With a less-than-thrilling holiday shopping season on the horizon, retailers are pinning their hopes on a booming Halloween.

The spooky holiday is expected to generate record sales this year as consumers look for an escape from the gloomy financial news. More Americans are dressing up, throwing parties and decorating their homes and front lawns as the urge to splurge overshadows broader economic troubles.

A record 69 percent of Americans intend to participate in Halloween this year, according to an annual survey from the National Retail Federation. Roughly 44 percent of survey respondents plan to don a costume, up from 40 percent in 2010, and 34 percent plan to throw or attend a party, up from 33 percent last year.

Total spending for the holiday is expected to reach $6.86 billion, the highest in the 10 years the retail trade group has been conducting the survey. The average person plans to spend $72.31 on decorations, costumes and candy, up from $66.28 last year, the survey said.

"It's a lighthearted holiday and with all the stress and bad stuff going on in the world, it's a way to forget," said Ken Alterman, CEO of Savers, a Bellevue-based thrift-store chain that operates Value Village and other outlets featuring an in-store Halloween costume boutique. "Halloween has grown tremendously in the past five years, so we have made it a bigger part of our selection."

Adults have been taking over Halloween for the past decade, and the momentum keeps building. To feed the demand, Halloween pop-up stores continue to spread across the country, taking up dead space vacated by defunct retailers such as Borders and Circuit City.

The number of temporary, or pop-up stores, dedicated to Halloween merchandise rose an estimated 8 percent this year from 2010, according to IBISWorld. Last year, the pop-up shops expanded by 15 percent, the market research firm estimated.

Drive by any strip mall or empty big-box store and you can't help but spot them: Spencer's Spirit Halloween, Party City's Halloween City, Halloween Express, Halloween Adventure, Halloween Warehouse, to name a few.

"When the economy isn't good, Halloween is an inexpensive, fun family holiday," said Christina Norsig, CEO and founder of PopUpInsider, a national online exchange for temporary real estate that works with Halloween pop-up stores. "I'm amazed at how much merchandise there is. It's everywhere."

Like many baby boomers, Norsig recalls as a child dressing up in homemade costumes, such as the bevy of purple balloons pinned to a leotard the year she went trick-or-treating as a bunch of grapes. These days, Halloween has gotten extreme.

Wishcraft, a costume catalog published by high-end children's direct merchant Chasing Fireflies, offers costumes that would make Hollywood costume designer Edith Head proud: a $78 children's glittery goldfish made of orange chiffon, iridescent organza and satin with a sequin-encrusted front; a $178 adult Queen of Hearts full-length gown with printed heart details, gold rim, and tulle and hoop petticoat; and a $38 foam padded jumpsuit and headpiece that transforms the family dog into a "dogosaurus."

Much like "Christmas Creep," the term coined to describe selling holiday goods months before Thanksgiving, Halloween merchandise began appearing in stores and online before the school year began. Wal-Mart Stores and Kmart got a jump on the season around Labor Day.

Target began offering Halloween products in stores by early September and online in August. The cheap-chic discount chain launched an "aggressive" marketing campaign for Halloween home decor in particular, hoping to "capture an even larger portion" of the nation's Halloween business, said Target's then-Chief Marketing Officer Michael Francis at an August financial meeting.

Spending on Halloween home decorations is now second only to spending on Christmas decorations, according to the National Retail Federation.

Among the most popular costumes this year: zombies and Charlie Sheen. Shoppers can buy creepy-looking zombie babies to decorate their yards. They can also find a wig, fedora and bowling shirt to depict the ousted star of "Two and a Half Men."