{"id":40802244545,"date":"2019-10-29T12:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T16:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/?p=40802244545"},"modified":"2021-01-25T11:22:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T16:22:03","slug":"halloween-2019-costume-trends-and-safety-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/2019\/10\/29\/halloween-2019-costume-trends-and-safety-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloween 2019 \u2013 Costume Trends and Safety Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Vincent Grassi, Monmouth University Polling Institute Intern<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Halloween is\nalmost here, and according to the Monmouth\nUniversity Poll<\/a><\/em><\/strong> that is good news for the 45% of Americans who say Halloween\nis either their favorite or one of their favorite holidays. Here, I will\ndiscuss some of the trends, safety considerations, and news surrounding the spooky\nfall holiday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poll finds\nthat 29% of adults plan on dressing up for Halloween this year. If you are\nlooking for a unique costume, check out Google Trend\u2019s \u201cFrightgeist<\/a>\u201d website to see what to avoid. It shows\nthe most searched for costumes on both a national and local level, as well as\neach costume\u2019s trending status over time and the popularity of different\ncostume categories. At the moment, searches for costumes related to the horror\nmovie IT <\/em>take the top spot while\nwitch and Spiderman costumes trail in second and third, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An annual survey\nby the National\nRetail Federation<\/a> projects Halloween spending to reach 8.8 billion\nin 2019, slightly behind the 9 billion consumers spent last year and 9.1\nbillion in 2017. The survey also shows the trend of dressing up pets for\nHalloween. Americans are expected to spend $490 million<\/a>\non costumes for their pets, with the most popular being pumpkins, hot dogs and\nsuperheroes. Overall, the NRF\nsurvey found that consumers plan to spend 2.6 billion on Halloween candy this\nyear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Monmouth poll finds\nthat out of eight top-selling Halloween candies, a plurality of Americans (36%)\npick Reese\u2019s Peanut Butter Cups as their favorite, while Snickers (18%) place\nsecond and M&M\u2019s (11%) take third. Whether you grab the candy mix bags from\nWalmart or splurge on packs of full-size candy bars, make sure you stock up on\nenough. According to the poll seven-in-ten parents and caregivers report that\ntheir children plan to go trick-or-treating this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those (70%) who say their children plan to go trick-or-treating, the poll finds almost all children (95%) and even most teenagers (76%) will be accompanied by an adult. To help keep children safe, the American Academy of Pediatrics<\/a> has published some important safety considerations. They advise parents to rethink letting children wear masks as it can obstruct their vision, making sure their costumes fit appropriately to avoid trips and falls, giving children glow sticks or donning them with reflective tape if they plan to go out later in the evening or at night, and purchasing fire-resistant costumes, wigs, and accessories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an effort to\naddress safety concerns regarding motor vehicle accidents on Halloween and make\ncelebrating more accessible to other age groups, the Halloween and Costume\nAssociation started a\npetition<\/a> in 2018 on Change.org to move Halloween from October 31st<\/sup>\nto the last Saturday of October. The petition would be sent to the president\nfor his consideration if their goal number of signatures is met. In July, the\npetition was updated to reflect concerns over the holiday\u2019s historical\nsignificance and cultural and religious ties. Now, the petition calls for the\ncreation of a separate National Trick or Treat Day to be held on the last\nSaturday of October in addition to Halloween, \u201cso families across the country\ncan participate in community parades, throw neighborhood parties and opt for\ndaytime Trick or Treating.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only does the\npetition aim to reduce the number of accidents involving cars and kids, but it is\nalso trying to make the holiday more accessible to other age groups other than\nchildren. This effort may reflect the poll\u2019s finding that just about\nthree-in-five (58%) adults aged 18-34 said Halloween was either their favorite\nholiday or one of their favorite holidays. The poll also finds that half of\nthose aged 18-34 plan to wear a costume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing the date on which Halloween trick-or-treating takes place is not unheard of. One example was after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 when former NJ Governor Chris Christie signed an executive order that postponed Halloween to the following Monday due to unsafe conditions caused by the storm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trunk or Treat events also uphold safety priorities and act as a safer alternative to door to door trick-or-treating. These events are usually held prior to Halloween in blocked off parking lots and are hosted by the community, local schools, or local churches. It is praised as being more convenient for parents and, more importantly, safer for children. This year, Monmouth University will be hosting its Trunk or Treat event on 11\/3 at 12-2 p.m. in lot 16. You can also find a list of other Trunk or Treat events happening all over NJ here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you enjoy decorating your home with spooky decorations, taking your children trick-or-treating, watching scary movies, or attending a Halloween costume party – have fun, be safe, and Happy Halloween! <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Vincent Grassi, Monmouth University Polling Institute Intern Halloween is almost here, and according to the Monmouth University Poll that is good news for the 45% of Americans who say Halloween is either their favorite or one of their favorite holidays. Here, I will discuss some of the trends, safety considerations, and news surrounding the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40802244545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802244545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40802244545"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802244545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40802248042,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40802244545\/revisions\/40802248042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40802244545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40802244545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40802244545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}