Halloween Spending 2026 Hits a Record While Shoppers Hunt for Ways to Pay Less

Halloween spending 2026 will set a record, if shoppers do what they told surveyors they’d do. The National Retail Federation forecast, released on 22 September 2026, puts total spending at $13.5 billion, above last year’s $13.1 billion record (Inc. reporting the NRF forecast). Halloween falls on Saturday 31 October this year. People are not waiting until that week to spend.

Look closer and the record thins out. The total rose. The individual budget didn’t, really. That split — a bigger national bill, flat household budgets, and a lot of workarounds in between — is the real story of this Halloween. Information verified through 23 October 2026.

How much do Americans spend on Halloween, person by person?

So how much do Americans spend on Halloween once you divide the headline up? The NRF survey, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics among 7,889 consumers from 1 to 9 September, expects $115.14 per person, compared with $114.45 in 2025 (Inc.). Sixty-nine cents more.

About 74% of consumers plan to celebrate, up from 73% last year and 68% in 2019. Handing out candy leads the plans at 61%, followed by wearing a costume at 50%, then decorating, carving pumpkins and watching scary films, each at 42%.

Where does the money go? Costumes take $4.4 billion, decorations $4.3 billion, candy $4.1 billion and greeting cards $800 million, according to the NRF figures reported by Inc. Candy is bought by the most people — 96% of shoppers — even though it isn’t the biggest dollar category. Pet costumes alone account for $920 million of the costume total.

Deloitte, surveying 1,500 U.S. consumers, counts differently and lands higher per household: $285 on average, split between $219 at retailers and $66 on experiences (Retail Dive on the Deloitte survey). Different sample, different unit — household, not person — so the two totals shouldn’t be averaged together. They point the same way on behaviour, though: a third of Deloitte’s shoppers, 34%, plan to spend more than last year.

The Halloween shopping early September trend is now the season

The Halloween shopping early September trend has quietly rewritten the retail calendar. In the NRF survey, 49% of shoppers planned to start in September or earlier, up from 34% a decade ago. Deloitte found 56% planned to buy by the end of September, and 37% expected to finish most shopping before 1 October (Retail Dive).

Why so early? Enthusiasm, partly — 42% of early NRF shoppers said they look forward to fall. Money, partly too. Among early shoppers, 23% said starting sooner spreads the cost, and 21% cited prices and promotions (Inc.).

Discount stores are the top destination at 39%, then specialty Halloween and costume stores at 32% and online at 27%. Local and small businesses draw 13%, nearly double the 7% recorded in 2016. Shoppers who hit higher prices than expected say they’ll cope in ordinary ways: 31% will comparison shop, 26% will hunt coupons or sales, and 34% will buy things they can reuse or repurpose.

There’s a new helper in the mix. Nearly half of NRF respondents said they’d use artificial intelligence tools to help plan, most often to brainstorm ideas (34%) or get recommendations during research (32%), Inc. reported. Picture it less as robots picking costumes and more as a late-night shortlist before a discount-store run.

Halloween debt and buy now pay later: the other surveys disagree — and that matters

Not every survey sings the same tune, and the disagreement is worth sitting with. LendingTree, surveying 2,000 U.S. consumers from 2 to 7 September, found celebrators expecting to spend $162 on average, down from $192 in 2025, with 80% planning a Halloween purchase, down from 90% last year (LendingTree). That’s a forecast of intention, like the NRF’s, but with a different sample and wording. Both can’t be a final sales tally. Neither is.

What LendingTree adds is strain. It found 61% of celebrators skipping some purchases because of economic uncertainty — candy first at 35%, then decorations and costumes — while 38% still expect to spend more than last year, including 58% of parents with children under 18. Budgets are being pulled both ways inside the same households.

On Halloween debt and buy now pay later, the overlap is uncomfortable. Deloitte found one in five shoppers will use buy now, pay later or other financing, even though about seven in ten said they can comfortably afford their spending (Retail Dive). LendingTree found 24% of celebrators expect to take on debt for Halloween this year, and 35% say they’ve done so before. Gen Z celebrators were highest at 43% expecting debt.

Analysis: a record total built on flat per-person spending, earlier buying and borrowed money isn’t a boom in any simple sense. It’s households protecting a ritual they love — Saturday night, costumes on, bowl by the door — and quietly moving the cost around to make it fit. The decorations will come down on 1 November. For some shoppers, the payments won’t.

Sources

1. https://www.inc.com/kevin-haynes/halloween-spending-will-hit-a-record-13-5-billion-despite-scary-candy-prices/91410906
2. https://www.retaildive.com/news/halloween-holiday-retail-consumer-spending-2026/832125/
3. https://www.lendingtree.com/credit-cards/study/halloween-budgets/