Spending on costumes and treats has increased, but Britain isn’t showing quite the same commitment or creativity

What are you going as, this Halloween? The discussion in our household starts in the spring, takes in many twists and reversals over the course of the summer, and usually settles towards the end of September. This year we have been through John Lennon, a clown, an Oompa Loompa and the blue astronaut from the video game Among Us, before settling on Willy Wonka (one child) and “a dark spirit riding a dinosaur” (the other). If I was fun enough to dress up and take part I’d be shooting for something smarmily high concept like the death of American democracy – I’m not, so I’m not – but anyway, all of this is to say that Americans still take Halloween much more seriously than the British.

It’s a gap that is obviously closing. This year is the first time in almost two decades that I have been in the UK for Halloween, and most people I talk to seem to suggest that Halloween prep here is out of control. (Inevitably these remarks are delivered in vaguely accusatory tones and with a measure of pro forma resentment that, honestly, I’ve missed.) Research undertaken this year by a personal finance site put Halloween spending in the UK at £776m, a number that has more than tripled since 2013, with an average spend of £25 a person, rising to £43 in London. And while these increases are predominantly pushed by gen Z and millennials, the data suggests that their elders are being dragged along to the party behind them.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist