We have entered what late stage capitalism calls “Spooky Season.” It’s that period between September and November 1st, which used to just be called “autumn,” but is now all about selling you as much candy and as many children’s Halloween costumes as Amazon can ship.
A generation ago, Halloween was a fun, day-long event. Perhaps kids would wear their Halloween costumes to school the day of trick-or-treating, but the whole affair lasted a mere 24 hours. Today, Holiday Creep (the process through which holidays become ever more involved and intense) has transformed Halloween into an eight-week affair that takes over our pantries, our closets, and our decor. As a mother and a human, I am exhausted by all of it!
So, who benefits from turning a fun, one-day holiday into a haunted marathon? Admittedly, I know some Halloween enthusiasts who are only too happy to participate in the extended festivities. And I love that for them! I love that these Halloween-happy people festoon their houses with skeletons on September 1st and watch horror movies until November. What I don’t love is how our consumer culture pressures me, someone who is not obsessed with Halloween, to do the same.
In this country, the so-called “fright economy” (which refers to all aspects of Halloween-related spending), is huge! Statistics Canada tells us Canadians now spent $1.8 billion dollars celebrating Halloween in 2024, In fact, Canadians are now outspending Americans on our per capita Spooky Season Spending. That’s a lot of costumes, candy, and pumpkins we’re buying!
To see these spending statistics in action, just visit your local Dollarama. As you survey the aisles, notice how many bloody hands you can buy to decorate your front porch and the cornucopia of Halloween candy from which to choose. By the time you’ve walked the length of a wall dedicated to Halloween accessories for pets, you’ll realize no one loves to consume Halloween products like a Canadian!
So, is all this Halloween-themed loot really necessary? The answer is no…and yes! Anecdotally, I can tell you my child has attended “extra” trick-or-treating nights organized by our community since she was a baby. In addition, my daughter has been asked to wear a Halloween costume to school, to soccer, to her co-curricular drama classes, and to a children’s party thrown by our downtown Toronto condo building.
For friends of ours in the suburbs, Halloween is even more demanding! They are summoned to parking lots the weekend before Halloween for “trunk or treat” events, where kids literally pick candy out of the trunk of someone’s car. Halloween has become so much bigger than one night, and Canadian consumers are spending to accommodate that extra celebration!
Last year, I had to purchase a second Halloween costume for my child, because I know from experience that a single Jack Skellington ensemble from a Spirit Halloween pop-up can’t withstand the wear and tear of half a dozen Halloween fetes. And of course, if your kids’ friends are decorating their homes with more spiderwebs than there are in the catacombs of Paris, it’s hard to resist the allure of buying your own holiday decor.
But who does this extra celebrating (and the extra spending) really benefit? Sure, the kids have fun fishing a Mars bar out of the trunk of a random person’s Toyota, but is this the sort of magic that makes long-lasting childhood memories? I have my doubts. But what I am positive about is this: the ultimate winner of Halloween holiday creep is consumer culture. We are spending more and more money each year on cheap costumes and plastic pumpkins that will surely end up in landfills, because many of these items are not built to last! Sure, all this consumption is in the name of throwing a fun Halloween, but it’s also obscene.
I am not sure how to put the proverbial lightning back in the bottle where Spooky Season is concerned; however, I believe in my bones that this day was more special when it was, well, a day. A single day when the world felt a little bit scary (in a fun way), and kids roamed the streets as little superheroes and fairytale characters for one night only.
Let’s reclaim the calendar and turn Halloween into the brief festival it was always meant to be. Say no to all the extras – they’ll just end up in your local landfill!
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