TRAVERSE CITY -- Last year Justin and Robin O'Halloran decorated their yard for Halloween with a dozen pumpkins, spooked up their garage with "cobwebs" and dressed in pirate costumes to take their three children trick-or-treating.
But with Robin laid off from her job at Second Chance Body Armor, the East Jordan couple will be toning down their celebration this Halloween.
"It'll be a little tougher this year," said Justin O'Halloran, as he shopped for costumes for sons Jason, 4, Weston, 3, and Braydon, 10 months.
While a shaky economy won't stop locals from celebrating Halloween, many say they are more cost-conscious this year. Others are throwing caution to the wind and letting loose, perhaps as a way to escape from the uncertainties of daily life.
"You can't stop your life just because the economy sucks," said Crystal Larson of Traverse City, who is throwing a costume party on Saturday for 30 or more friends. "But you still have to be responsible as far as your buying."
Larson said she's cutting costs by co-hosting the party with her friend, Dennis, and by thinking twice about what she'll wear.
"I'm definitely more conscious of the price of a costume," she said. "With the $50 for a (new) costume I could be buying gas. I might just wear something that I've kept from high school dances and get accessories."
Instead of buying new fabric for 8-year-old daughter Molly's go-go costume, Cherie Hitchens turned to a thrift shop.
"I can go to Goodwill and spend $2 for a dress," said Hitchens, who plans to glue polka dots on the short black frock, then complete the outfit with tall boots and an orange "Daphne" wig from a previous year's Scooby Doo costume. "It would probably cost $5 to $10 to make it."
The mother of three, Hitchens also plans to borrow a monster mask from a friend and recycle a witch costume from three years ago for her son Jack, 5, and daughter Sophie, 7.
"I can't say I've cut back, but we've always made our own things," she said. "I can't see spending 30 or 40 bucks on an outfit they're probably only going to wear once."
October is the busiest month for Goodwill's four retail stores in northern Michigan, said Ruth Blick, director of marketing and fund development for Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan. And this October, sales are up 10 percent at the Cadillac and Gaylord stores.
Besides a small selection of handmade and store-bought costumes, the stores sell Halloween decorations and accessories. But it's their regular apparel -- from plaid jackets for vintage-look costumes to wedding gowns for Bride of Frankenstein costumes -- that bring people in droves.
"They come in and go through the regular clothing to put a costume together," said Joyce Zagunis, assistant manager of the Traverse City Goodwill store. "Today I was helping a gal look for a sparkly dress for her husband. She was dressing up as a man and bought a suit jacket. They were dressing up as card dealers from a TV show."
The stores' offerings are especially popular with young people hoping to stretch their dollars while putting together a costume they can't find new, Blick said.
"They're not going to spend that kind of money if they can make something fun and funky and one-of-a-kind," she said.
While nationally retail sales plunged in September by 1.2 percent -- almost double the 0.7 percent drop analysts expected -- more consumers plan to celebrate the holiday this year than last, according to the National Retail Federation's Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey. This year, the average person plans to spend $66.54 on the holiday, up from $64.92 a year ago. Total Halloween spending for 2008 is estimated to reach $5.77 billion.
That doesn't surprise Joe Ritchie, whose 22,000-square-foot Halloween Superstore in the old Circuit City building in Traverse City has been drawing customers -- and gawkers -- since Sept. 2.
"A lot of it's not coming out of their pockets," said Ritchie, whose inventory ranges from under $20 for a simple costume to up to $1,000 for a "Star Wars" stormtrooper outfit. "It's credit cards. They're not feeling the punch when they're zipping the credit card through and not pulling cash out of their pocket."
Feeling the punch or not, "We're probably going to do everything we've always done," said Leslie Featherstone. "This is a fun time of year," she added. "We always put on a big party, have friends over -- which isn't to say we won't economize in other ways."
Besides throwing a costume party for about 40 people, Featherstone said her family's Halloween traditions include handing out full-size candy bars to trick-or-treaters and taking them on wagon rides around her Long Lake area home.
"We're lucky we're able to do that," she noted.
About 73.7 percent of people will hand out candy this year, according to the NRF survey. But while consumers will spend an average of $20.39 on the sweet stuff, residents of Traverse City's most popular neighborhoods will dole out far more.
Hitchens buys about 15 bags of candy to pass out at her Holiday Hills home and said that probably won't change this year.
"I love Halloween," she said.
Mary Pollock isn't cutting back on candy this year, either, despite her gloomy IRA statements.
"I'm being more careful, but I'm still buying the nice candy," said Pollock, who passes out nearly 200 "fun" size chocolate bars at her house in the Old Town neighborhood. "If I hadn't gone into a store that had it on sale I probably would have spent more. It's one of those (traditions) you just keep up."
Traditionally the Central neighborhood is among the hardest hit, with children from rural areas often driven in by the van load to trick-or-treat.
"I don't mean to say that Central neighborhood isn't hospitable to the tradition," said neighborhood president Seamus Shinners. "On the other hand, because Central neighborhood is centrally located, we also get hit with every other thing," including fundraising for school, club and community causes.
On the upside, he said, "if your lights are off, it's pretty much respected."
One family that won't be driving out of town to trick-or-treat this year is the O'Hallorans.
"Usually we drive to Charlevoix," said Justin O'Halloran. "Gas prices are getting better, but with everything unsure, we'll stick around East Jordan. We'll park at the end of the block and walk."
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