Halloween: It Really is About the Candy

Let's face it. While there are all kinds of interesting stories (okay, maybe only a few) about Halloween and its icons, Halloween is really and truly a candy holiday. When I was a child, we rarely got candy, and we never ever got as much as we did going trick-or-treating at Halloween. It was my favorite holiday because it combined my two most favorite things; dressing up and getting candy. It was almost magical, the power a child has over adults (and strangers at that) at Halloween. You knock on the door, and when the person answers it, you say three words--3! words-- "trick-or-treat" and you got candy. If you were smart, you could really work this grif. And we were smart, employing double bagging and on occasion, double costumes, to get extra.
Our average haul was a third to a half of what was then known as a "grocery bag". You can see it in the photo here. The wine has nothing to do with Halloween or candy (except that maybe now wine is my candy); the bottle is there to show you the size of the bag. The candy in front of it is what is left of Bram's haul (nothing compared to what we used to get, but then, he gets candy all of the time). The candy in the dish is what is known as candy corn. Hmmmm candy corn. First of all, there is nothing in Europe as cloyingly sweet to compare it to. Perhaps if you tried to imagine a jam with much too much sugar, cooked too long and sweetened with honey, too, you could get an idea of it. Anyway, candy corn is a seasonal candy; you know what that is. It is like those little brambory shaped marzapan candies you can get in Brno only around Advent, for Mikulaš Day.

To get an idea of just how big a holiday Halloween is here, think about these statistics from the National Retail Federation (who knew there was such a thing?)
This year, 58% of consumers will celebrate Halloween. They are expected to spend an estimated 5.1 billion US dollars on candy, decorations and costumes. For each of these consumers that is an average of $64.82 ($27 on decorations, $19 on candy, and $23 on costumes). Another third of a billion dollars will go for greeting cards. 7.4 million Americans will also dress their pets in costumes. And here is the real shocker: Halloween is only the sixth largest spending holiday in the US! As Markéta would say, "It's enough."