Newer Halloween Resources (the FEATURED stuff) for 2026

As promised earlier this month, I'm doing another holiday update just featuring new Halloween resources for 2026. This still will not include everything (some outlets will wait until Friday or Saturday for new blog articles or podcasts, for example) but gives you some content to work with during the last few days of the month . . .

Jay LeBlanc

10/27/20265 min read

Featured Halloween 2026 Resources (in the order presented):

“Perfect Pairings: The Great Halloween Candy Swap (October 2026)", FEE's Learning Center, Oct 2026, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z4_91vnNZID5FCjG1Ufl7TlnTgt-5LbqznYzbWQmEYk/edit?tab=t.0

"Thriller: The Great Halloween Candy Swap", Economics for Everyone (E4E), Oct 2026, https://econ4everyone.uchicago.edu/thriller-the-great-halloween-candy-swap/

"Can Monsters Improve Your Standard of Living?”, Econiful.org, Oct 2026, https://econiful.org/resource/can-monsters-improve (NOTE: The other four new Halloween lessons from Econiful are linked at the bottom of this lesson)

“Question of the Day: What percent of consumers are using AI tools to help with their Halloween shopping this year?”, NextGen Personal Finance (NGPF), Oct 2026, https://www.ngpf.org/blog/question-of-the-day/question-of-the-day-what-percent-of-consumers-are-using-ai-tools-to-help-with-their-halloween-shopping-this-year/

"Instacart's Halloween Sweet Tooth Report: Reese's is #1, Regional Candy Quirks, and the Iconic Banana Costume", Instacart.com, Sep 2026, https://company.instacart.com/data-trends/instacart-s-halloween-sweet-tooth-report-reese-s-is-1-regional-candy-quirks-and-the-iconic-banana-costume

"Mapped: Each State’s Standout Halloween Candy", Visual Capitalist, Oct 2026, https://www.visualcapitalist.com/halloween-candy-by-state/

"The Economics of Halloween: Lessons from Candy & Trick-or-Treating" (video with Dr. Matthew Rousu), Pop Culture Economics, Oct 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6uczrojcTw&t=2s

Other Halloween Resource Links (includes the news articles listed at the end):

"10 Lively Facts About the Day of the Dead", HowStuffWorks.com, Oct 2026, https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/holidays-other/day-dead.htm

“Can You Put a Price on Fear? Inside the Economics of Halloween Attractions”, Cheddar.com, Oct 2026, https://www.cheddar.com/media/can-you-put-a-price-on-fear-inside-the-economics-of-halloween-attractions/

"This College of Magic turns ordinary kids into cool magicians", NPR.org, Oct 2026, https://www.npr.org/2026/10/25/g-s1-149089/magic-magicians-south-africa-school-students

"Facts for Features - Halloween 2026”, U.S. Census, Oct 2026, https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2026/halloween.html

"Four Reasons Financial Intermediaries Fail" (article and video), Marginal Revolution University, Oct 2026, https://learn.mru.org/lessons/failure-financial-intermediaries

"Halloween candy sales are off to a slow start amid high chocolate prices and affordability concerns", Associated Press (AP) News, Oct 2026, https://apnews.com/article/halloween-candy-sales-chocolate-prices-treats-0b1126f30969a21710ba995416c5b905

“Halloween Traditions to Follow: Tricks and Treats of the Season”, Library of Congress blogs, Oct 2026, https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2026/10/halloween-traditions-to-follow-tricks-and-treats-of-the-season/?loclr=easerb

"The Origin Story of Candy Corn—and Other Halloween Mainstays", Wall Street Journal, Oct 2026, https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/candy-corn-halloween-traditions-history-0d487ec0?st=1woks6&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

“Some of the Spookiest Specters in the Library’s Archives”, Library of Congress blogs, Oct 2026, https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/10/some-of-the-spookiest-specters-in-the-librarys-archives/?loclr=ealocb

And one more just because it is really cute . . .

"Zoo animals get a smashing pumpkin surprise ahead of Halloween", USA Today, Oct 2026, https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/pets-animals/wildlife/zoo-aquarium/2026/10/27/see-halloween-pumpkin-treats-animals-enjoy/92463906007/

As promised earlier, here is the additional update for new Halloween resources to start the last week of October. I noted above that this will still not include everything - I know some outlets like NPR or Marketplace always wait until 1-2 days out before they feature new Halloween content - but something is better than nothing. And at least I can keep track of the podcasts and blog articles for next year's list! As usual I am starting by featuring a few items, then providing all of the links (featured and others) at the end . . .

Lesson #1 - FEE's Learning Center and Economics For Everyone (E4E) - "The Great Halloween Candy Swap"

This is a combined effort - an economics-focused article from Economics for Everyone, paired with a lesson/activity created by the Foundation for Economic Education. The idea is to focus on voluntary exchange, but also to help students understand the elements that go into a "win-win" trade scenario. FEE's Learning Center does a good job of integrating the economic concepts into the activity, but I see this as something that could easily be run in any classroom (and expose students to the ideas without the reinforcement of the ECON).

Lesson #2 - Econiful - "Can Monsters Improve Your Standard of Living?"

Last week Econiful released a package of 5 new lessons as part of their annual Halloween-resource webinar. I'm only featuring 1 of the 5 here, in part because Econiful handled them as 5 separate lessons (and separate links) rather than as a related package. In this middle school level lesson, students take on the role of community decision-makers allocating tax revenue from a monster tourism boom, evaluating spending options based on their potential to improve productivity and raise the standard of living.

Lesson #3 - NextGen Personal Finance (NGPF) - QUESTION OF THE DAY - "What percent of consumers are using AI tools to help with their Halloween shopping this year?"

As in previous years, NGPF has featured Halloween resources (I included a lot of them in the general October holiday resources) but has not added any big ones for 2026 thus far. They have included a couple of new (or updated) Questions of the Day related to Halloween, and I'm using one of them here. As usual I am not including the answer - you need to look at the full lesson on NGPF's website - but enough to see how you might use this as a bellringer in your classroom.

Video #1 - Pop Culture Economics - "The Economics of Halloween: Lessons from Candy & Trick-or-Treating"

A link to a new video from Dr. Matthew Rousu from his blog/YouTube channel "Pop Culture Economics"

Graphic #1 - Instacart - "The Halloween Sweet Tooth Report"

These are some graphics based on Instacart measurement of candy purchases in various areas of the country - in the links I will also include a Visual Capitalist version of this same data . . .