Happy Meal
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Happy Meals consist of three parts:
- a small order of fries or Apple Dippers. Some locations also offer Ice Cream Sundaes or Ice Cream Cones.
- a small soft drink of your choice or regular or chocolate milk.
- a hamburger, cheeseburger, or four-piece order of Chicken McNuggets. Some locations also offer fishsticks or chicken wings.
In some locations the choices have been expanded to included a grilled cheese sandwich as one of the options.
In the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries, McDonald's has recently introduced a "healthy option" to the Happy Meal - children can now choose to have a fruit juice drink instead of soda, and bags of dried fruit (or a whole piece of fruit such as an apple) in place of fries.
To make the term internationally recognizable, McDonalds now uses the term "Happy Meal" in all countries; before that it was different in some countries. For example, in Canada, the analogous promotion was called the "Treat of the Week."
Happy Meal toys have become increasingly elaborate in recent years. While initially they were little more than a cheap plastic trinket such as a frisbee or ball, they have since evolved into much more sophisticated toys, many of which are a tie-in to some existing toy line or contemporary motion picture. Past examples of recent Happy Meal toys have included Ty Beanie Babies, Mattel Barbie and Hotwheels, and toys based on many Disney cartoons.
Initially buying the toy separately from the meal was discouraged, although this is now a fairly common and accepted practice, with "toy" now appearing on the menu.
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Menu additions, 2004
- Australia: Toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches and sultanas (raisins)
- Brazil: McFruit drinks and yogurt
- Canada: Grilled cheese sandwiches
- France: Yogurt smoothies and flavored water
- Italy: Fruit cups
- Japan: Fish McDippers
- Mexico: Milk and orange juice in
- Romania: Dannon yogurt, apples, Nesquik cereal bars, and mini apricot pies
- Spain: Kid-sized bottled mineral water and Dannon low-fat yogurt
- United Kingdom: Organic milk
- United States: One-percent milk or chocolate milk and Apple Dippers
- A variety of fruit, chicken, and yogurt products in markets around the world
International differences
The name of the meal differs internationally. In Japan, it was called Okosama Lunch from 1987 to 1988, then Okosama Set from 1988 to 1995 (Okosama is a polite word for "child"). It has been Happy Set ever since.
Toys differ. In Japan, unique toys were offered from 1987 to 1996.
Toys
- 1980's — An American Tale Christmas ornaments
- June 1994 — The Flintstones (movie)
- October 3rd, 1997 on — The Jungle Book, each toy acted as a dispenser for provided Nerds candy
- November 28th - December 25, 1997 on — The Little Mermaid, some of the toys were painted solid gold
- December 26th on — Disney's 101 Dalmatians: The Series, eight cars with two characters each
- As of December 3, 1998 — Disney's Mulan
- As of December 20, 1998 — Clip-on toys of Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh
- As of April 27, 1999 — Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog
- May 21, 1999 on — Ty Teenie Beanie Babies
- October 15, 1999 on — McDonald's Halloween Pails
- October 29, 1999 on — LEGO toy models
- March 3, 2000 on — Disney's An Extremely Goofy Movie
- until June 18, 2000 — Disney's Dinosaur
- June 19, 2000 on — Teenie Beanies Babies, sixteen types, plus two TOP SECRET 2000 Teenie Beanies
- September 15 to October 12, 2000 — Mattel's Barbie and Hot Wheels 16 Barbie and 16 Hot Wheels
- December 19, 2003 - January 8, 2004 — Disney Princess and Power Rangers
- January 16 - February 5, 2004 — Disney's Lilo & Stitch
- March 5 - April 1, 2004 — LEGO Sports & CLIKITS
- May 28th - June 24th, 2004 — Neopets, 15 characters in 7 different colour schemes each, with trading cards; 109 in all
- June 25th - July 22nd, 2004 — Tony Hawk and My Scene Barbie
- July 23 - August 19, 2004 — TY Teenie Beanie Babies, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Happy Meal; twelve unique bears
- September 17 - October 14, 2004 — Hello Kitty and G.I. Joe
- October 15 - November 4, 2004 — Disney's Aladdin and Madame Alexander
- November 5 - December 2, 2004 — The Incredibles
- March - April 14 — Pixar, included Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Finding Nemo
- April 15 - May 12, 2005 — The Dog Artlist Collection and The Cat Artlist Collection
- Alvin and the Chipmunks
- Peanuts
- Back to the Future - 1993
- Animaniacs - March or April? 1994
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
- Spider-Man
- Nak Nak
Other uses of "Happy Meal"
The term Happy Meal is also a name given to an ethernet adapter used in Sun Microsystems machines. The interface name is shown as hme when one views the interfaces via the ifconfig command. See also Big Mac
Lyrics from "Weird Al" Yankovic's 2003 song "Genius In France":
- Folks in my hometown think I'm a fool
- Got too much chlorine in my gene pool
- A few peas short of a casserole
- A few buttons missing on my remote control
- A few fries short of a Happy Meal
- I couldn't pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel