Pumpkin, pecan, and apple pies pretty much sum up what people think of for holiday desserts across the States.
The story with pumpkin pie goes back to when colonists first got here. They noticed Native folks working with squash and started turning it into pies, which caught on big for Thanksgiving dinners. Fall’s when pumpkins are fresh, so it lined up nicely with harvest time.
Pecan pie didn’t hit the scene until the ’30s, thanks to Karo syrup tossing recipes on their packaging. Down South, with pecans growing wild practically, everyone started making it, and it stuck as a favorite there.
Apple pie sailed in with the Europeans, who kicked off orchards up in New England using seeds from home. Before long, apples were cheap and everywhere, giving rise to that old saying about it being as American as anything.
Families have been pulling these out for holidays forever now. Parts of the country leaned one way or another, and I thought maybe those habits would hold steady. Nope, not according to what’s showing up in search trends.
@mapstream used Google data on pie searches, covering the period from the start of November through New Year’s for both 2019 and 2024, to create the following maps
Down South in 2019, people searched for pecan pie more than the others in several states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
But by 2024, things had changed quite a bit. Pecan stayed the favorite only in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Georgia were digging into pumpkin more instead.
Up North in New England that same year, 2019, apple pie was getting the most looks from New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
By 2024, though, apple pie kept its spot just in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. New York, New Hampshire, and Connecticut had turned to pumpkin.
What’s causing all these shifts? Pecans have been costing more over time. With weather hitting the harvests hard, supplies dropped and prices went up. It’s common to pay 15 bucks or more for a bag now, so that probably has people thinking twice.
Pumpkin gets a lot of play on social media. Check Instagram or TikTok in November, and you’ll find all sorts of pumpkin pie ideas popping up, from bourbon-infused ones to versions mixed with cheesecake or done up vegan. Pecan and apple just don’t see that kind of variety shared around.
And yeah, folks tend to relocate a bunch more lately. Say you baked pecan pie every year growing up in Georgia, but then you pack up for Colorado—pretty soon you might be trying out the local favorites. It’s tough for those old ways to hang on when people keep heading off in different directions.
Thinking about whipping something up this holiday? A few that never let me down include the old Libby’s pumpkin pie setup from 1950, which is easy and spot-on flavor-wise. King Arthur’s got a pecan version with solid tricks to keep your crust from getting mushy. And for apple, Sally’s Baking Addiction has tips for getting that filling just right without the gap problem.
Bet in another five years these patterns flip again.
