McDonald’s Boo Buckets: How to grab one before they’re gone in three days

McDonald’s Halloween bucketsAlso known as Boo buckets, are back for the spooky season. The Halloween-themed buckets are available at participating McDonald’s in the US until October 31 or while supplies last. Here’s what you need to know.

What are McDonald’s Halloween boo buckets?

Back in 1986, McDonald’s started offering its kids’ Happy Meal in cute little Halloween-themed buckets that could double as a treat bucket for kids — if they didn’t want the maximum amount of candy. Happy Meals usually come in cardboard boxes shaped like little houses, so the buckets were a great treat. The restaurant chain brought them back for Halloween 2022, and social media was buzzing for weeks ahead of the nostalgic release.

Read more: I give McDonald’s Boo Buckets a solid B+

How can I get a McDonald’s Halloween Boo Boo Bucket?

Order at the restaurant or through the McDonald’s app. You can choose from an appetizer of Chicken McNuggets (four or six pieces) or a hamburger or cheeseburger, and the meal comes with fries, apple slices (or extra fries instead) and a drink. Keep in mind that your restaurant will likely only have one color of bucket at a time, so to collect all three varieties (green, white, and orange), you may need to make several visits spaced a few days or weeks apart.

What do Halloween Boo 2022 buckets look like?

McDonald’s offers three different colors – White Ghost, Orange Pumpkin and Green Witch, also known as McBoo, McPunk’n and McGoblin. One notable difference from years past: they don’t actually have tops. There’s a raised decoration spanning one side of the handle to the other — a witch’s hat for McGoblin, a pumpkin top for McPunk’n, and a white pumpkin top for McBoo. But the bucket itself is only covered with a sheet of paper featuring Halloween stickers – there’s no full plastic lid.

How much are Halloween boo buckets?

Prices vary by restaurant, but at your local McDonald’s Happy Meals cost between $5 and $7. The bucket (and sticker sheet) replaces the toy that normally comes with the Happy Meal, so there’s no extra charge for it. McDonald’s new Happy Meals for adults come with toys – classic McDonald’s figures, plus a new creation, all with four eyes.

Will the Halloween Boo buckets sell out?

Be warned: Boo Buckets have received so much advance press that they are likely to sell out quickly. There are likely to be collectors aiming to get all three colors, which can mess up the restaurant’s inventory. Available until Halloween or while supplies last.

What did the original McDonald’s Halloween buckets look like?

All three original designs were orange and had the same names that McDonald’s reused in 2022: McPunk’n, McBoo and McGoblin. They all looked like lanterns, only with different faces. McPunk’n looks happy, McBoo looks slightly startled, and McGoblin looks… sleepy, but should probably look scary.

McDonald’s Halloween Ghost and Witch Buckets

A few years later, McDonald’s added the White Ghost and Green Witch designs. Everyone seemed pretty happy, even the supposed ghost witch. Here they are in a commercial from 1990. Back then the ghost bucket glowed in the dark, but as noted above, my 2022 ghost buckets did not. (Don’t think too much about how the Chicken McNuggets in the ad are busy making sauce, presumably to use for their own consumption.)

When did McDonald’s stop making Halloween buckets?

Nightmare Nostalgia has a wonderful chronology of history, if you really want to dig into the promotional past of a fast food chain. (I won’t knock you if you do, because I’m one of you.) Some of the bigger changes included switching to vinyl glow-in-the-dark trick-or-treat bags called McBoo Bags. In 1992, the buckets were redesigned to include cookie cutters that popped out of the top. This was supposed to be a highlight of McDonald’s Halloween bucket creativity. Hope someone gets a raise this year.

After that, the buckets continued to change and finally disappeared in 2016, coming out with the “It’s the Great Pumpkin” Charlie Brown design.

Unreleased Halloween buckets we’ll never see

According to the YouTuber User time capsule, there were six proposed Halloween buckets that were never released, including this purring black cat. Wow, we missed some pop culture goodness here. There’s also a lovely McMummy.