Disneyland didn't always embrace Halloween. Once it did? Game changer

When Halloween arrives on Oct. 31, it will feel like a grand finale, the culmination of a multi-month celebration of events around Southern California.

Spending for Halloween is estimated to be at some of its highest levels in history, and social media has had a multi-year obsession with giant skeletons and now a talking pumpkin named Lewis. But much of the modern culture surrounding Halloween can arguably be traced back to Southern California's theme parks.

One can make the case that the unofficial first day of Halloween this year was Sept. 1, for that was the day Disneyland Park opened its overlay of the Haunted Mansion themed to Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas." And Southern California is home, after all, to one of the longest-running large-scale Halloween events in the county, the month and a half-long makeover of Knott's Berry Farm into Knott's Scary Farm, now in its 50th year.

Americans have become Halloween-obsessed. By the time Nov. 1 first rolls around, it's estimated that we'll collectively have spent a record of more than $12.2 billion