Food Focus: December Recipe Trends

Ah, December, undoubtedly the biggest recipe traffic month of the year. The season of celebration brings out everyone’s inner host --even those who don’t usually cook-- and our recipe network is flooded with demand for everything from cocktails to cookies, making it prime time for CPG brands to advertise through recipes.

Who’s Shopping?

So, what exactly does our audience look like?

December marks the holiday homestretch, and now more than ever, shoppers splurge on premium ingredients. Home cooks like to impress their guests, from a proper roast for the in-laws to cookies for the kids.

Alcohol Consumption throughout the Holidays

During the season of celebrations, our network finds countless reasons for making a toast! Year over year, we see wine place as the most popular alcohol in our network.

However, that doesn’t mean there’s no room for other alcohols to play in the recipe reindeer games.

Vodka as the Liquor Victor

Vodka dominates the liquor charts within our network. And it appears there are few things our network loves more than a themed libation. Out of our top 10 recipes that call for vodka as an ingredient, 80% have some hint of holiday to them.

For any brand, targeting holiday keywords will go a long way in getting their product in front of shoppers ready to be inspired and build that list.

Holiday Baking All Month Long

While most associate December specifically with cookies, as we dig into our recipe data, it seems that cakes took the lead in 2020 by a landslide.

Let’s dive deeper into traffic patterns. 

While cakes hold the overall highest traffic in December alone, as we look at the entirety of baking season, cake traffic actually dwindles incrementally as we approach the premier holiday of the season. As we look at the tail end of the year, we witness a steady interest in cookies until December 1st, where purchase interest dramatically spikes and holds steady all the way through Christmas Day. And finally, pies follow our usual spike-on-Sunday traffic pattern.

Here’s a look into the top recipes by dessert type. It’s worth noting that 70% of the top pie recipes are actually savory -- something for CPG brands to consider when establishing targeting strategies, especially for ingredients that work for both sweet and savory.

Consider how your brand can fit into these categories. Savory pies present excellent targeting opportunities for everything from plant-based meat alternatives and nut-based cheeses to frozen vegetables and fresh produce.

Fundamental Festivity Ingredients 

Finally, as we sift through behavioral trends, we see noticeable traffic toward classic but versatile holiday must-haves, such as apple sauce, vanilla extract, cinnamon and, in seasonal fashion, eggnog! 

We look to year-over-year ingredient traffic to understand how these leading ingredients continue to make shoppers’ lists as holidays taper off, but shoppers are still seeking comforting flavors during this key seasonal timeframe.

These holiday staples maintain year-over-year growth, even after their party-time peaks. The learned behaviors of creative cooking and Macgyver-ing recipes as needed are likely to stick around. Brands that can position their products as being versatile are more likely to win the basket this holiday season, especially as shoppers start thinking about New Year’s resolutions.