The Lineup
Planters, the Hormel Foods-owned nut brand, is rolling out seven limited-time SKUs for holiday 2026 — a mix of returning seasonal flavors and new additions designed to land in the snack aisle during peak gifting and entertaining weeks. The collection is on shelves now at select retailers nationwide.
The headliners are two returning items: Cinnamon Butter Pecans (5.5 oz.), kettle-roasted with cinnamon and butter, and Toasted Marshmallow Hot Chocolate Cashews (5.5 oz.), fire-roasted cashews seasoned with dessert-forward flavors. Both are available at Walmart, Kroger, Hy-Vee, CVS, Wakefern, WinCo, Giant, Albertsons, Raley's, and Demoulas, as well as on Amazon.
Three larger-format party mixes round out the core offering: Brittle Nut Medley (19.25 oz.), combining honey-roasted peanuts, peanut brittle, pretzels, yogurt-covered raisins, and cashews; Holiday Nut Crunch (21 oz.), a sweet-salty blend of roasted nuts, raisins, chocolate-covered peanuts, and candied pieces; and Winter Spiced Mix (18.75 oz.), a lightly salted combination of honey-roasted peanuts, almonds, sesame sticks, cashews, and pecans. All three are stocked at Walmart, Hy-Vee, and Brookshire's, plus Amazon.
Retailer Exclusives
Two almond SKUs carry exclusive retail placements. Cinnamon & Brown Sugar Almonds (15.25 oz.) — roasted in peanut oil and seasoned with cinnamon and brown sugar — are sold only at Walmart. Maple Brown Sugar Almonds (25 oz.) land in an expanded party size exclusively at Sam's Club, positioned as a high-volume holiday-gathering format.
Lanessa Aurand, brand manager for Planters, framed the collection around the role seasonal snacks play in holiday routines. "Once something shows up in the bowl around the holidays, it starts to feel like a tradition," she said, citing the cinnamon butter and hot chocolate flavor profiles as examples of how the line tries to extend familiar seasonal cues into the snack aisle.
C-Store Shelf Opportunity
For convenience operators, the winter nut category represents a reliable impulse-purchase window. Packaged nuts and snack mixes consistently rank among the top salty snack subcategories in the c-store channel, and limited-time seasonal SKUs give category managers a low-risk mechanism to drive incremental ring without committing permanent planogram space. The 5.5 oz. single-serve formats on the Planters flavored nut items align well with c-store portion sizing, while the larger party mixes (18–21 oz.) can anchor a secondary holiday display near the front end.
Hormel Foods, the Austin, Minnesota-based parent company behind the Planters brand, reported over $12 billion in annual revenue across its broader portfolio, which includes Skippy, Spam, Applegate, and Jennie-O. The company acquired Planters from Kraft Heinz in 2021. Seasonal limited-time offerings have become a consistent go-to-market lever for the brand, mirroring a broader foodservice and retail trend toward flavored and occasion-tied nut SKUs as a premiumization play in the salty snack set.
The full winter 2026 collection is available through the holiday season while supplies last.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
