The number that makes the point
In 2026 Americans are forecast to spend a record $13.5 billion on Halloween, and roughly $4.3 billion of that is decorations — more households buying decorations than costumes, 78% against 71%. Nearly a billion dollars of it is pet costumes. These are not figures for a children’s holiday. They are figures for a national decorating habit that happens to use Halloween as an occasion.
Why the house, and not the person
Because an American house has an audience. There is a porch, a yard, a path from the street, and the whole arrangement is designed to be looked at by people driving past. Decorating the exterior is a form of address — it says something to a street that will never knock on the door. A French house, particularly an apartment, has none of this. There is a door onto a hallway, there is possibly a courtyard nobody owns, and there is no surface that belongs to you and faces the public. You cannot decorate a facade you do not control.
It is the same argument as the clothes
We have been here before, from the other direction. Parisians dress for the street because they walk through it; Americans dress less because the car removed the audience. Houses run the opposite way. The American street sees your house and not you. The French street sees you and not your house. Both cultures perform for whoever is actually watching, and the architecture decides which that is.
The storage problem nobody mentions
Seasonal decorating requires somewhere to put the seasons. American houses have basements, garages, attics and closets — and the decorations live in them for eleven months of the year. A Paris apartment has a cellar the size of a wardrobe and no attic at all. Even a French family that wanted an autumn wreath, a Halloween inflatable, a Thanksgiving centrepiece and a Christmas tree would have nowhere to keep them in February. Culture is often just storage.
What the French do instead, which is less than you think
Christmas, properly — a tree, a crèche in many homes, lights in the street put up by the commune rather than by households. Beyond that, very little. There is no autumn decorating season, no Halloween aisle in a supermarket, no Thanksgiving category, and no concept of a house having a different look in October than in June. A French interior changes with what is in the fruit bowl.
His actual objection, for the record
Not the money and not the taste. He objects to the calendar — to the idea that a house should announce what month it is. His position is that a home should look like itself all year, and that anything which needs replacing every eight weeks is not decoration but scheduling. I pointed out that he owns one jumper per season. He said that was different and could not say why.
Decorating the house
| United States | France | |
|---|---|---|
| Occasions decorated | Six or more | Christmas |
| Exterior | Porch, yard, door, windows | A wreath, sometimes |
| Audience | The street, by car | Nobody in particular |
| Where it lives in July | Basement, labelled by season | Does not exist |
| Halloween decorations | About $4.3bn in 2026 | No retail category |
| Who lights the street | Households | The commune |
Questions, answered
How much do Americans spend on Halloween decorations?
About $4.3 billion in 2026, out of a record $13.5 billion in total Halloween spending, according to the National Retail Federation. More households buy decorations (78%) than costumes (71%).
Do French people decorate their houses for Halloween?
Almost never. Halloween is not widely celebrated in France and there is no retail category for seasonal home decoration beyond Christmas.
Why do Americans decorate the outside of their houses?
Because American houses have a porch, a yard and a street-facing frontage designed to be seen. French homes, especially apartments, have no equivalent public-facing surface that belongs to the household.
Do the French decorate for Christmas?
Yes, properly — a tree, often a crèche, and lights. Street lighting is generally installed by the commune rather than by individual households.
Sources
- National Retail Federation — 2026 Halloween survey: $13.5 billion total, decorations and costume breakdown. Contracosta
- Elevated Magazines — NRF category detail: $4.3bn decorations, 78% of shoppers buying. Elevatedmagazines
Verified October 2026.
He judges America weekly on Instagram, and Le Bulletin collects the best of it once a month.