Photo of the Day: All-Out for Halloween, in a Big Way

Over the last 30 to 40 years, Halloween decorations have increasingly filled the lawns where I live in Northern New Jersey. It’s been a way for baby boomers Gen Xers (and, I guess now, Millennials and Gen Z) to relive their childhoods, and on a scale that their budget-conscious ancestors, after being raised during the Great Depression, would never have dreamed of embracing.

Recently I took this photo several miles from my home. What you see here is only half of all of the figures on the lawn and front porch of this suburban house.

Nor does this photo convey the sounds coming from this ghoulish assembly. Just passing on  the street—not even stepping on the lawn—is enough to elicit the witch on the right-hand side, for instance, to cackle, “Lost your way? Don’t be afraid—I’ll show you! Heee-heee-haaa-haaa!”

This year, Halloween splurging on decorations, masks, makeup, costumes, and candy has continued, despite the threat of tariffs. According to the National Retail Federation, Halloween spending is expected to reach $13.1 billion this year, breaking its prior record of $12.2 billion.

Omar Villafranca’s CBS News report from a month ago indicates that consumers are hitting discount stores and merchants are absorbing as many of the tariff costs (5% to 19% on costumes manufactured overseas) as possible, but there’s only so much they can do. A fog machine sold by a Fort Worth merchant mentioned in the article, for instance, sold for $58 last year but $74 now.

And chocolate candy? The price of the cocoa used for this has more than doubled since the beginning of 2024, a casualty of changing weather patterns (heavy rains followed by El Nino-induced droughts leading to black pod disease and crop rot, according to a USA Today report earlier this month by Betty Lin-Fisher and Carlie Procell).