Many articles concerning the economy in the United States have asserted that Halloween is now the #2 holiday for consumer spending.  Baloney.  Hooey.  Complete fabrication.  The National Retail Federation (NRF) totally exposes the Halloween spending myth in their annual report on holiday spending.  In fact, All Hallows' Eve is near the bottom of the list behind Back-To-School, Mother's Day, Easter, and Super Bowl Sunday.  The only holiday that Halloween doesn't trail is St. Patrick's Day.

That doesn't mean that we don't love us some Halloween.  The NRF projects that Americans will spend $9.1 billion on decorations, candy, and costumes this year. That's an increase of 8.3 percent over last year’s previous record of $8.4 billion.

More fun facts about Halloween participants from the NRF:

  • 95% plan to buy candy for trick-or-treaters.
  • 72% intend to purchase decorations.
  • 69% plan to buy costumes.
  • 37% intend to purchase greeting cards.

And one more interesting factoid: For every $3 we spend on a costume for ourselves or our kids, $1 will be spent on an outfit for the cat or dog.  The costume of choice for Fluffy or Fido?  A pumpkin.  (My cats would just love that.)

The #1 consumer season is, of course, Christmas.  This year's sales are expected to approach $682 billion.  Halloween? $9 billion.  So, the next time you hear someone say that Halloween is the #2 holiday, you can disavow them of this notion.  Halloween's fun and all, but it ain't all that.

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