi-homemade ideas that help fans elevate Ritz into something personal, festive, and fun. Whether it’s layered appetizers, sweet and salty bites with chocolate or spreads, or snack boards for holiday hosting, our content is designed to make entertaining feel fun and approachable. We want fans to associate Ritz crackers with nostalgic, joyful moments that become part of family tradition.
JS: Valentine’s isn’t too far away—do you have any new or returning items for that romantic holiday you can share a sneak peek of?
KB: Nothing says Valentine’s Day more than chocolate. Our Oreo Double Chocolate Cakesters or Tiramisu Thins are a delicious and decadent treat for February 14. The Oreo brand is always exploring new flavors and product innovations, so stay tuned for more exciting news on how we continue to create delicious and innovative snacking experiences for our fans.
SS: Valentine’s Day is a fun time for seasonal snacking, and while we don’t have any new or returning Valentine’s-specific items planned for 2026, fans can still expect Ritz to be front and center in February with our Big Game ad spot.
Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!
