Meta: A review of Halloween, candy and costumes in America.

While Halloween may be for many a mere night of fun, where children and adults dress up in costume, attend parties or run rampant through the streets of suburbia shouting “trick or treat”, while never really having a plan for the eventuality that some parent may just choose the trick instead of handing over the treats. But the seemingly innocuous holiday is mired in controversy, due in part to its association with darkness and things that go bump in the night.

However, partially one of the most difficult things to stomach for many parents is the mountains of candy and the prerequisite sugar high that seems to be mandatory to supply their children with, to a great expense. Below we unpack some terrifying statistics about candy on October the 31st and its relationship with your bank balance.

Candy and Halloween
Apparently each year American’s are predicted to spend a minimum of $2.5 billion dollars on the sugary stuff; this includes both ordinary weekly spending and all of the holidays and special events, such as birthday parties. No wonder candy is a $35 billion retail industry, a further study found that people in the United States will spend a whole $217 million just on chocolate.

Imagine what we could be buying instead, oh but who can really give up chocolate, after all it’s made from a bean so it must be partially healthy right? For those wondering if all parents are being held hostage and pushed out the front door to hand out candy and other confectionary to ghoulish children, apparently the lowest level of adult participation in the US is 71%, so you really are not alone.

Yet there is a dark side to the festivities, according to reports dating from 1959, there have been 10 documented injuries in children on Halloween due to sharp, dangerous objects being hidden within their trick or treat collection – or as my father calls it “the stash.” Perhaps, it would be wise for you to join your child on their trick or treat escapade or at least help in the feasting, purely for safety purposes after all.

If you’re wondering what all of these numbers mean on a per head basis, apparently the average American will spend $77 on each member of their household for the night of terrors. Further controversies surrounding the night of horrors, is costumes, specifically celebrities or famous personalities who wear something that is rather distasteful.

However, while there are those who need to learn the time and place for humor, it seems that costumes will live on. According to the National Retail Foundation the number of Americans who will purchase a costume for Halloween is 67.4%. If you’re wondering if any parents were getting in on the action, the ration of adult to child costumes is 3:2.

With costumes for the adult bands towering over the children’s in terms of price as adults spend about $1.4 billion on their outfits, with a mere $1.1 billion on the children’s costumes. Evidently it takes a lot more work to become a sexy sailor than it does to become Batman or a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
If you’re looking for more holiday information or inspiration, don’t forget to check out SirHoliday for all your holiday needs.

image link 1:
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/08/10/18/13/pick-and-mix-171342_960_720.jpg
image link 2:
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/10/14/04/57/pumpkin-1739407_960_720.jpg