With Halloween just around the corner and total spending projected to reach $10.1 billion this year, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its 2021’s Best Places for Halloween report and Chicago turned up in the top 20, ranking #6 for availability of chocolate!
To help Americans decide where to spend the most spook-tacular time of year without frightening their bank accounts, WalletHub compared the 100 largest U.S. cities across 21 key metrics. They range from candy and chocolate stores per capita to average price per Halloween party ticket to share of potential trick-or-treat stops.
Halloween in Chicago (1=Best; 50=Avg.):
- 8th – Walk Score
- 17th – Avg. Price per Halloween Party Ticket
- 17th – Halloween Costume Stores per Capita
- 6th – Candy & Chocolate Stores per Capita
- 18th – Movie Theaters per Capita
Halloween Facts:
- 82%: Share of Americans who are confident they will find safe and creative ways to celebrate the Halloween season, despite the pandemic.
- $10.1 Billion: Projected Halloween spending in 2021.
- $3.3 Billion: Halloween costume spending in 2021.
- $3 Billion: Halloween candy spending in 2021.
- 31%: Share of parents who think 13 or 14 is old enough to trick-or-treat alone.
- 79%: Share of parents who admit to stealing candy from their kids.
- $300+ Million: Annual revenue from ticket sales for haunted attractions, 80% of which are run by charities.
For the full report, please VISIT HERE
Best Places to Go for Halloween
| Overall Rank | City | Total Score | Trick-or-Treater-Friendliness | Halloween Fun | Halloween Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York, NY | 68.09 | 2 | 4 | 72 |
| 2 | Los Angeles, CA | 62.08 | 20 | 5 | 9 |
| 3 | Las Vegas, NV | 61.89 | 50 | 2 | 9 |
| 4 | Miami, FL | 61.27 | 9 | 8 | 56 |
| 5 | San Francisco, CA | 60.89 | 7 | 23 | 31 |
| 6 | Boston, MA | 60.17 | 6 | 44 | 53 |
| 7 | San Diego, CA | 59.67 | 44 | 3 | 28 |
| 8 | Santa Ana, CA | 59.64 | 3 | 74 | 27 |
| 9 | San Jose, CA | 59.44 | 10 | 13 | 36 |
| 10 | Orlando, FL | 58.95 | 87 | 1 | 32 |
| 11 | Anaheim, CA | 58.77 | 13 | 25 | 30 |
| 12 | Hialeah, FL | 58.71 | 4 | 78 | 35 |
| 13 | Laredo, TX | 58.59 | 5 | 97 | 26 |
| 14 | Jersey City, NJ | 57.91 | 1 | 92 | 78 |
| 15 | Gilbert, AZ | 55.97 | 12 | 53 | 17 |
| 16 | Long Beach, CA | 54.49 | 14 | 50 | 17 |
| 17 | Chicago, IL | 54.32 | 16 | 17 | 76 |
| 18 | Irvine, CA | 54.14 | 11 | 84 | 9 |
| 19 | Chula Vista, CA | 53.85 | 27 | 35 | 9 |
| 20 | Denver, CO | 53.02 | 36 | 30 | 4 |
What are some strategies for celebrating Halloween without breaking the bank?
“There are lots of options for Halloween. Depending on your area of the country, pumpkin patches, apple picking, and hayrides may be available and are generally pretty reasonable. There will be a cost to giving out candy/treats that is hard to avoid. Decorations have a wide range. Making some of your own can be a cheaper alternative and also provides fun projects for children. Splurging for a pumpkin carving set generally has safer tools for carving than the butcher knife on the counter.”
Mark D. Hicar MD, Ph.D. – Associate Professor, University at Buffalo
“When brainstorming Halloween costumes, consider reusing items you already own before purchasing something new. Oftentimes children have dress-up clothes at home that can be repurposed for Halloween. Parents or grandparents may have items that can be reused or restyled to create Halloween costumes as well. The most creative and unique costumes are typically homemade instead of from a boxed retailer. Other options would be to thrift costumes or use character pajamas rather than a pricey ‘ready-to-wear’ costume. This extends the costume’s purpose after Halloween and stretches your investment from a few hours of trick-or-treating to something children can use and enjoy for months to come.”
Nichole Huff, Ph.D., CFLE – Assistant Extension Professor, University of Kentucky
What are the biggest Halloween money-wasters?
“Purchasing new costumes each year and the one-time decorations could be a huge waste, especially those smoke/fog generators and chemicals as well as the animatronic Halloween decorations could be pricy. Tip-buy next year’s high-quality decorations the week after Halloween could help parents to save.”
Xiaohui Sophie Li, Ph.D., CFLE, AFC® – Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University
“All the plastic that is used and discarded, from yard decorations to small trinkets given out at schools and homes. I also feel that we over-buy for trick-or-treaters and often eat or are tempted to consume sugar that we do not need – I am certainly guilty of this. We still have an old bag from last year that I found in the back of the closet with the less-popular offerings.”
Priscilla D. Allen, Ph.D., LMSW – Professor, Louisiana State University
How can the process of collecting and allocating Halloween candy be used to teach children about personal finance?
“There are lots of ways to do this. In our simplest approach, you can let them decide If they want to eat a bunch or budget it out to have a daily treat. I imagine you can get advanced and have them use it to barter for sibling coverage of chores, etc. but we have not approached it this way.”
Mark D. Hicar MD, Ph.D. – Associate Professor, University at Buffalo
“Ideas include having kids sort candy by like categories, colors, or flavors. Have children count the number of suckers versus chocolate, for example, and decide if piles are less, more, or equal. Anytime basic math skills are reinforced, it helps a child develop financial literacy skills. Parents could also teach children the concepts of a trade by having them choose their favorites and trade with a sibling, for example. Taking things a step further, parents could help children develop a system for rationing out their Halloween loot. Similar to an advent calendar, help kids divide the candy over November, allotting equal portions for each day. Or create a reward system for how children can ‘earn’ candy from their buckets for doing household chores or acts of kindness, for example.”
Nichole Huff, Ph.D., CFLE – Assistant Extension Professor, University of Kentucky
Source: WalletHub
