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2023's Pink Halloween: Discover this year's spooky costume choices with US's largest Halloween chain

Oct 19, 2023 12:21 PM IST

Barbie, Wednesday Addams, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles among popular costumes this year. Halloween spending to reach record $12.2 billion.

Halloween is a big deal this year, with people spending more money on the holiday than ever before. According to the National Retail Federation, the total Halloween spending will reach a record $12.2 billion, up from $10.6 billion in 2022.

This Halloween season match your skirt with Barbie(HubPages)

A lot of that money is going to costumes, which will cost $4.1 billion this year. That’s almost a billion dollars more than before the pandemic.

Some costumes are always popular for adults, like witches and vampires. This year, NRF says 5.8 million people will dress as a witch and 2.4 million will dress as a vampire.

But what’s new and trendy this year? Spirit Halloween, the largest Halloween chain in the U.S., says it depends on what’s happening in pop culture. For example, one of the top picks this year is Barbie.

“When the parties start happening, we’re gonna see a lot of Barbie,” Marisa Uzzolino, manager of PR for Spirit Halloween, told NPR’s Morning Edition.

“Western Barbie, Skating Barbie, Skating Ken.”

The Barbie movie is the biggest movie of the year and made over a billion dollars in the box office. About 1.8 million people will dress up as Barbie this year.

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Other popular costumes this year are inspired by Wednesday and the Addams Family and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Both had new TV shows and movies released over the past year.

As for costumes based on different eras, last year, people loved the 1980s costumes. But this year, they are going for the 1970s costumes.

“We did see a new wave of the hippie styles and hippie stuff coming back,” Uzzolino says. She says that Spirit Halloween has more of that section in stores this year.

The most popular costume this year for children is Spiderman, with 2.6 million children planning to dress as the superhero. But Uzzolino says that there is another character that children and parents love this Halloween.

“We see a huge rise in Bluey. It’s a very popular show, and it’s also geared towards parents too. So we have it for the kids and we have it for the parents,” she says, referring to the main character from the hit children’s show Bluey.

Pets are also getting into the Halloween spirit. More and more people are buying costumes for their pets.

“This is something that we’ve expanded on since last year. Next year we’re going to continue to grow it because it’s something that people ask for every year.” Uzzolino says.

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NRF says the top three costumes for pets are pumpkins, hot dogs and bats. Pet costume spending has increased by $200 million during the pandemic.

If you want to get your Halloween costumes now, you should hurry up. Spirit Halloween says the last two weeks before Halloween are their busiest, and most customers are last-minute shoppers.

“The month goes fast. So I think the earlier, the better. Get your costumes now,” Uzzolino expressed.

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