Area residents have a lot on their minds as we approach the end of October.

There’s the Thanksgiving holiday, which is only one month away, and then the Christmas season and all of the obligations and expectations that come with both.

Before we get there, however, we have to get past Halloween, and all of the candy and decorating that comes along with it.

Sweet treats are associated with holidays (which can loosely be expanded to include just about every day), but when it comes to when candy is the go-to purchase, Halloween tops the list.

That’s according to Instacart, which released its Halloween candy survey in September. Numbers compiled by the same-day grocery delivery service show that Halloween is the busiest day for candy purchases. In fact, October is one of the top months of the year, the survey shows.

It should come as no surprise that Valentine’s Day comes in a close second, based on the share of grocery orders on the Instacart platform that contained candy for specific days. Easter comes in third, but because it is not a fixed holiday, it can fall in several different spots on the candy calendar.

So, there’s little argument about the popularity of candy at this time of year. Where there’s plenty of room for discussion, though, is just what candy is most preferred.

There are many ways to come up with rankings, but just about every survey seems to come up with the same No. 1 — Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Instacart uses the total weight of the candy sold on its platform during October to compile its rankings, but Reese’s is the dominant top choice in just about every listing.

Peanut M&Ms come in second, with the original M&Ms coming in third. Kit Kat is fourth, Snickers fifth, Sour Patch Kids sixth, Hershey’s milk chocolate seventh, Milky Way eighth, Twix ninth and Haribo GoldBears 10th.

Breaking it down a little more, there’s little consensus in our Tri-State Area. Reese’s are the top in Ohio and West Virginia, with Hershey’s grabbing the top spot in Pennsylvania.

In case you are wondering, candy corn remains among the favorites — or the not-so-favorites — depending on where you live. Instacart’s method of calculating the popularity of candy corn includes the number of orders on the platform during October that include the orange, yellow and white treat. They add that since 2017, that number has ranged between 2 percent and 2.7 percent. Ohio comes in at 40.4 percent of the national average, West Virginia at 21.1 percent and Pennsylvania at 6.3 percent.

And all of those numbers bring us back to the annual survey of favorite candies among the members of the staff at the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times.

It should come as no surprise that the No. 1 candy in the United States — the Reese’s Cup — also is the top pick among our staff members. Community Editor Julie Stenger; Sports Editor Andrew Grimm; Lisa Vargo, Cindy Steinemen, Rhonie Kinney of our call center; Monica Yelder and Sierra Martin of the advertising department; and Joe Emery of the maintenance department all have that peanut butter and chocolate delicacy at the top. Operations Manager Robin Weltner and Advertising Director Heather Francis both chose Take Five, while staff writer Warren Scott named Whatchamacallit, City Editor Mike McElwain chose Zagnut, Kay Shannon of the call center chose Fast Break, staff writer Linda Harris chose the Hershey Bar and Brenda Swiger of the advertising department chose Fifth Avenue. Craig Howell, managing editor of The Weirton Daily Times, said his favorite was Almond Joy, and John Hale, publisher of the newspapers, said his was Kit Kat.

As for me, you can’t beat a white chocolate Resse’s Cup.

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If you have been driving around any neighborhood, you no doubt have seen a lot of houses decorated for Halloween. In addition to the traditional jack-o’-lanterns, hay bales and scarecrows, you’ve also seen all kinds of decorations, from inflatable ghosts to menacing 10-foot-tall skeletons to front yards all decked out to resemble a graveyard.

It’s also likely that you noticed your friends and neighbors getting into the Halloween spirit earlier than ever. Instacart’s numbers back that suspicion up — its numbers show that the uptick in ordering Halloween decorations in 2024 during the week of Aug. 24. That’s almost two weeks earlier than in 2022 and 2023, when orders didn’t start to pick up until Sept. 7.

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It’s all some things to think about as we work through Halloween this week and then turn our attention toward Thanksgiving and Christmas.

(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is executive editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times.)