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Drive through any neighborhood in the region and there’s no doubt you will see plenty of Halloween decorations.
A lot of those will have been in place for some time now.
It wasn’t all that long ago when it was rare to find a house whose owner went all-in on that day. Thanks to technology, it’s easier than ever to find 12-foot-tall skeletons that share ominous messages, bubbling witch’s cauldrons and frenetic light shows in orange and black that stretch around an entire house.
As it turns out, Americans are spending more on Halloween than ever. This year, in fact, a total of $13.5 billion will be spent on all things Halloween, according to the National Retail Federation. That number tops the $13.1 billion that was spent in 2025.
“Consumers continue to make Halloween a spending priority, but they also are approaching the season with affordability in mind,” explained Allison Zeller, the federation’s vice president of industry and consumer insights.
A look at the trends shows just what your instincts have been telling you: If you go back to 2015, you’ll find that a growing number of Americans think that Halloween should be a full part of the fall season -- and not just an event that happens on one night every year.
In 2015, for instance, total spending on Halloween was $6.9 billion. The way we are shopping also has changed --this year, the federation reports, 49 percent said they had planned to start their Halloween shopping in September or earlier. That’s he same number as in 2025, and is pretty consistent going back to 2021, when the number was 45 percent.
That has changed a lot in the past 11 years -- then, only 34 percent of Americans were shopping for the day in September or earlier.
The survey also tells us that 74 percent of Americans will celebrate Halloween this year, which is about where it has been since 2019, when 68 percent were looking to celebrate.
How we mark Halloween has remained fairly steady as well, with 61 percent of Americans saying they planned to hand out candy, 50 percent saying they planned to wear a costume and 42 percent saying they planned to decorate their home or yard, carve a pumpkin or watch scary movies.
Add everything up, and it comes to projected spending of $115.14 person.
What’s interesting is how that money will be spent. The survey says 86 percent of Americans will purchase candy -- the same as last year -- and 78 percent will purchase decorations -- the same as last year. The numbers also show us that 42 percent plan to buy Halloween-themed greeting cards, which is higher than in 2025 (38 percent) and 2024 (33 percent.)
It also should come as no surprise that spending on costumes for children will be around $1.5 billion. Adults will spend even more on costumes -- $2 billion. Pets also are now firmly in the costume game, and spending will be just under $1 billion.
Favorite costumes for kids are Spider-Man, any superhero, princess witch and ghost. For adults, the favorites are witch, vampire, Batman, Spider-Man and ghost. And, for pets, the top choices are pumpkin, hot dog, ghost and a tie among bat, bee and spider.
The federation started its survey in 2015. This year’s numbers were compiled by Prosper Insights and Analytics.
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Every neighborhood in every city has its own way of marking Halloween, but the best location to be, according to WalletHub, is New York City. That’s what the annual compilation of best cities for Halloween released by the Washington, D.C.-based personal finance company shows.
After all of the numbers from 20 metrics were crunched, New York came out on top by a wide margin over second-place Los Angeles. Jersey City, N.J.; Las Vegas; Chicago; Miami; Anaheim, Calif.; San Francisco and Newark, N.J., round out the list.
Our area didn’t fare too well this year. Pittsburgh stands at 32nd, ranking just 50th in trick-or-treat friendliness, 37th in Halloween fun and 12th in average Halloween weather.
Despite coming in at 64th in trick-or-treat friendliness, Cincinnati finished 18th overall. Boosting its numbers were an eighth-place finish in Halloween fun and fourth place finish in weather. Cleveland stands at 85th, coming in at 89th in trick-or-treat friendliness, 62nd in Halloween fun and tied for fourth in weather with Cincinnati.
When you look at some of the individual categories, the numbers show Pittsburgh at 97th in the number of potential trick-or-treaters. Laredo, Texas, holds the top spot in that category.
When it comes to the number of chocolate and candy stores per capita, Pittsburgh is fifth, coming in behind New York, Honolulu, Las Vegas and Chicago. Hialeah, Fla., comes in last on that list. And, when you break down the best weather category, Lubbock, Texas, is first and Phoenix is last.
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Of course, the centerpiece of Halloween is candy. There are many different surveys out there that try to determine what the most popular candy is, and there are plenty of disagreements on the overall rankings. Something that is indisputable, though, is that Americans are not shy about buying Halloween candy. We will, in fact, spend $4.1 billion on candy this year, which is nearly twice the $2.1 billion that was spent in 2015, the National Retail Federation said.
According to CandyStore.com, the top candies are M&Ms, Sour Patch Kids, Skittles, Reese’s Cups, Nerds Gummy Clusters, Hot Tamales, Starburst, candy corn, Hershey’s Mini Bars and Butterfinger.
Ohio’s favorite is Charms Blow Pops, West Virginia’s is Hershey’s Mini Bars and Pennsylvania’s is M&Ms.
Which brings us to our annual survey of the favorite candy of Herald-Star and Weirton Daily Times employees
The Reese’s Cup again tops our list, being named by Sports Editor Andrew Grimm, Lisa Vargo of our call center; Sierra Martin of our advertising department and Joe Emery of the maintenance department. Staff writer Craig Howell, Brenda Swiger of the advertising department and Rhonie Kinney of our call center all chose Almond Joy.
Operations Manager Robin Weltner chose Take Five, while Mike McElwain chose Zagnut, Kay Shannon of the call center chose Fast Break, staff writer Linda Harris chose the Hershey Bar, Cindy Steinemen of the call center picked Snickers with almonds, Monica Yelder of the advertising department chose Milky Way and Publisher John Hale picked the York Peppermint Pattie.
As for me, you can’t beat a white chocolate Resse’s Cup.
(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is senior writer of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times)