The Fastest Growing Holiday In America Is … Spooky - Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), Hershey (NYSE:HSY)

According to the National Retail Federation, which tracks that sort of stuff, Americans said they planned to spend a whopping $7.4 billion on Halloween in 2014.

That’s a 5.87 percent increase over the $6.99 billion spent last year making Halloween the fastest growing holiday in America. Utilizing NRF data the University of Detroit Mercy’s Mike Bernacchi said the next fastest growing holiday, Christmas, was expected to grow 5 percent from last year to this year.

Long-term Trends

Moreover, extrapolating figures from 2009 (past the Great Recession) to now, Halloween spending has grown a whopping 55.79 percent, leaving other major holidays like Father’s Day (33.23 percent), Easter (25 percent) and Valentine’s Day (17.69 percent) in the dust.

Although the Christmas holiday shopping season has long been the largest, its growth of 13.65 percent from 2009 to 2014 (estimated) would easily make it the slowest growing of the lot.

Participation Rate

A significant factor, according to the NRF, for the explosive growth of Halloween in recent years has been the number of adults choosing to celebrate the holiday.

Two out of every three adults (18 or older), roughly 66.7 percent of the population said they planned to celebrate Halloween in 2014. That represents almost 162 million adults in the U.S.

Halloween Related Spending

Bernacchi noted that Halloween commerce is a “four headed monster” consisting of costumes, candy, decorations and cards.

Individually, none of the four challenges the gift giving power of other holidays, but combined they have become a force to be reckoned with.

Just how large a force is spelled out in the NRF chart below.

As the chart makes clear, the lion’s share of consumer Halloween spending would go toward costumes ($2.8 billion). Candy and decorations would combine for another $4.3 billion and Halloween-related cards would take up about a third of a billion dollars.

Companies Set to be ‘Treated’

While many major corporations “bob” for Halloween dollars, some are traditionally more invested than others are. As a result, their Halloween sales volume is typically impressive.

Among retailers, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT stands out, partly because it’s the largest retailer in the world and partly because it covers all four Halloween categories (costumes, candy, decorations and cards) in a big way.

On the candy side, The Hershey Company HSY has always been a winner and this year should be no different.

With costumes based on the hit children’s movie, Frozen expected to be among the biggest sellers this year, The Walt Disney Company DIS will likely celebrate Halloween in style.

Privately owned Hallmark Cards, Inc. and American Greetings will sell their share of spooky greeting cards, but with less sentimental holidays like Halloween, online eCard providers like Jacquie Lawson and Jib Jab will also get a lot of attention.

At the time of this writing, Jim Probasco had no position in any mentioned securities.

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