Halloween is moving away from one night out of the year to a full season," says Scott Krugman, a spokesman for the NRF. "The larger promotional window for Halloween is leading to increased sales opportunities for retailers."

Nearly 60% of the 8,877 people surveyed by the NRF plan to celebrate Halloween in some way--including dressing up, going to a party, handing out candy, carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating and decorating.

About 95% will buy candy, nearly $21 per person on average. Not that all those princesses, pirates and Spider-Men will see all the sweets of their labor: A poll by the National Confectioners Association showed that more than 90% of parents swipe candy from their kids' trick-or-treat bags.

While the percentage of those decorating for Halloween remains the same, the average amount spent per person climbed 14%, to $26.59, over last year. Estimated price tag for all those Halloween decorations: $1.4 billion. In terms of decoration purchases, the Halloween season is now second only to Christmas, according to data tracker Unity Marketing.

"People are spending much more on Halloween and fall decorations than they used to," says Unity President Pam Danzinger. "The manufacturers are responding by translating what they do with Christmas into the Halloween themes. So you have the animated decorations with sound and even lights." This year's big sellers: table-top figurines, cauldron-stirring witches and inflatable lawn pumpkins.

But don't forget all those real pumpkins: According to the NRF survey, more than 40% said they were going to carve pumpkins for Halloween this year. In 2006, U.S. farmers harvested nearly 43,000 acres of pumpkins, according to the United States Department of Agriculture; the total weight was 10.2 million cwt (about 1 billion pounds).

Even dogs are getting in on the Halloween action. "Halloween costumes for pets have been catching on over the last couple of years," says Krugman. "You will see very generous offerings in terms of pet costumes, and owners and their pets dressing in some sort of theme."

The most popular pet costumes are devils, pumpkins, witches, and of course, hot dogs. Petco's Grooming Salons even offer a Halloween treat for your pup with Halloween party collars, glow-in-the-dark nail polish and pumpkin-spice shampoo.

There will be plenty of human howling, too. Almost 30% of people surveyed by the NRF said they were going to throw or attend a Halloween party this year. When it comes to partying, Halloween draws the third-highest crowds, behind New Year's Eve and Superbowl Sunday.