Oct. 27, 2025

Top Halloween costumes for pets

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac shares five uplifting Halloween stories, starting with Brandon's victory at the Safeway World Championship pumpkin weigh-off with a 2,346-pound pumpkin. A family in Louisville, Kentucky continues a tradition of festive decorations and has turned their home into a haunted house to honor a late family member. The growing trend of dressing pets for Halloween is discussed, with popular costumes and costs highlighted. The script also features Mike from Nevis, Minnesota, who is known for handing out large quantities of candy to trick-or-treaters, facing a setback when his bulk candy shipment was stolen. Lastly, the significant rise in Halloween spending over the years is highlighted, with the average American expected to spend more this year, driven by retailers' early promotions.

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Callaroga Shark Media Blue Johnny Mack with five good news

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Halloween stories. Congratulations to Brandon. You see, last year Brandon's

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pumpkin was two thousand, four hundred and sixty five pounds

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and he was the runner up. But this year he

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took the championship at the twenty twenty five Safeway World

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Championship Pumpkin Way Off in Half Moon Bay, California. How

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heavy was the pumpkin Johnny Mack It was two thousand,

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three hundred and forty six pounds. Last year's winner, Travis No.

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His was twenty four to seventy one last year. He said.

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The pumpkin he attempted to grow for this year's way

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off ended up splitting earlier in the season, so he

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had no shot. He decided to attend the event just

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a cheer on his friends as a spectator. Brandon's twenty

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three hundred and forty six pound pumpkin win him the

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prize of twenty one thousand, one hundred and fourteen dollars

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nine dollars per pound of pumpkin. There's a bonus prize

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of thirty grand if you break the world record. That

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record by Travis. He's the guy Who's pumpkin split That

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record from twenty twenty three two thousand, seven hundred and

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forty nine pounds. Good luck next year if you're going

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to try and win that. Cole, Cam and Cayden all

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share a love for the holidays. They trace it back

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to Grandma Karen, who decorated their family home in nineteen

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sixty every holiday season. Cam said, there have been decorations

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at that house for thirty years. I took over by

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myself the last ten years. It got hard warreed in

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my brain. I started doing it and every year the

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crowd's are drawn to their holiday displays grew bigger. The

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family has now encouraged people to bring can goods for

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Dare to Care, a local food bank based in Louisville, Kentucky.

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Then they had some tragedies. Coal was killed at age eighteen.

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Cole's memory goes on. Coal had jokingly pressured Cam to

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buy a ten foot replica of Bumble the Abominable snow Monster.

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They wound up doing that and Caden said, it's not

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the biggest display, but it's something for Coal. Now they

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have sca view Haunts, a volunteer run haunted house. Cam said,

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on average, we have fifteen to twenty actors every night,

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so every scene has at least one actor. There's over

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one hundred and fifty animatronics inside, so it's very immersive.

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Scare view Haunt is a multi themed, twenty minute walk

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through to Killer Kringle, a blood soaked Santa Claus wielding

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a chainsaw. Now, if you're a little kid and that's

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a little too scary, they have a one hour window

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where they keep the lights on. They dial it down

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a little bit. You know, I don't know if you

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want to do that. Sanda thing Cam said, I was

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gonna quit Halloween, but got the opportunity to do this,

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and my love and passion for it all came back.

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Are you dressing up your pet for Halloween? My wife

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was just talking about that yesterday and I was like,

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I don't know if the dogs I want to do that.

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The National Retail Federation says about twenty three percent of

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consumers plan to dress up their animals this year. The

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top looks pumpkins, hot dogs, bumblebees, ghost bats, target shopping courts,

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and bubble bath tub outfits. Bet Chop, owner of Mike,

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says Halloween is becoming a very close second to Christmas

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for pets. Lion mains will cost you about fifteen dollars,

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jerseys twenty five to forty dollars, and a simple bandana

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five to eight bucks. Now this next story, I don't

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think it's good news. I think this is one of

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those episodes where I do four good news stories and

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one bad news story. Now listen to this. Mike from Nevis,

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Minnesota is famous for handing out what he calls five

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handfuls of candy to every trig or treater. He said,

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the whole lawn and driveway and everything will be full

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of kids, even the high schoolers come. This year, his

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bulk candy shipment, about one hundred punds of candy disappeared.

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Amazon told him it had been delivered, sent them the

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photo on the doorstep. By the time he got home,

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the boxes were gone. He told Amazon, it says my

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candy's been delivered, but I didn't get the candy. They said, yeah,

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I was delivered in a special van. He reordered the

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candy everything from Snickers, Statisti Pops and plans to be

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fully stocked in time for the big night. He said,

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they're not stealing from me, they're stealing from the kids.

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And you may have noticed that Halloween is bigger and

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earlier than ever. Some people started Halloween podcasts for some reason.

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You know, it's really getting out of control. This Halloween,

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total spending is expected to reach a record thirteen billion dollars.

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That's almost four times more than twenty years ago. And

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twenty years ago is two thousand and five. These days,

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I know, you know, if you're a certain age, you

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go twenty years ago, and do you think what was

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twenty years ago, like nineteen eighty five? Oh no, no, no, no,

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twenty years ago is two thousand and five. The average

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American will spend about thirty eight dollars on Halloween this year,

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up from eighteen bucks in oh five. Why is Halloween

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starting earlier and earlier? Retailers say they want to sell

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as much as possible before November first. Once November first hits,

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nobody wants to buy a twelve foot skeleton. Oh, I'll

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push that back. I saw a twelve foot dog skeleton

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at home depot on Saturday, and I have my eyes

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on popping in there in early November to see if

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I can get it at a discount. A business professor says,

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the big trick for retailers. It's preventing this holiday from

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starting before the fourth of July. Wow, when those a here.

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Five good news Halloween stories Trick or treat