It Isn’t the Holidays in Upstate NY Until You Spot These at Wegman’s

You know when it's officially the holiday season. Holiday decorations are out in the stores, artificial Christmas Trees are on display for sale, and your community has put up streetlight decorations, to name a few things.

Maybe your confirmation of the holiday season is when your local store stocks the cooler with egg nog. That is one confirmation for me. And when the last carton of egg nog is gone, so is the holiday season.

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But you know what really means that the holidays are here for me? It's when I first lay eyes on a holiday cookie product that seems to play hide and seek with me. That cookie product is from Stauffers, a company based out of York, Pennsylvania.

Stauffers sells cookie and cracker products that you also find in many of our local supermarkets and stores, including animal crackers, snaps, and holiday cookies. But, they make one type of holiday cookie that I just can't resist.

It's Stauffers Stars, available in milk chocolate and my favorite - dark chocolate. I first discovered these amazing cookies several years ago, I think on the shelves of Boscovs. I've seen them at various Weis Markets as well, both Pennsylvania-based businesses.

 And this year, I discovered them at Wegmans. My mistake was not buying more than one box. When my wife went back to pick up another box just a couple of days later, they were gone. I was reminded of this happening in years past as well.

But, I had to check for myself, not only at Wegmans but other places such as Weis, Christmas Tree Shops (or is it CTS), Ocean State Job Lots, and Boscovs. I had no luck finding them anywhere. Sure I might be able to buy a box online for three times the price plus shipping, but as good as they are, they aren't worth that price.

Why is this cookie product so hard to find? Am I just looking for it in the wrong aisle? Do stores get a limited amount and sell out quickly? I've looked up and down aisles of stores searching for a box of these cookies to no avail.

Am I going mad for something as simple as a graham cracker covered in chocolate and sprinkles? At least I got to enjoy one box, which lasted just a few days. I have given up on my search locally for these cookies, that is unless someone alerts me of a place that has them for sale.