It's Halloween weekend in the Bay Area!

Well, Halloween weekend is often running in the Bay Area. Tonight, families are putting the final touches on their spooky displays while bars in San Francisco brace for the crowds. I just love the energy. It has this really community feel to it. You know, you're seeing everyone come out together and just having a great time, a fun time. Halloween on a rare Saturday this year, and the party is already starting. Good evening. I'm Claudine Wong. Let's give you a live look at San Francisco's Castro District, famous for its Castroween celebrations. This is the scene right now at Castro and Market. No major crowds there yet, but you can be sure that it will get busier as it gets later. But the real party in the Castro is tomorrow. Tonight is just a little bit of a preview. I mean, there's some people out. We're seeing a lot of cool costumes, but tomorrow is going to be absolutely nuts. This whole street is going to be absolutely crazy, crawling with amazing costumes and people from all over. So what you're seeing tonight, really cool, really awesome, but imagine this times 100 tomorrow. And while the Castro gets ready for bar goers, neighborhoods are getting ready for trick-or-treaters. Just like Christmas, people are finding ways to make Halloween last longer, and that means more elaborate displays in neighborhoods around the Bay Area. KTVU's Tom Baker joining us from Novato tonight. Hi, Tom. I want to show you something that's really important. I want you to meet my ghoul friend's family. Americans are spending about $4.3 billion on decorations alone, and that number's rising. Online searches for Halloween outdoor decorations far exceed those for indoor decorations. Decorations. Rob Sheets sent out a very small display put out for his daughter 15 years ago, and that has grown into the spooky spectacle on Santa Rosa's McGowan Drive. I do it for the children, and they look forward to it around here. We do it on Friday and Saturday nights, and we literally get packed. And it's just, it's an awesome feeling, watching those children smile. It's something to come out with your family, and instead of only on Halloween night, come out a couple days before then. Enjoy some scary stuff. It's so wonderful how there are certain people that do all Halloween, and then other people do Christmas, and it's really nice for people like us who just love to see both of them. Every child finds a favorite. The lion like that. The scary lion? Yeah. Is that your favorite one? Yes. Why is he so fun? Because. Do you want to come back here when they're all turned on and all the lights are on? Yes. Yeah? Are you having fun? Yeah. In the light you can see each and every detail, but it's in the night that they come back. Halloween house decorating is becoming significantly more popular and increasingly elaborate as rows or blocks of homes are becoming common. Here in Windsor at the corner of Camelot and Alexis Street, you can come and stroll the block to see houses dressed up from the sublime to the spooktacular. Now at Novato's 90 Gertrude Lane, you'll find an interactive walk-through display replete with creepy characters, glowing-eyed skeletons, and spooky musicians where visitors can push buttons to make the props sing and talk. All of these places, all for fun and all for free. I love it. I love it. That's why we're bringing our three-year-old around, and she just loves seeing the lights and easy to please. So, yes, it's great. It's great. And it builds up a community, too. The community gets involved, and everybody loves it. And oh yes, there are plenty of other places we could have shown you Bay Area wide, but lots of locations can be found online by you and on social media, many sparing no expense to compete to get the last rights, bragging rights that is. Reporting live, Tom Bakar, KTVU, Fox 2 News. Tom, it certainly is always impressive and I think I'm also just most impressed by it's not just one house, that it seems like entire neighborhoods. commit to either a theme or just going big? Well, I think what's interesting about it is, it obviously was picked up from the Christmas thing where many, many displays are available all over the place, but this is really something growing. And then when whole communities get involved, And then they really start doing things, as we showed last year, where three streets not only close down the streets and decorate, they also have thousands of people there. Yeah, all in good fun and certainly always something new and kind of awesome to look at. All right, thank you, Tom. And San Francisco's annual...