Oct 25, 2026 · 30 min
Halloween turns seasonal fun into a growing consumer business
Tricks, Treats and Trends
Candy inflation, identity-driven costumes and viral decorations show how Halloween has become both a cultural mirror and a major retail moment.
- 1Younger consumers are shifting Halloween candy toward sour, fruity and sweet-savory flavors beyond traditional chocolate.
- 2Costumes increasingly turn current celebrities, viral events and personal identity into low-cost forms of cultural commentary.
- 3Home Depot’s nearly 12-foot Skelly shows how a viral decoration can become a scarce, evolving retail product.
Don't miss
The discussion of Home Depot’s Skelly explains how an 11-foot-8-inch decoration became a viral meme, sold-out product and programmable piece of seasonal technology.
The brief
Rachel Abrams frames Halloween through three consumer rituals: candy, costumes and decorations, each revealing how the holiday changes with culture and commerce.
Kim Severson traces younger shoppers’ move toward sour, fruity and sweet-savory candy, while unusual textures and flavors signal an industry chasing novelty as prices rise.
With Styles editor Louis Lucero II, Abrams treats costumes as snapshots of the year, from Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to artificial intelligence and viral figures.
The episode’s standout is Home Depot’s Skelly, an 11-foot-8-inch decoration that sells out at $299 and now offers motion, lighting, Bluetooth controls and live speech.
Halloween’s expanding spending reflects a low-stakes outlet for creativity, but the holiday’s growing price tags show how seasonal play has become serious retail business.
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