Molly Gold didn't take the kids on vacation this summer, and she has cut back on extras like books from the book fair and school T-shirts for her 11- and 13-year-olds. But she's not skimping on Halloween.

She's decorating the house with pumpkins, ghosts and black cats, and handing out the "good candy": M&Ms.

"Halloween is a big time in my house," said Gold, 42, a mom of three in Apex, N.C. "In our view, that's a wonderful innocent fun time for kids. And the grown-ups are certainly going to need to relax a little by then."

The economic downturn doesn't seem to be dampening Halloween spirits. Americans are planning to spend even more on candy and decorations this year than last, according to surveys by and Visa Inc. and the National Retail Federation.

The Visa survey found that 75 percent of Americans plan to celebrate and spend on Halloween, and among those, the average will spend $47 on candy and decorations -- an 18 percent increase from what they were planning to spend on Halloween in a similar Visa survey last year.

Chalk it up to the notion that even in troubled times, no one wants to take candy from a baby, said Jason Alderman, director of financial education for Visa Inc.

"We don't want to disappoint our kids," he said. "We don't want to disappoint our neighbor's kids."

For some, Halloween is a welcome distraction from the grim economic news and the upcoming presidential election.

"It can provide a bright spot in an otherwise kind of gloomy situation," said Sue Fogel, chair of marketing at DePaul University.

Ann Schmidt, 43, a marketing consultant in Williston, Vt., compares Halloween to an inexpensive vacation. It's an opportunity to dress up, eat candy and blow off steam.

"Considering the thousands of dollars our retirement accounts were drained of these past two weeks, spending a hundred bucks on fake skeletons, glow-in-the dark spiders and a fog machine seems like a no-brainer," said the mother of two.

Jeff Davis, 43, a father of two in Carmel, N.Y., said he and his wife canceled their usual blowout party. But there are decorations throughout the house and he said the holiday is going to be fun in spite of his declining 401(k) balance.

"You push all that aside for a while," said Davis, a videographer. "It's a kids' holiday, so let them have fun and make it fun for them, and that's what we try to do."

Halloween has become a bigger holiday in recent years, growing far beyond a night of trick-or-treating to include parades and parties for people of all ages. But it remains low-stress and relatively inexpensive, said Nancy Robinson, consumer strategist at Iconoculture, a cultural trends research firm.

It doesn't require finding the "perfect something," traveling to be with family or purchasing an expensive costume; a costume can be someone throwing a sheet over his head or dressing as an unmade bed, she said.

"It's entirely a holiday about gathering together and having fun with each other in the goofiest way possible," she said.

For Donia Crime, 36, who works in public relations in Atlanta, Halloween is more important this year because she knows she is going to have to cut back at Christmas. There will be no traveling, fewer parties and less expensive gifts.

Halloween is a way for her to entertain neighbors and kids relatively inexpensively: "And, for the kids, especially my 16-month-old, it's just as fun if not more fun than Christmas."

Trend-spotter Marian Salzman said she predicts less mischief this Halloween and more simple pleasures -- carving pumpkins, eating candy corn, telling ghost stories in the kitchen. There will be no tolerance for egging and toilet papering, said Salzman, the author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including "Next Now: Trends for the Future."

"This Halloween should be not be spooky," she said.

Gold, founder of Go Mom! Inc., which helps moms with scheduling and organizing, isn't changing her traditions this year. She's making a big pot of chili and trick-or treating will commence right after dark.

And as with previous years, she is watching for bargains on candy.

"It's a very festive time," she said. "I don't want it ever to be stressful."