So Halloween is dead last in terms of retail holidays?

[iHaunt]

Check this link out! http://www.thestreet.com/story/11150115 ... s-day.html

If not for Halloween ($6 billion), Father's Day would be dead last among retail holidays.

So why I have always heard otherwise? If this is true, who do we see seasonal stores open up for Halloween costumes, etc. - But, not for other holidays? Is this a recent development? Is this why the haunted attraction show at Transworld is growing while the wholesale side retracts...

Wow, just a lot of interesting information.

[Castle]

Makes sense, in a way. Compared to the amount of flowers bought furing Mother's Day or Valentine's Day, or maybe the amount of turkeys bought during Thanksgiving... it makes sense to me. Plus, the props people use for Halloween are often reused each year. Not many things get bought for Halloween other than costumes for the kiddos, and those don't cost much.

[Murfreesboro]

That's very surprising to me. I had always heard that Halloween (well, autumnal decor, including Halloween) was second only to Christmas. Of course, the autumnal decor might have included Thanksgiving, too. I know I have some items that I put up for Halloween and leave up for Thanksgiving. Maybe it's if you lump Halloween & Thanksgiving together that you come up with "second only to Christmas." After all, the stores stop selling the autumnal stuff after Oct. and go into full-on Christmas mode.

I do believe that some of those "minor" or "Hallmark holidays" have been gaining in commercial prominence. Valentine's is next to nothing at our house. I have never, ever been one of those women who pitched a fit if my husband didn't give me something on that day. Basically, at Valentine's, I buy strawberries and dip them in chocolate at home for the family. The kids enjoy that. My husband isn't overly fond of strawberries. But that's our Valentine's. Then, Mother's Day and Father's Day, we celebrate pretty much alike--probably a dinner out at a family restaurant, then a family movie. Maybe we saw Thor on Mother's Day weekend? We also saw Pirates, but I'm not sure it was out yet at Mother's Day. And today we are going to see Green Lantern. I mean, these days mean very, very little to any of us. We just use them as an excuse to go out as a family, maybe. We don't usually even bother with cards. But I have been aware that not only commercials on TV, but even the TV shows themselves, often schedule episodes around, say, Valentine's Day, which perhaps gives people the idea they should be doing something at that time.

Where was Easter on that list? Do people not buy for Easter at all, according to that article? we certainly spend more on Easter than on Valentine's, Mother's Day, or Father's Day.

What about the Fourth of July? Don't most people have some kind of party on or around the Fourth? We make way more of the Fourth than of Valentine's or the other two.

I enjoy Thanksgiving, but to me, it is mainly about the food. You can spend as much on that as you like, I suppose, but $25-$35 would actually buy anyone a perfectly acceptable Thanksgiving "feast." (That's if you cook it at home and make most of it from scratch, and just do the most traditional things, like turkey with cornbread dressing; cranberry sauce; sweet potatoes; green beans; pumpkin pie.)

[Shadows Symphony]

I can kind of see that.. With Valentines day you have everyone feeling obligated to by candy, flowers, cards, gifts, dinners, ect.... With Halloween if you choose to not participate it's not held against you. Halloween doesn't have the guilt that comes with a day like Valentines Day....

[Pumpkin_Man]

Not only is Halloween 2nd only to Christmas, but it's growing every year. More and more people are putting up decorations, and having parties. Also, community parties are getting more popular because more and more parents are afraid to let their kids ToT, so they have other activities to replace it.

I personaly spend about as much on Halloween as I do on Christmas. By the time I add up all the decorations and pumpkins, and comare to them to what I spend on a Christmas tree, parties and gifts, it actualy comes out to about the same. I do have a Tree Trimming Party, so if I counted that,.....well, actualy, it still would come out to the same, because I also have a Halloween party every October, which costs about the same as my Tree Trimming party.

And I enjoy Halloween more then I do Christmas.

Mike

[Nostalgiascape]

I think economy dictates what luxuries you can afford. And if people have to pick and choose which holidays they celebrate if they cannot afford what they used to I believe they choose religious holidays first. But when you see the economy swing up, if it does and people have spending power again, I think you will see Halloween sales skyrocket.

[Murfreesboro]

Well, yes, I do think the Halloween spending is affected by the economy more than, say, Christmas is. Not that a bad economy wouldn't affect Christmas, too! But I do think more people would cut back on Halloween in order to have a better Christmas.

However, I thought the Halloween spending was better than expected the last couple of years? I seem to recall that in 2008, when the economy was a huge factor in the Presidential election, people nevertheless spent a lot on Halloween. I think the newscasters reasoned that people wanted a chance to let go and escape from their everyday worries.

IDK. As I said above, I really question the statistics of that article. For one thing, it didn't even mention Easter or the Fourth of July, both of which are major holidays for many people. I'm supposed to believe that people spend more money on those Hallmark holidays than they do on Easter or the 4th? I'm not buying it.

[Pumpkin_Man]

It also depends on indivudual circumstances. When you're a little kid, nothing is more important then there being something under that Christmas Tree with your name on it. That being the case, people with little ones are probably going to sacrofice Halloween spending so they can have more for Christmas. In my case, I don't have any kids, and Christmas, while a very important Religious holiday and Holly Day of obligation, is not my personal favorite holiday at all. Far from it. I do observe certain traditions, and I do enjoy getting together at my brothers house on Christmas Day, and I do have a tree trimming party, but Halloween is very much my favorite holiday, and I tend to sacrofice Christmas money to be sure that I have enough pumpkins to carve and spooky lights to put up on Halloween.

The 4th of July is also another important day. In fact, in terms of spending, I probably spend more on 4th of July fireworks then I do for either Halloween or Christmas decorations. I still like Halloween best of all holidays, but I very much love the 4th of July and fireworks. I will easily spend 300 to 500 bucks on fireworks. The most I'll evr spend for Christmas or Halloween would be 200 bucks.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I've gotten so I don't try to do much with fireworks myself. Maybe some sparklers. I was debating whether or not I'd buy a Roman candle or two, which I haven't done in years. But I prefer to go to the big community displays. I love being out with other people to see the fireworks, anyway. It makes me feel as if our nation really is one big family when I do that.

Our Fourth of July celebration generally involves grilling the traditional stuff, maybe having watermelon or a berry parfait (red white & blue, of course) for dessert. I like to take the kids swimming, but I no longer have access to a private pool, and the public ones are over-run that day, so I often try to do that around the Fourth rather than on it.

We also have a few movies we like to watch on or around the Fourth. I like 1776, and my husband prefers A More Perfect Union, about the writing of the Constitution. Gettysburg also works well for that day.

[MacPhantom]

"We shoulda....... gone.....to the riiight.............."

"By God, George.... You sure do have a way of trivializin' the momentous, and complicatin' the obvious!"

"What, you mean chaaaage??!?!"

[Pumpkin_Man]

Roman Candles are the only fireworks I don't like. THey have a nasty habbit of shooting out the bottom as well as the top of the tube. I like just about everything else however, especialy firecrackers. To me, fireworks are as much a tradition on the 4th of July as jack o'lanterns are on Halloween, and a Christmas Tree on Christmas. I have to be darn careful, because as is so often the case, our state government has decided, in their "infanite wisdom," that us regular people are too stupid to determin what's best for us, and they decided to step in by making a law against most fire works. So fireworks in Illinois have to be enjoyed on the provervial Q T.

MacPantom, I don't get it. Who where you responding to, and what were you trying to say.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

I was assuming Mac was quoting movies or something like that, but I didn't get the references, either. Not hip enough, I guess!

Here in Murfreesboro, domestic fireworks are fine for the ten days around the Fourth (No longer certain if it's five days before & five after, or ten days before and ten after). I think most things are legal during that time--not cherry bombs, IIRC.

We had a great show here locally which I attended with my kids, then returned to see neighbors' displays, which were also very impressive. My older boy just moved into an apartment up in Nashville, and he saw Nashville's display at Riverfront Park. I believe that one is ranked among the top 5 nationally. He was wowed.

We didn't even have our sparklers last night, as it was quite late when we returned from the public show. But we may do them tonight out in the front yard. I didn't buy anything else.

Would you believe that when I was a child, my mother used to have me hold the Roman candles as they went off? I was about ten when she heard that wasn't safe, LOL. I can still remember just how they felt as they heated up and then went "whoomp."

[Pooder]

Now that I think about it, I'm not all that surprised. Halloween is for sure a favorite in our house. But thinking about the POS quality of decorations at most stores (unless you are willing to spend hundreds) I can see why most of us reuse decorations or just make our own.

[iHaunt]

Mike, you dislike Roman candles? I do like b/c it is fun to shoot up in the air with beautiful colors.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Let me put it this way, iHaunt. Roman Candles are the only fire works that I had a bad experience with. Typicaly they were held in the hand, and the flaming balls would shoot out of the top of the tube. Too often, the darn things would 'back fire,' though and there have been a couple of ocassins I ended up with a flaming ball on my thy. That did NOT tickle, if you know what I mean, so I was perfectly happy to do without the Roman Candles. Of course, we started putting them in PVC pipes driven into the ground to avoid that little 'annoyance,' but I prefer other fireworks to them.

As for Halloween dieing out, I think that going by what retailers are making is not a great way to gague it, because a lot of traditionalists will allways celebrate and love Halloween even if they can't afford the latest and greatest store-bought decorations.

Mike