• MSNBC, Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:46 AM

My son phoned yesterday to ask me to get a referee shirt hanging in his closet up to him at college as he wanted to wear it on Halloween. As I walked to the post office, I wondered when, exactly, Halloween had stopped becoming something that you stopped doing in sixth grade and had become bigger than, oh, say Valentine's Day?

Well, Roger Fillion addresses that question this morning, saying that a shift that began sometime in the late Seventies has accelerated in the past five to 10 years. This is all to the benefit of nightclubs, restaurants, bars -- which are throwing more Halloween parties -- as well as beer and booze companies, which brew up Halloween ad campaigns and drinks, such as a Pumpkin Pie Martini from Blue Ice Vodka. Jägermeister is sponsoring a float in New York's Village Halloween Parade. MillerCoors in-store, vampire-inspired promotion for Miller Lite encourages beer drinkers to "Sink Your Fangs Into Great Taste."

IBISWorld predicts Halloween-related sales will climb 4.2% over last year to a record $6 billion as consumers seek to "escape their recessionary woes" but the National Retail Federation sees the economy as a bit scarier, expecting Americans to spend $4.75 billion on costumes, candy, decorations and cards, down about 18% percent from last year's projection of $5.77 billion.

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