Why isn’t it Halloween in Back To The Future?

[ChessieFL]

I watched Back To The Future again yesterday and it suddenly struck me - the present day bits at the start and end are set on 25/26 October, but there are no Halloween decorations anywhere in Hill Valley.

Was Halloween not a big thing in California in 1985? Or do they not put decorations up 5/6 days in advance? Even in shops?

Of course the real reason is probably just that it was filmed in spring or summer and as Halloween wasn’t at all relevant to the plot it never occurred to the filmmakers that in reality at that time of year there should be Halloween decorations in at least a few places.

This is now bothering me far more than it should!!!

It wasn’t anything like as big as it is now, in terms of decorations and so forth. (I lived in the US at that time.)

There has been a huge spike since then in commercial activity around decorating for every single holiday, as it’s become cheaper to manufacture and distribute all the stuff that gets sold to us. I think a lot of people have forgotten that it wasn’t always like this (or are too young to remember).

But in ET (1982) Halloween is huuuge.

And Halloween in er... "Halloween" (1970's?).

I think because it would have been an unnecessary distraction from the plot but I don’t see why they didn’t just pick a different date in the year tbh.

Well yeah, wasn't relevant to the plot.

It is a very good question!

Yes Smallsteps they could have chosen a different date! January/February would have worked just as well for the plot.