Hey you millions of witches and princesses and pirates out there, how much did you spend to get dressed up?

According to the National Retail Federation:

59.9 percent of consumers plan to buy a Halloween costume this year, up from 53.3 percent in 2005, with the average person spending $21.57 on that purchase. This year an estimated $4.96 billion will be spent on the holiday, making it the sixth largest spending holiday of the year.

I’m a fan of the holiday, but have always been shocked by the expense. In fact, it’s colored my decision of what to be over the years.

One year I tried to dress up as Jem, the Truly Outrageous cartoon rock star– the one who helped orphans and rocked out and was constantly battling the evil Misfits.

Anyway, I skimped on the pink wig, opting for a “bargain basement” $14.00 one instead and going with red fishnets from the .99 cent bin. And I was told by a friend that I looked like a 40-year-old “woman of the night,” which is the 12th most popular costume among adults, so this retail group says.

The cheap manufacturing of goods overseas and eBay has made it easier and in some cases more affordable to dress up than it did when my stay at home mom slaved away making kangaroo costumes and other elaborate creations, which thankfully, she saved for my kids to use.

Although whoever is out there making unicorn costumes, listen up: a unicorn is a horse with a horns. A pegasus is a horse with wings. I don’t know what the heck you call your horse with horns and wings that you’re selling. Pegacorn? Unisus? Pegacorn is kind of catchy– but it’s not a unicorn.

I digress.

When all is said and done, with the costumes and the candy, and some decorations, it can easily cost $100 bucks.

I’m starting to relate to the high school kids who come to the door with the football jersey and claim they’re a Viking. They must be saving their money for college.

How much do you spend on Halloween? What are you going to be?

I was undecided about my costume until I wrote this post and now I’m pretty sure it’s most appropriate for me to be a crab.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2006 at 1:18 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.