Changing weather and falling leaves have long heralded the coming of fall. And for many, it also marks the start of an extended holiday season. Christmas might only come once a year, but many U.S. consumers begin their celebrations in October, kicking off the festivities with Halloween, before transitioning into Thanksgiving, and then Christmas and other year-end celebrations.

But beyond its role in starting off the extended holiday season, Halloween has become a juggernaut all of its own. What started with simple outfits and local trick-or-treating has transmogrified, prompting massive and steep increases in the sales of decorations (including increasingly popular, massive, 12-foot skeletons), candy, and costumes. Statistics show that U.S. consumers aren’t just spending a bit more; they’re spending exponentially more. Domestic Halloween sales were predicted to reach $11.6 billion in 2024, more than three and a half times what people spent in 2005. Several reasons might be behind this phenomenon.

First, Halloween is easy to commercialize. It occurs on the same day each year, it consistently influences pop culture news and celebrity trends, and the purchase of costumes and candy is usually required to participate. Retailers have capitalized on this ready capacity and worked to incentivize Halloween spending, often well before the date. They stock shelves with spooky décor to help people get in the spirit, and accordingly, almost half of U.S. shoppers indicate that they plan to start their Halloween shopping more than a month before October 31. For example, Spirit Halloween opened the doors of its more than 1,500 temporary locations on August 1, and Home Depot made headlines when it began selling Halloween-themed products in April. Marketed as a “Halfway to Halloween” sale, the promotion represented a creative way to sell holiday items even earlier and justify a further expansion of what experts refer to as “holiday creep.”

Second, the influences of social media, through which influencers and celebrities share their remarkable, creative, and cute costumes, seeking to outdo themselves and one another each year, encourages regular consumers to follow suit, literally. In particular, Millennial and Gen Z consumers have deeply embraced Halloween, such that more than 60 percent of these generations report plans to dress up and celebrate, which in many cases involves dressing up their beloved pets as well.

Third, consumers today report heightened feelings of stress and widespread dissatisfaction. The escapism promised by a nostalgic, silly holiday—one that generally does not feature family-related emotional baggage or the risk of controversial conversations that threaten to derail other holiday dinners and celebrations—offers a compelling and reassuring form of consumption therapy. Even when the pandemic prompted a drop in sales for 2020, retailers still earned an estimated $8 billion on Halloween, and its subsequent rebound has been even more impressive. Unlike the temporary fun of dressing up for a day, the fundamental appeal of Halloween seems both recession-proof and secure.

Discussion Questions

1. How might retailers encourage increased consumer participation in Halloween? Are there any obviously untapped customer demographics?
2. Why are customers willing to spend so much on Halloween, even during economic downturns?

Sources: Aimee Oritz, “Halloween’s Mutation: From Humble Holiday to Retail Monstrosity,” The New York Times, October 19, 2024; Brennan Doherty, “Why Americans May Spend $12bn on Halloween in 2023,” BBC, October 16, 2023; Nicholas Molinari, “How American Businesses Deliver Halloween in Spooktacular Fashion,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce, October 29, 2024