Halloween Light Show 2011 Halloween is on Monday

Forget Bonfire Night and Easter, Halloween is now our second favourite family celebration behind ChristmasParents to spend more than £100 on parties Prepared to stretch budgets further than for other family celebrations One in three families will throw a Halloween bash Spooky festival now worth £280million in Britain Halloween-second-favourite-family-celebration-Christmas. Halloween is now the second most popular family occasion behind Christmas with parents spending more than £100 on parties for their children this year. Despite increased costs and family budgets under pressure with rising fuel and food prices, the survey of 2,000 parents also revealed that families are still willing to splash out on ghoulish parties. The poll found that a family spends an average £73 on food, decorations and other items for each party that they throw throughout the year. But at Halloween they are happy to go further, spending an extra £42 on ghoulish items such as sweets for 'trick or treaters', fancy dress costumes, accessories and decorations. The survey found that Halloween came in ahead of other traditional family occasions including Easter, Eurovision, Bonfire Night and even beat childrens' birthday parties. However, Christmas remains the top family occasion with 62 per cent of families saying they will be celebrating with a festive party this year.