McDonald's Holiday Menu 2026: New Drinks and Release Date

By Kimi · October 28, 2026 · 7 min read

Key takeaways

McDonald’s USA’s 2026 holiday lineup is five new drinks in three entries: Frosted Cranberry Splash with Sprite, the Red Bull Frosted Cranberry Energizer, and a Cookie Butter Frappé, Latte and Iced Coffee. The Red Bull drink comes with classic Red Bull or Red Bull Zero.
The drinks go on sale Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, at participating restaurants nationwide, for a limited time. The release gives no end date and no start time.
The same Oct. 27 release offers a Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal, with medium fries and a drink, for $8 from Monday, Nov. 2, at participating restaurants. ⚠️ The release’s fine print says prices and participation may vary and the offer isn’t valid for delivery.
⚠️ The Oct. 27 release gives no prices, calories, sizes or caffeine figures for the five drinks, and McDonald’s own pages could not be checked.
The McRib has been back since Oct. 27, but only at select locations in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Dallas. McDonald’s suggests checking its app.
⚠️ As of 17:52 UTC (1:52 p.m. EDT) on Oct. 28, McDonald’s had not announced the Holiday Pie, a 2026 holiday meal or a peppermint drink, and McDonald’s UK and Canada had not announced 2026 festive menus.

McDonald’s 2026 holiday menu in the US is five new limited-time drinks, on sale from Tuesday, Nov. 3, at participating restaurants nationwide. They are the Frosted Cranberry Splash with Sprite, the Red Bull Frosted Cranberry Energizer, and a Cookie Butter Frappé, Latte and Iced Coffee. McDonald’s USA announced them in a press release on Tuesday, Oct. 27; the same release offers an $8 Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal at participating restaurants from Monday, Nov. 2. This is the US lineup only: McDonald’s UK and McDonald’s Canada had not announced 2026 festive menus when we checked. McDonald’s hadn’t announced the Holiday Pie either, and the release gives no drink prices. We checked everything here between 17:40 and 17:52 UTC (1:40 to 1:52 p.m. EDT) on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026.

Five new drinks: the Frosted Cranberry Splash with Sprite, the Red Bull Frosted Cranberry Energizer, and a Cookie Butter Frappé, Latte and Iced Coffee, which the Oct. 27 McDonald’s USA press release lists as three entries. As of 17:52 UTC on Oct. 28, they are the only new holiday items McDonald’s USA has announced; the McRib is a separate, regional return (more on that below).

Here they are, described in our own words from the release:

Frosted Cranberry Splash with Sprite: Sprite flavored with orange and cranberry, topped with cold foam and cranberry sprinkles.
Red Bull Frosted Cranberry Energizer: Red Bull with the Frosted Cranberry flavor, cold foam and sprinkles, made with your choice of classic Red Bull or Red Bull Zero.
Cookie Butter Frappé, Latte and Iced Coffee: three coffee drinks with a cookie butter flavor, finished with a sweet vanilla whipped topping and caramel cookie crumbs.

Allrecipes and The Independent both say the cookie butter drinks join the McCafé coffee menu. Allrecipes describes the two cranberry drinks as following McDonald’s Sprite Berry Blast and Red Bull Dragonberry Energizer.

Some headlines, including USA Today’s, say three new drinks; they are counting the release’s three entries. The same release offers an $8 Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal, but that is a November value deal rather than a holiday item.

When do the McDonald’s holiday drinks come out?

Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, at participating McDonald’s restaurants nationwide, for a limited time. Participating is McDonald’s own word, so don’t assume every restaurant will carry them; the release includes no list. It gives no start time, and restaurants keep their own hours. It gives no end date either.

The table below shows each start date McDonald’s has given so far, what starts that day, and where McDonald’s says it’s available.

Starts	Item	Where
Tue., Oct. 27	McRib	Select locations
Mon., Nov. 2	$8 Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal	Participating restaurants
Tue., Nov. 3	Five holiday drinks	Participating restaurants nationwide

Once the drinks launch, the quickest check is your restaurant’s menu in the McDonald’s app. Our McDonald’s ordering guide covers ordering ahead in the app.

How much do the McDonald’s holiday drinks cost?

McDonald’s didn’t put a price on any of the five drinks in its Oct. 27 release. The only price in the release is the $8 meal, and the release’s fine print says prices and participation may vary. The drink prices we’ve seen online name no restaurant and aren’t in the release, so we don’t repeat them. We also couldn’t read McDonald’s own menu pages when we checked. Your restaurant’s price should show on its menu board and in the McDonald’s app once the drinks launch.

How much caffeine is in the Red Bull Frosted Cranberry Energizer?

The Oct. 27 release gives no caffeine figure for it, and we couldn’t read McDonald’s own product pages when we checked. The release gives no caffeine, calorie or size information for any of the new drinks, and we haven’t estimated any. It says only that the Energizer comes with classic Red Bull or Red Bull Zero.

What is the $8 Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal deal?

From Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, participating McDonald’s restaurants will offer a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, medium fries and a drink for $8, for a limited time. The burger is a quarter-pound fresh beef patty (4 oz before cooking) with slivered onions, pickles and two slices of American cheese on a sesame seed bun. The release’s fine print says prices and participation may vary and the offer isn’t valid for delivery.

That fine print is the release’s closing footnote: “Prices and participation may vary. Limited time only. Not valid for delivery.” The same footnote gives the Quarter Pounder’s weight before cooking, so it covers at least the meal. It doesn’t say whether the delivery exclusion also applies to the drinks, and we don’t guess. Nothing in the release describes the deal as app-only.

Do the holiday drinks replace McDonald’s fall drinks?

Yes, according to Allrecipes and The Independent: the cookie butter coffees take over from the fall Caramel Apple Pie McCafé lineup, though McDonald’s release doesn’t say what leaves the menu. Allrecipes says the coffees replace the Caramel Apple Pie McCafé lineup, and The Independent says the new festive drinks replace that range.

Neither outlet mentions this fall’s Pumpkin & Crème Pie, which is a dessert rather than a drink. Our Pumpkin & Crème Pie guide covers what McDonald’s published about it.

Is the McRib back in 2026?

Yes, but only at select locations: McDonald’s brought it back on Tuesday, Oct. 27, in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Dallas. It isn’t part of the holiday drinks release. McDonald’s confirmed the return to USA Today, according to Business Insider, and to TODAY, according to WLS radio in Chicago.

That city list says “including”, so it isn’t complete. McDonald’s suggests checking its app to see whether a restaurant near you has the McRib. It’s on the menu for a limited time, and no end date has been reported.

Is the McDonald’s Holiday Pie back in 2026?

McDonald’s had not announced the Holiday Pie for 2026 as of 17:52 UTC (1:52 p.m. EDT) on Wednesday, Oct. 28. It isn’t in the Oct. 27 release, and news searches at that time turned up no McDonald’s statement about it. The pie is a custard filling in a sugar-glazed crust topped with rainbow sprinkles, as TODAY described it in 2024.

For history only, not as a guide to this year: in 2024, McDonald’s told TODAY the pie would return on Nov. 15 at participating restaurants in select local markets. In 2025, Taste of Country reported it would return on Nov. 14, and Brand Eating, in a Nov. 15 post, reported it back at participating restaurants nationwide.

Is there a Grinch Meal or another holiday meal this year?

No 2026 holiday meal had been announced as of 17:52 UTC on Oct. 28, and neither had a peppermint drink. Last year’s Grinch Meal is history, not a forecast: USA Today reported it on Nov. 20, 2025, ahead of a launch on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025.

Separately, Delish and Mashable, citing a PokéBeach leak, report a Pokémon Happy Meal card promotion in the US from Nov. 10 to Dec. 14, which McDonald’s had not announced as of that time; our Pokémon 30th anniversary guide covers the wider anniversary.

Not so far: this lineup is for US restaurants, and McDonald’s UK and McDonald’s Canada had not announced 2026 festive menus as of 17:52 UTC on Oct. 28. British coverage of these drinks, such as The Independent’s, is reporting the US launch.

Sources

How we verified this

The drinks, both start dates and the $8 meal rest on McDonald’s USA’s press release of Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, read in two republished copies. McDonald’s corporate site, including its Menu Spotter page, and mcdonalds.com returned HTTP 403 to every tool we used, most recently at 17:48 UTC on Oct. 28, so we could not read the release on McDonald’s own pages. Indiana Daily Student published the full text at 11:45 a.m. EDT on Oct. 27, labeled as a press release for McDonald’s USA. Beaver County Radio ran the same three drink descriptions, attributed to a McDonald’s release, and they match the Indiana Daily Student text word for word. The Detroit Free Press reports the same dates and the same meal, citing McDonald’s Oct. 27 news release.

The count is five drinks in three entries. The release lists the cookie butter drinks as one entry covering a Frappé, a Latte and an Iced Coffee. Headlines that say three drinks, including USA Today’s, are counting entries. The product names and the availability wording, participating restaurants nationwide, are the release’s own.

No drink prices, calories, sizes or caffeine figures appear because the release gives none. McDonald’s own product pages returned HTTP 403, so they could not be checked. The only price in the release is the $8 meal. Drink prices that circulated online after the announcement name no restaurant and are not in the release, so none is used. One early preview added a caffeine figure for the Energizer that is not in the release and that it did not source; it is not used, and we did not estimate one.

The fine print is described as what it is: the release’s closing footnote. It gives the Quarter Pounder’s weight before cooking, so it covers at least the meal. The release does not say whether its delivery exclusion also applies to the drinks, and the article does not say either way. Nothing in the release describes the meal deal as app-only.

The McRib section rests on McDonald’s statements to other outlets, not on the release. Business Insider reports what the company told USA Today: select locations from Oct. 27, in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Dallas, for a limited time, with customers elsewhere encouraged to check the app. WLS 890 AM in Chicago reports that McDonald’s confirmed the return to TODAY and lists the same six cities. The list says “including”, so it is not complete, and neither report gives an end date.

“Not announced” is a negative finding, pinned to a time. The Holiday Pie, a 2026 holiday meal and a peppermint drink are absent from the Oct. 27 release, and Google News searches (US, Britain and Canada) and Bing News searches between 17:43 and 17:52 UTC (1:43 to 1:52 p.m. EDT) on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026 found no McDonald’s statement on any of them. McDonald’s Menu Spotter, the most authoritative place to confirm this, could not be read. The same searches found no 2026 festive menu from McDonald’s UK or McDonald’s Canada; British coverage of the drinks describes the US launch.

Past dates are history, not a forecast. The 2024 Holiday Pie date is what McDonald’s told TODAY (published Nov. 12, 2024). The 2025 date comes from Taste of Country (Nov. 11, 2025); Brand Eating (Nov. 15, 2025) confirms the return but gives no date. The 2025 Grinch Meal dates come from USA Today (Nov. 20, 2025).

Two points are attributed because they come from outlets, not from McDonald’s. Allrecipes (Oct. 27) says the cookie butter coffees replace the fall Caramel Apple Pie McCafé lineup, and The Independent (Oct. 28) says the new drinks replace that range; the release says nothing about what leaves the menu. The Pokémon Happy Meal dates are a leak: Delish (Oct. 27) and Mashable (Oct. 28), citing PokéBeach, give Nov. 10 to Dec. 14 for the US, and Delish says McDonald’s has not announced the promotion. At 17:52 UTC the latest coverage still credited PokéBeach rather than McDonald’s.

There is no taste verdict. Early taste tests had been published by fewer than five independent outlets, counted by parent company, so the drinks are described from the release and not rated.

Checked between 17:40 and 17:52 UTC (1:40 to 1:52 p.m. EDT) on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. The article contains no betting odds and no price forecasts.