A bag of candy corn is placed underneath a large Christmas tree. A stocking can be seen draped over a hollow plastic pumpkin on the Target shelf. It’s become apparent to many that stores have two of the biggest holidays fighting for attention.

Halloween is a holiday that deserves more recognition, instead of it simply being seen as a stepping stone for Christmas. It’s an amazing holiday that should be far more appreciated. Halloween may seem like an acknowledged holiday from the outside, but if you look further you’ll see that it’s actually very neglected. 

It’s only early October, yet the Christmas decor is already pushing the Halloween decorations out of stores. When you go to any big store, you can see the Christmas decorations making their yearly debut, while the Halloween stuff is being pushed away casually. It isn’t even November, yet people are acting as if it’s already time to put on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and haul out Christmas trees. 

Halloween is a holiday that stores acknowledge, just not for long. They put up the costumes October first, and then move them to the side to make room for the trees. It’s as though stores know it’s an important holiday to some, but choose to focus on another one that is slightly more popular.

41 countries celebrate Halloween in one way or another. So why is it that whenever I go to a Lowes or Hobby Lobby, I’m overwhelmed with Christmas trees, stockings, and lights? Even when you go on the website for Lowes and click on the ‘Holidays’ section, all that pops up is Christmas decor. 

93% of Americans plan on celebrating Halloween this year. Being part of that percentage, it ticks me off when as soon as you walk into a store, there are Christmas trees and candy canes as far as the eye can see. The world doesn’t need to buy any Christmas decorations two months before December even arrives.

Halloween is a ‘fa-boo-lus’ holiday where you can scare, be scared, and temporarily become somebody or something you’ve always wanted to be. Dressing up as a scarecrow, zombie, or anything you can think of is fun, so it doesn’t make sense for so many people to just try to get it over with and move onto Christmas.

Some people might argue that Halloween has an entire store dedicated to it, but that’s only because no other stores pay the ‘fang-tastic’ holiday enough attention. Even the more minor holidays like Valentines day and Easter have the aisles filled for weeks.

Thinking that stores will stop putting Christmas decor up before December is ‘witch-ful’ thinking, but maybe they can at least wait until Halloween has passed. If they can do that, then the Halloween lovers can finally enjoy our holiday the way we deserve.