Halloween continues to be the fastest growing holiday on the calendar. For many years Halloween meant a healthy boost in sales for candy and costumes wholesalers but lagged far behind other holidays in consumer spending. Things have changed in recent years and now Americans spend as much on the spookiest day of the year as they do on Valentines. Both, of course fall far behind the biggest retail holiday of all, Christmas.

Halloween 2006 is looking like it will extend the trend of years seeing higher than ever expenditures. The average American will shell out close to $60 to celebrate Halloween. Consumers spend the most on costumes, averaging about $22, followed by decorations, candy, and greeting cards. This comes to a grand total indeed of $4.96 billion. Last year we spent a mere $3.29 billion, just lazy I guess.

Though costumes are the most costly individual items, the main growth this year is said to be in decorations. A survey for the National Retail Federation on Halloween retail sales said consumers will spend 27% more than last year. The NRF survey, curiously named the Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, estimates nearly two-thirds of consumers will celebrate Halloween this year, up from 52.5 percent in 2005.

The fastest growth in celebrating is among young adults aged 18 to 24, with fully 85% of them taking part in festivities, up from 66.8 percent last year. This age group is a highly desirable retail demographic, they have plenty of disposable income and have been known to celebrate things. It’s not just the kids either. More than 70 percent of adults aged 25 to 44 will also be taking part in Halloween festivities of one sort or another.

As I was looking into this I came across a list of the top five costume themes for adult men and women. I can in no way be sure of the scientific basis of these lists but found them amusing in any case. It would be interesting to hear from costume wholesalers and retailers with their opinion of the most popular costume themes.

Men
1. PIRATE
2. SUPERHERO
3. VAMPIRE
4. STAR WARS
5. FUNNY (clowns and the like presumably)

Women
1. PIRATE AND WENCH
2. WITCHES
3. SUPERHEROIN
4. SEXY COSTUMES (Whatever that means precisely)
5. NURSE