AT the time of writing this article my kids are sitting around the kitchen table with two friends sharing out an obscene amount of Halloween candy donated by my increasingly generous neighbours.
Despite a struggling economy it appears that the returns on ‘trick-or-treating’ are up this year relative to last. I should probably be honest with the reader at this point and admit that I hate Halloween and all the junk, dark nights and spooky stuff associated with it.
But let’s face it, the kids love it and so too must retailers.
This holiday just keeps getting bigger every year. When I was a child we were content with some home-made apple pie with ten pence wrapped in tin foil hidden hazardously inside – but those days are long gone.
On Saturday I was driving past Elliott’s (the fancy dress shop in Belfast) and the queue was enormous.
Please note reader that the queue contained no children, just adults - it seems most adults love Halloween every bit as much the kids. Halloween parties, fireworks, costumes, candy, decorations and even street festivals are now the norm across Northern Ireland.
Of course, we have to thank the United States for this explosion in Halloween-related expenditure.
Indeed, the National Retail Federation (NRF) in the US have estimated that 170 million Americans will celebrate Halloween this year and 70 per cent of the 9,393 people surveyed said that the economic environment will not affect their Halloween plans.
The NRD have also forecast that the total expenditure on Halloween celebrations will amount to a staggering $8 billion in the US, with $2 billion spent on candy alone. It has also been forecast that 74 per cent of people surveyed by the NRD will hand out candy this year - although my children tell me that in County Down the equivalent figure is about 66 per cent. You cannot help but admire the community spirit and the unrequited generosity.
But casting my eye over the kitchen table and surveying the myriad of brightly-coloured and sugar-coated shapes, it is hard not to think about future dental bills or indeed the very concept of kids being given treats for doing nothing at all.
Greg Mankin, an economics professor at Harvard, has in the past joked that Halloween is a form of social re-distribution, and indeed, if you think about the economics of this holiday from a child’s perspective, it makes no sense at all.
This is probably the only time when children are handed gifts from total strangers. This free gift of candy also tends to be given in abundance, with the quantity totally unrelated to need.
I am reluctant to mention the ‘waste’ word in this article for fear of being labelled a killjoy but it should also be noted that perhaps not all the donated sweets are appreciated by health-conscious parents.
Although I am clearly not going to admit to any mister meaner here in public, I can tell the reader that I have in the past been blatantly accused of disposing of some candy when the recipients took their eye off it.
It is perhaps at the macro level however where the economics of Halloween begins to make more sense.
Community festivals and social events such as fireworks generate income streams from local households and tourists alike - the bigger the celebration the more revenue is created. So roll on Christmas -now that’s more my idea of a holiday!