Trader Joe’s 7 Best Holiday Products, According to Its Crew Members

If there’s any store that knows how to hook shoppers with their “here today, gone tomorrow item, will probably come back next year” products, it’s Trader Joe’s. The grocery chain’s loyal shoppers wait impatiently each year for certain foods to return each season. 

They keep a fork in their purse or car so they can dive into the Mini Lemon Sheet Cake as soon as they exit the store. When S’mores Ice Cream shows up in the summer, shoppers buy it in bulk. In the fall, the return of the Horseradish and Chives Potato Chips is a reason to make a TJ’s run, even if you don’t need anything else. And come the holidays, that’s when things get really interesting.

This year, Trader Joe’s released 475 seasonal items. Even for faithful TJ’s fans, that’s an overwhelming number of products—making it nearly impossible to try them all. So, how do we figure out which ones we should throw in our already overflowing shopping carts? Fortunately, store employees, known as Crew Members, weighed in on Trader Joe’s podcast and called out products they love, making it a bit easier for those who are overwhelmed with the choices. 

Tara Miller, Trader Joe’s “director of words and phrases and clauses” (as she says in the podcast), and Matt Sloan, TJ’s “culture and innovation guy,” hosted the annual holiday shopping list episode (aka “It’s the Most Wonderful Trader Joe’s Shopping List of the Year”) and shared the products they are most excited about this season. We know you’re super busy with all the holiday hustle and bustle, so we’ll sum it up for you. Get your shopping lists ready!

The Best Seasonal Holiday Finds at Trader Joe’s, 2024

Blue Cheese Stuffed Chalkidiki Olives

These olives are perfect for a Dirty Martini or for just popping in your mouth. The olives that are grown and packed in oil in Greece are stuffed with “tangy, creamy blue cheese,” according to Miller. 

“And I love the meatiness, this variety of olive, Chalkidiki,” says Sloan. “They’re larger, they’re still green, and they have amazing, almost crispness to their texture, and you bite through that olive onto the creamy cheese. This is really a fun thing to eat.”

Add these olives to a Snack-It-Up Appetizer Board to serve at a casual holiday gathering or while watching one of the many football games in December.

Elevated Cracker Assortment

For anything from a cheese plate to a cheeseball, the Elevated Cracker Assortment is the box for the job.

“They’re not like the same old, same old grocery store kind of crackers. These crackers taste like they’ve been handcrafted by master bakers,” says Miller. The crackers come from a U.K. company that’s been around for more than 100 years. 

The box includes one sleeve each of Plum and Date Toast, Buttermilk, and Lemon and Black Pepper crackers. In addition to being the home for a shmear of cheeseball or plain slice of cheddar, they’d also make a good base for a canapé.

Mini Mushroom Tartelettes

New this year, this appetizer is “umami in a bite” according to Sloan. Puff pastry is filled with white and shiitake mushrooms, garlic, shallots, Parmesan, and ricotta cheese. Sloan says they are every bit as good as mushroom bites he’s had at weddings.

They come in a box of 12 and can be cooked in the oven or air fryer. “If you’re having a big party, buy a few boxes,” says Miller. Sounds like they’ll be a hit.

Festive Chaos of Gummy Candy

Another new product this year is this 20-ounce bag of Festive Chaos gummies. It features the shapes of some common holiday gifts and conjures up the feeling of “opening presents and all the fun chaos that comes with it.” The bag contains candy sneakers, ornaments, stockings, and evergreen trees.

A photo of the assortment on Reddit shows the different flavored gummies, and not every one of them has an obvious shape, but that would be half the fun of serving these at a gathering. You can make a game of guessing what some of them are.

Jingly Jangly

If you’re a fan of Trader Joe’s Jingle Jangle snack mix or its warm-weather equivalent, Springle Jangle, then you’ll love Jingly Jangly. It’s a twist on Jingle Jangle featuring chocolate bark with bits of Joe-Joe Cookies and pretzels, peanut butter cups, and more. It’s packed in tiny bags instead of the typical big tin. Miller and Sloan see this as a good gift for kids to give to friends or something for adults to stick in their own stockings.

Holiday Vegetable Hash

In the refrigerator section, TJ’s shoppers can find Holiday Vegetable Hash with seasonal veggies like butternut squash, sweet potato, red onion, and celery, plus parsley, sage, and rosemary. 

“If you’re going to make a hash of something, you’re going to really chop it up, and this saves you so much time,” Sloan says. Miller agreed and mentioned that it’s a great meat-free replacement for traditional hash. Sautée it up until crispy and top it with an egg—scrambled or fried.

German Iced Gingerbread Soft Spiced Cookies

For your holiday cookie trays (or to keep as a treat for yourself), these “beautiful” cookies look like a “piece of tile,” according to Sloan. They have a stamped relief design like an old-world gingerbread treat.

Each box has two gingerbread cookies that are iced and have “great classic flavor.” Of course, they aren’t Trader Joe’s only gingerbread treat. The store is full of gingerbread this season, including the Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies fans call a “10 out of 10.”

Now, we simply have to squeeze in a trip to Trader Joe’s ASAP to try some of these highly recommended holiday products. And while we’re there, we might as well grab a few more of our own personal holiday faves, like the Mini Dark Chocolate Stars and the Sweet Cannoli Dip.