How Many Americans Decorate For Halloween Each Year

It's the holiday season and really, honestly, the holiday season begins with Halloween. I know Halloween is not technically a holiday, but it is a time when we decorate our houses and have a little fun with the kids that come trick or treating.

I remember when I was a kid, we didn't do a whole lot of Halloween decorating around the house until my dad decided we needed something exciting. So, he built a robot suit that somebody could climb into and then stand out on the porch to scare the bejesus out of the poor little kids coming to trick or treat. (It worked by the way.)

I also remember one year dad, hooking up a mechanical bat so that when you open the door for the kids that were trick or treating the bat would come through the door flapping around, again, scaring the kids.

This is what happens when you have an aerospace engineer with too much time on his hands.

As the years have gone by, it seems like the whole decoration season for the holidays is getting longer and longer.

According to joybird.com/blog,
‘But when exactly does the holiday season begin? For some, it starts with cooler weather or the return of Hallmark movies; for many Americans, though, it’s when the decorations start going up. Some people wait until each holiday is practically at the door. Others are hanging Christmas lights before the Halloween candy is gone, and keeping them up well into January.’

Halloween.

It turns out that nearly one in five Americans don't decorate for Halloween at all. No pumpkins, no skeletons, no ghosts, none of that stuff. (At home, I'm one of those people.)

It turns out that millennials are big for Halloween decorations. The survey shows that 35% of millennials start decorating 3 to 4 weeks ahead of Halloween.

My sister Jenny has a neighbor just down the street who loves to decorate for Halloween and had an inflatable Dragon's head designed and specially made that he sets up out in front of his house. (You can't get to the front door of his house without walking into the mouth of the dragon.) She sent me a photo, and I think it's just awesome.

Thanksgiving.

Of the three holidays that are included in this survey, it turns out that Thanksgiving has the least people that are excited about decorating. 36% don't decorate at all.

Christmas.

The main thing we discovered from the survey, and we probably knew already, is nobody waits for Christmas to come. Retailers are putting Christmas merchandise out months in advance.

The survey indicates that 80% of Americans start decorating for Christmas at least three weeks out.

When does the Christmas tree go up?

40% of Americans in the survey said that the tree goes up before Thanksgiving.

I remember in our family that the Christmas tree went up shortly after Thanksgiving. I remember my dad's frustration shopping for Christmas trees. One year he finally gave up and bought 2 trees using one for the main tree and using the other one for spare parts.

He would be out in the garage, cutting off limbs, Using the drill on the other tree to graft the new limbs in. But again, that's what happens with an aerospace engineer that has too much time on his hands.

Our Christmas tradition was to put up the tree after Thanksgiving. Mom would lead the charge for decorating the tree. (It was always color coordinated.) A wreath would go up on the front door, and the tree would stay until New Year's Eve, when it would come down.

When does the Christmas tree come down?

The survey indicates that 41% of Americans leave their tree up for one to two weeks after Christmas.

23% of Americans can't let that Christmas feeling go and they leave their tree up anywhere from three to four weeks after Christmas

What about Christmas lights on the House?

There's nothing in the survey that talks about how long Christmas lights on the House stay up after Christmas, but it seems to me that lights on the House potentially could stay up all year round, although they would only be turned on during the season. (I've seen this many times.)

Christmas lights on our house were always a big production. Dad would take the lights out, spread them out across the lawn, turn them on, and start replacing dead bulbs. Dad already had the hooks up on the eaves, so he just had to get the ladder out and start hanging them. The other big decoration in the yard was a gigantic holly tree that we had, and it would have Christmas lights on it every year. It was spectacular.