Spooky night draws youth

2.6 billion spent on festivities

The Halloween market is increasing. The average American consumer spends $75 per person up from $30 in 2005. The increase can be attributed to people ages 18 to 25. Over the past several years, there has been an increase in young adults celebrating or partaking in Halloween celebrations.
Many people think of Halloween as a holiday for children but statistics compiled by various companies and websites support the fact that young adults spend more money and participate in certain festivities even more so than children.
According to a creditdonkey.com survey, 1076 people over 18 were surveyed and 78.7 percent planned on partaking in Halloween celebrations. According to data compiled by the National Retail Federation, more than two-thirds of the American population will spend an estimated 7.4 billion dollars on Halloween and specifically, 2.6 billion dollars on costumes, with the majority of that money being spent on adult costumes.
Honors Director Jenifer Saito said “It’s the only holiday for children and adults – who doesn’t want to dress up?”
Some attribute these numbers to a melancholy reason; young adults are afraid to grow up. For some the celebration acts as a catalyst for nostalgia. Music major Marcela Zaragoza thinks young adults still celebrates the holiday because “We don’t want to think about growing older yet so we get once a year to dress up and act like kids again.”
Other people like Music major Lauren Dunn think college students still celebrate Halloween so they have an excuse for dressing provocatively, getting drunk and partying. This does correlate with the rising dollar amount spent on decorations, candy and other party supplies.
“I think they celebrate it because it’s the day we can dress up and not be ourselves, go to haunted houses or a party, show off how cute, scary or funny our costumes are,” said LMC student Shirlena Sanchez.
An estimated 1.21 billion dollars will be spent on adult’s Halloween costumes. 16 percent of those costumes will be pop culture references, likely an increase due to the rising coverage of scandals and adult interest in kid’s movies according to statistics compiled by USA Today.
Other than nostalgia, researchers aren’t really sure know why adults seem to be more invested in Halloween than children. “Many cultures have a fascination with death, “ Saito explained. “It’s inevitable and scary and people don’t like to talk about it.” She said talking about death in terms of demons and ghosts is a fun way to deal with it.