🌎 A Record Halloween

Poll shows how Americans are “getting their spooky on” tonight

With a lot of last-minute costumes and cheap alcohol (probably). More than two-thirds of US adults say they are going to participate in some form of Halloween celebration this year, according to a new poll.

What are people planning?

The poll, conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research (see here), shows Americans are spending the haunted holiday in a variety of ways, albeit traditional ones:

• About one-third of adults say they’ll hand out candy and/or watch a scary movie, while a slightly smaller number (30%) plan to display decorations.

• 25% plan to carve a pumpkin, 23% will wear a costume, 20% say they are attending a Halloween party, and 19% will take their children trick-or-treating.

Halloween is a little less popular: While the most common activities haven’t changed throughout the last few years, the total number of participants has, as the share of US adults who celebrate the spookiest day of the year has dropped almost 10% since 2019.

Who will you see celebrating the most? 

Mainly Boo-mers (ha, get it) with kids. Parents of children under 18 are most likely to turn out, with over 80% planning to celebrate the holiday in some way, compared to around just 62% adults without young kids.

As for other age groups:

• Gen Z adults (between 18-29) are the most likely to attend Halloween parties, carve pumpkins, wear costumes, or watch scary movies than other age groups.

• Millennials (ages 30-44), however, are more likely than any other generation to dress up their kids, take them trick-or-treating, or decorate their homes.

However, every generation hates these ideas: Only 9% of Americans plan to dress up a pet in a costume—but those who do spend a lot of money on it (more on that later)—while only 5% plan to pass out healthy snacks instead of candy, likely due to higher costs (more on that in a second, too).

Consumers are expected to spend a record $13 billion this spooky season

As they say, Halloween decorations never go out of style. Americans are gearing up to spend an estimated $13.1 billion on the holiday this year, a new record and a 13% increase from 2024.

What’s bringing in the most cash?

The frightening amount eclipses the previous record of $12.2 billion spent in 2023, according to recent data from the National Retail Federation (see here). As is typical for Halloween, the most popular purchase continues to be candy:

• Almost $4 billion of the total will be going to trick-or-treaters looking to fill a pillowcase full of sweets.

• Costumes and decorations follow close behind in popularity (but will see slightly more spending) at $4.3 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively.

Even though nearly 80% of shoppers reported higher seasonal prices this year, the average person is expected to spend about $114.45 on Halloween festivities, up nearly $11 from last year’s average.

Where are people buying most of their stuff? Discount stores topped the list for Halloween shoppers this year, with 42% of respondents saying they planned to shop there for affordable decorations and costumes. About 10% less (31%) said they’d stock up on spooky goods from specialty stores like Spirit Halloween or through online orders.

Halloween will be a bit less chocolate-y this year

But where am I going to get my beautiful Butterfingers? While we all know this Halloween will be the most expensive on record, things get even worse when it comes to candy… especially chocolate.

Costly cocoa

According to data cited by CNN, candy prices are up around 10.8% compared to last year, which is nearly quadruple the rate of overall inflation.

The main driver behind it? Cocoa prices, which have hit record high prices again and again:

• Poor harvests in West Africa (where roughly 70% of the world’s cocoa is grown) over the past three years have pushed global prices up dramatically.

Because of the shortage, the price of chocolate-based Halloween candy is around $8.02 per pound, while non-chocolate candy runs closer to $5.77 per pound, forcing candy makers to adapt to cost pressures.

What does that mean for you? Those bags of fun-size chocolates will cost about $5 more on average than last year, according to Empower research.

So, what will you see in your trick-or-treat bag?

Well, a lot less chocolate. Thanks to rising cocoa prices, candy giants are shifting more toward non-chocolate offerings such as gummies, fruity sweets, and novelty treats, which cost less to produce.

If you’ve done your Halloween candy shopping already, you might have noticed the absence of all things chocolate:

• Only one of Mars’s four new Halloween bulk variety packs is all chocolate, with two focusing entirely on sweets.

• Ferrero unveiled a marshmallow-coated Butterfinger (utter disgrace), and Hershey introduced Ghost Toast Kit Kats dipped in a cinnamon-flavored coating.

It’s shrinkflation season: Not only are candy makers switching to sweets, they’re including less actual chocolate content in their products. The Atlantic reported Kit Kat’s new “Counts” bars are slimming down, with each bar weighing over an ounce less than the typical version.

In partnership with Money.com

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Police warn of dangerous look-alike candy before fright night

Double-check those pillowcases. Officials across the country are warning parents to carefully check their kids’ candy as counterfeit look-alikes containing drugs become harder to spot.

Watch your wrappers

Ahead of tonight’s festivities, officials are urging parents to check for packages that look nearly identical to popular children’s candies or snacks but are actually loaded with psychoactive ingredients.

• One recent case in Warren, Michigan, uncovered a bag of snacks that looked like Nerds, Trolli, and Cheetos, but when opened, were found to contain substances like THC and psilocybin mushrooms.

• The packaging was reportedly so convincing that even trained law enforcement personnel found it difficult to distinguish fake from genuine.

Although authorities say they have no confirmed evidence that any of these will be handed out to trick-or-treaters, the discovery has triggered a nationwide alert from law enforcement to parents and caregivers ahead of the holiday.

Some red flags to look for: Unusual packaging (misspellings, odd fonts, changed graphics), unfamiliar logos or icons, smells or discoloration inconsistent with the known brand, and any candy that is unwrapped or from an untrusted source.

Pet costumes will bring in almost $1 billion this Halloween

Because nothing screams scary more than dressing up your Dachshund like a hot dog. Our four-legged friends are sure to get in on the Halloween festivities tonight, since consumers will spend north of $860 million on pet costumes this year, per data from the National Retail Federation.

Purr-fect outfit

I know we said earlier that only 9% of US adults plan to dress up their pets in furr-ightning attire tonight, but that still adds up to a large number of people (and some big bucks):

• A recent PetSmart survey found that almost half of pet parents plan to buy costumes for their furrballs this Halloween.

• The expected $860 million haul from pet costumes is around 61% of what will be spent on human children’s costumes this year.

That’s a big leap for a category that only a few years ago flew under the radar.

What are some paw-pular choices?

Since animal costumes are usually meant to make you go “awwwe” and not “AAHHHH”, you likely won’t see a bunch of dogs and cats dressed up as decaying mummies or the headless horseman.

However, you will see these most-worn pet garments (ranked in order of popularity):

1. Pumpkin

2. Hot Dog

3. Bumblebee

4. Ghost/Superhero

Shortly out of the top five are dog (6th most popular) and cat (10th most popular), because people like to dress up their animals as other animals, I guess.

Another fun stat: Almost 20% of the pets’ getups will match their owners’ or family’s costumes, according to PetSmart, which also sells costumes meant for rabbits, guinea pigs, and lizards, in case you were wondering.

Don’t let these Halloween snippets frighten you

 > Immerse yourself in all things spooky with deNobelDotCom’s Halloween Haven, a compilation of websites, music, movies, livestreams, podcasts, and more that will certainly send a shiver down your spine.

 > According to Instacart’s Candy & Decor Trends report, candy orders surged by 100%, chocolate is still the most popular Halloween candy (despite price hikes), and Utah is out-candy-ing the rest of the country by about 50%.

 > The haunting history behind how black cats became the official mascot of Halloween… and why a Spanish town is banning black cat adoptions during the holiday.

 > If you’re a scary movie lover but feel like you’ve seen all the good ones, you're not alone. Find some niche jumpscares using Letterboxd’s top 50 horror movies with under 5,000 ratings.

 > The six best US spooky getaways according to USA Today… and the 10 most haunted states in America, ranked by scare level.

 > Need a last-minute costume idea? Spirit Halloween, one of the biggest retailers for the holiday, released a list of its most popular costumes for 2025.