The Decatur Herald, Illinois, October 22, 1929
(If you read enough old Halloween suggestions, you quickly realize that donuts used to be a mandatory part of Halloween.)
Donuts are way better than any candy, mandatory Halloween donuts needs to be revived.
The first time I encountered it was in a general holiday celebration book from…um…no later than 1927…where part of the festivities included having an actual cauldron/kettle outside over a fire, filled with grease, where the party guests could fry their own donuts. After that, I started noticing references to Halloween donuts in lots of pre-1960 holiday books…
Death By Catchphrase 