By Kathryn McKenzie Nichols
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
MONTEREY, Calif. - Halloween used to be mainly for kids of a certain age, the ones who didn't feel self-conscious about dressing up and knocking on doors for candy.
These days, everyone's getting into the act.
Grownups are buying costumes by the case - not just for their small fry, but also for themselves. They're also decorating their homes, Halloween-style, to the tune of $2 billion nationally. According to Newsweek, the holiday spending for this holiday is second only to that of Christmas.
Just walk through the "haunted aisle" at the Party Wholesale Store in Sand City, a small town on the Monterey Peninsula in California, and you'll see what they're buying. There, frighteners can shell out as much as $1,300 for a life-sized, animated ghoul who pops up behind a gravestone; $799 for a gargoyle that flaps its wings; or a giant space alien for $149.
Even body parts are big sellers, according to Sandy Gregory, who owns the store with her husband, Bob.
"We had one guy who came in and bought two hands, two legs, a heart and a brain," said Gregory. "There was also a nurse who bought body parts and was going to leave them in the fridge with some blood around them."
Beyond the delirious decoration is the desire to make a Halloween fashion statement. Adult-sized costumes include bizarre inflatable contraptions that make one resemble a sumo wrestler or a chubby ballerina; you can also choose to be a giant SpongeBob Squarepants or a "tacky tourist," complete with cheesy Hawaiian shirt.
Or if you opt for tasteful over terrifying, visit any number of local boutiques for cute 'n' cuddly signs of the season, like Halloween trees, ceramic jack o' lanterns, pumpkin wreaths and miniature haunted houses.
"In general, it reflects some on the nesting trend," said Nicole Brooks, a spokesperson for Cost Plus World Market, which recently opened a new store in Seaside, Calif. "More people are entertaining at home … your home becomes the party place."
Cost Plus carries such items as ghost salt-and-pepper shakers, pumpkin-colored napkins and "Witch's Brew" mulled spices, with an emphasis on setting a nice table for the holiday. Several bins of toys and treats also carry the Halloween theme.
At Target, everything from yard decor (like signs that say "Scaring Up Some Fun" and "Will Spook For Treats") to candy bowls and votive candles are meant not to terrorize, but to celebrate the holiday with style.
Even Halloween trees - draped in black with witch and pumpkin ornaments - can be found at the Home Sweet Home store in Pacific Grove, along with a number of fall-themed items.
But if you opt for the creepy, the scary, or the grotesque, the Party Wholesale Store is the place to be.
"It's just too spooky in that one spot," said Sandy Gregory of the "haunted aisle" where the store's largest animated figures are situated.
"We sell a lot of them."
This year, Gregory said, there are more of these spooky statues than ever - and electronic sensors that make them talk, sing, and move make them increasingly lifelike - and disconcerting to those who walk down the aisle.
"There's never enough room," said Gregory, noting that the warehouse-style store has had to place many of the bigger items on a third tier of shelves. "They keep coming up with such great items."
Some of the demand comes from the increasing popularity of the Mexican Day of the Dead, which is observed Nov. 1. Skulls and skeletons of all types are common in imagery for that holiday, so those are always best sellers.
"I never have enough skeleton cookie cutters," Gregory said.
A quick peek down one aisle turns up such gewgaws as a ceramic skull dip bowl, a "Weepin' Reaper" tabletop statue that cries fake blood, and other ghastly items.
Body parts, too, have their fans. Fake limbs and organs are used in all kinds of creative ways. Much of what people buy there are employed in haunted houses, or even haunted lanes and streets that neighborhoods create.
Needless to say, it's not kids laying out big bucks for such things.
Likewise, adults are spending between $40 and $100 for costumes, with everything from medieval kings to the Incredible Hulk offered in the stores.
Humorous costumes have a big following, according to Larry McMaster, owner of the Spirit Halloween store in Monterey, Calif. In addition to such perennially popular outfits as pirates, medieval folk and superheroes, there are costumes that let you dress up as ketchup and mustard bottles, tacky tourists (complete with expanded waistline) and hula girls.
The store has already sold out its stock of inflatable sumo wrestler suits.
Said McMaster, "We get a lot of requests for SpongeBob, both child and adult sizes, and Bob the Builder for toddlers. And then there's the man-eating shark - that seems to fit Monterey."
© 2003, The Monterey County Herald (Monterey, Calif.).
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
