Easter remains a strong consumer spending moment, with 81% of U.S. consumers planning to celebrate and spen
Easter isn’t a discount holiday. There’s no doorbusters, no countdown clock, no one camping outside Target the night before. It’s baskets and candy and brunch. And yes, 81% of Americans are planning to spend this year, averaging $88 a person. The holiday shows up each year, and turns out Easter is harder to skip than people think.
What’s different in 2026 is how they’re showing up.
Chocolate is still the center of everything
More than half of consumers say chocolate is the most important Easter basket item. Not jelly beans. Not a plush bunny. Chocolate. And when asked to pick a side in a candy showdown, consumers split almost exactly down the middle between the chocolate bunny (33%) and Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs (33%).
That split tracks generationally. Gen Z goes for the chocolate bunny. Millennials go for the Reese’s. Gen Z is also significantly more likely to defend Marshmallow Peeps (13% vs 6% overall), which is either nostalgia or chaos, depending on who you ask.
The candy preference data sounds like trivia. It’s actually useful: younger consumers want the thing they recognize. Millennials want the thing that’s actually good.
Rising prices aren’t killing the chocolate tradition. They’re changing how people shop for it.
Nearly two-thirds of consumers say higher chocolate prices are changing their behavior this Easter. But the majority aren’t just spending less. 37% say they plan to seek out promotions or cash back offers. 26% say they’ll cut back on chocolate spend overall.
37% are hunting deals. 26% are spending less. That gap tells you everything.
Gen Z leads this most aggressively. Nearly half of Gen Z shoppers plan to hunt for deals or use cash back. The assumption that younger consumers are passive or impulse-driven doesn’t hold here. When prices go up, they get more resourceful.
Gen Z is doing something else with Easter, too.
The basket is still in the picture, but it’s not the whole picture anymore. Gen Z shoppers are more likely than any other group to buy toys, games, or crafts (42% vs 30% overall), more likely to want gift cards (27% vs 20%), and more likely to go out for a restaurant brunch (25% vs 20%).
Easter is becoming a social occasion for this group. A reason to gather, spend on experiences, and mark the moment in ways that don’t require a basket at all.
Millennials are holding the traditions together
Millennials are doing what Millennials do: keeping the whole thing running. They’re the most likely group to buy Easter baskets or fillers (54%), most invested in toys and at-home food, and most willing to absorb higher prices without flinching. 8% say they’ll actually spend more this year, the highest of any group.
That’s parents shopping for kids and households where the holiday carries real emotional weight. The tradition has a reason behind it.
Easter 2026 By The Numbers
- 81% of Americans plan to make Easter purchases
- $88 average spend per person
- 68% are buying candy and chocolate
- 50% are buying good for at-home celebrations
- 46% are building Easter baskets
- 63% say rising chocolate prices are changing how they shop
- 37% are actively seeking deals or cash back
- 48% of Gen Z shoppers are hunting for deals, the highest of any group
- 54% of Millennials are buying Easter baskets or fillers, the highest of any group
The numbers don’t suggest a consumer base pulling back from the holiday. They suggest a consumer base that knows what it wants and has figured out how to get there for less.
The chocolate bunny is still winning. Finding a deal on it has never been more worth the effort.
Methodology:
RetailMeNot Group Q2 Survey. N= 1,023. Fielded on March 24, 2026
The post Chocolate, Deals and Great Candy Showdown: What Easter 2026 Shopping Data Actually Tells Us appeared first on The Real Deal by RetailMeNot.
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