Celebrate Halloween...American Style!

3 min read

Since the 1800's, when Irish and Scottish immigrants brought Halloween festivities to North America, the holiday has evolved American style - bigger, better and much, much more extravagant than what the Europeans are used to! [caption id="attachment_5210" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Many Americans go to town on decorating their homes for Halloween! source : mbaintheusa.com"][/caption] Most households in the U.S. and Canada participate, and those who don't can run the risk of petty vandalism (which we don't condone!). Children, and their accompanying guardians dress up and go trick or treating and attend costume parties and contests. In the United States, Halloween lags just behind New Years Eve and the Super Bowl in total number of parties, and it falls second to Christmas in total consumer dollars spent! [caption id="attachment_5212" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="IV Halloween (see video below!)"][/caption] Americans take Halloween very seriously - and here's some facts to prove it!

93% of kids go trick-or-treating.
Americans spend almost $6 Billion on Halloween. The average person spends $20.39 of that on candy.
1,600 companies make up the US candy manufacturing industry, but the Hershey Co and Mars Snackfood US make 15 of the top 20 best sellers.
The biggest chocolate brand in the US is Mars’s M&Ms with annual sales of $425 Million.

According to the National Retail Federation, 71.5% of adults intend to celebrate Halloween this year, including millions of college students. Halloween traditions for college students typically include bar crawls or toga parties across campus!

However, it is not unusual to see U.S. College students out trick or treating with the kids!

[caption id="attachment_5213" align="aligncenter" width="485" caption="Greenwich Village Halloween Parade"][/caption]

Some college Halloween students take it even further - Isla Vista Halloween, better known as I.V.Halloween,a University of California - Santa Barbara tradition - is already underway. This years parties will last 12 days!

Check this out for a block party! :

Other students chose to have a different style of celebration at Halloween. Like many other students in the New York City area, Fordham University students traditionally make a trip to downtown Manhattan to watch the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. Amazing parade, has to be seen to be believed!.... Others in the area celebrate by volunteering at an on-campus Haunted House, in partnership with a Bronx soup kitchen, Part of the Solution (POTS). However, considering the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy this year, Halloween may not be top of the agenda this year for New Yorkers, so volunteering may be a good option at this time.

Whether you chose to dress up in skimpy or scary costumes and party, go trick or treating, go see a parade or even volunteer in the USA - you can be sure that the celebrations will be big!

College students continue to bridge the gap between adolescence and adulthood at this time of year, making Halloween as much a holiday for the adults as the kids for the typical American family.

How are you spending Halloween? ..... We would love to see your costumes!

Send us a tweet @FirstPointUSA1 #FPUSAHalloween with a picture of how you are celebrating or of you and your college pals in your costumes and we will feature the best ones in a special blog!

Happy Halloween everyone!