The decorations are out. The candy bowl is full. And the porch light is on. Bring on the trick-or-treaters.

Halloween is only a few days away, and I can’t wait. Every year, I try to deck out my porch in festive spookiness, and I stock up on the choicest candy for my friends’ children. And I have my responses all prepared.

“Oh, don’t you look scary!”

“Oh, my, aren’t you a pretty princess!”

“Let me see. Are you (insert appropriate pop culture character here)?”

I know the holiday isn’t for everyone. But it’s always been one of my favorites. Even though growing up in the country going door to door meant a lot of drive time for my parents, or a trip to Junction City, Kan., to visit my grandparents and their neighbors.

It wasn’t really about the candy for me, either. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’ll fight dirty over a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. (I think my older brother still bears a scar.) But for me it was about the costumes. Dressing up as a clown, or a cheerleader, or a pumpkin — it was just fun to be creative and pretend.

And I’m not alone.

All-time spending

According to the National Retail Federation, consumer spending on Halloween-related items is expected to reach an all-time high of $10.14 billion in 2021. That’s up from the $8.05 billion we spent in 2020, during the pandemic. On average, consumers plan to spend a little more than $100 on costumes, candy, decorations and greeting cards, about $10 more than they spent last year.

Americans are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels — at least for Halloween, anyway. The NRF says 65% of Americans plan to participate in Halloween activities this year, just under the 68% that planned to participate in 2019, before the pandemic.

By the looks of my social feeds, my friends with kids are going along with the trend to celebrate Halloween and all things fall-related. My feeds have already been chock-full of photos of hayrack rides, corn mazes, pumpkin picking, and other fall festivals.

And that’s great news for our agritourism friends in the state. Kansas Tourism reports the average person spends about $74 during an agritourism business visit.

If you add in the indirect and induced economic impact of tourism on the local economy, Travel Kansas reports that each Kansas household would have to be taxed an additional $600 just to replace the tax revenue generated by tourism.

All those pumpkin patches and corn mazes have their parts to play, don’t they?

Sweet tooth

Of course, Kansas does play a starring role in filling the trick-or-treat bags on the holiday.

The Mars Chocolate North America factory in Topeka can produce 14 million bite-sized Snickers candy bars and 39 million M&Ms — enough to fill 1.5 million fun-sized packs — each day, according to some reports. That’s about 8,000 pounds of cocoa butter, and 117,000 pounds of peanuts.

We can’t forget that the milk from our western Kansas dairies is dehydrated and turned into milk powder that likely makes it into candies all over the U.S. and the globe.

You’re very welcome, fans of milk chocolate.

Just remember this Halloween to have fun, but be safe. Be sure to trick-or-treat with a group. Try to have some sort of light to make you visible to traffic. Don’t be out too late. And maybe don’t eat all your candy at once.

After last year, we all deserve this little bit of fun in our lives.