What Does America's Spending on Holidays Versus Politics Say About Our Priorities?

Americans will spend more on two days this year, Halloween and Christmas, than for all of the federal elections held last year.  

According to the New York Post, this year Americans spent more than $9 billion, (yes, you read that right) $9 billion on costumes and candy. That's a whopping 8.3 percent increase from last year's previous record of $8.4 billion. 

But that's just a raindrop compared to the ocean of spending getting ready to occur over the next two months. Christmas shopping is expected to add more than $1 trillion to retailers coffers. The figure doesn't include the untold millions of dollars that advertisers will spend for commercial advertising between now and the end of December to get customers through the door. 

Now Americans spend more money on Halloween and Christmas than on each two-year election cycle.

The final price tag of the 2016 election was more than $6.8 billion, (the largest in U.S. history) for all federal elections.