History of a Christmas Favorite: Hershey Kisses

As Christmas nears, one of your favorite candies offers you one of earliest and most enduring wishes for a wonderful holiday season. Hershey’s Kisses, 12 red and green and one silver, arranged in the shape of a tree, wish you a Merry Christmas as they ring to the tune of the popular Christmas song in a popular TV commercial.

Kisses in Christmas colors

The commercial first aired in 1989 and has never changed over the years. The brightly colored kisses are the chorus. To add a whimsical touch to the commercial When the song concludes, the red one on the far right in the third row does a little dance to show off and then wipes his “brow” with the ribbon that hangs from each kiss as if it were an arm. A message wishing you a happy holidays from Hershey’s flashes on the screen. Wordless, the 16-second airing has become a classic in TV holiday history.

While the content and graphics for the message have not changed since 1989, in 2018, a Chicago ad agency developed a site called playthekisses.com allows visitors to personalize the ad using bells such as handbells, cowbells, church bells, doorbells, Southern bells, and DJ horns.

See the commercial here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlBqA0pAlLw

History Of Hershey’s Kisses

Hershey’s Kisses are bite-size bits of chocolate in a distinctive flat bottom teardrop shape. They are wrapped in aluminum foil with a narrow strip of paper protruding from the top. When they were first brought to the market in 1907, they were wrapped by hand but by 1921, machine wrapping took over. Other technology ensured that misshapen kisses are discarded, while candies remain in upright position for wrapping. This is when the paper plume was added for a distinctive touch.

During World War II, machines used to make the kisses were diverted to make chocolate paste for the soldiers, but the brand was not hurt at all. The kisses are so popular that every day, 60 million come down the assembly line. Sales for kisses amounted to $205 million in 2016,

Special flavor kisses

 

Popular Kiss Variations 

Milk chocolate was the original type of kiss and still is the best seller, but the company continues to add and discontinue flavors frequently. Current flavors in the U,S .include:

 

  • Milk Chocolate
  • Milk Chocolate with almond
  • Caramel-filled
  • Special Dark mildly sweet chocolates (dark chocolate)
  • Cherry cordial
  • Mint Truffle
  • Milk Chocolate with macadamia nuts
  • Candy cane (peppermint flavored white chocolate with red nonpareils)
  • Hugs (white chocolate with strips of milk chocolate hugged with solid milk chocolate inside
  • Pumpkin spice
  • Coconut cream
  • Air Delight (aerated Milk Chocolate)
  • Birthday cake (candy with colored cookies and birthday cake flavor)
  • Kisses Deluxe (Hazelnut center)
  • Cookies and cream
  • Carrot Cake (cream cheese frosting center with carrot cake flavored white chocolate)

 

Kisses in colorful wraps

Aside from milk chocolate varieties, the company offers kisses in the usual silver plus many colored wrappings including black, white, red, green, blue, orange, pink, purple, and more and packages special collections for occasions such as weddings, gender revel parties, and holidays like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and Valentine’s Day.

When you are looking for Hershey’s kisses for Christmas or other occasions, Sweet Services offers you a great selection of colors and flavors.

 

 

 

 

 

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