Another foreign company with a big profile in the U.S. is Switzerland-based Nestle (otc: NSRGY - news - people ), which is well known in the States for its Crunch and Butterfinger candy bars, Toll House cookies and Nesquik chocolate mix.

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The business model for Halloween costumes seems to have skipped women no longer in college and yet not stuck in the house handing out candy.

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He later adopted one, 12-year-old James Candy, who was brought up at Youlbury, the house he built at Boar's Hill, near Oxford.

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As for the sassy 10-year-old, there was no stopping him once he'd thought of his ideal Halloween craft: a graham cracker haunted house decorated, of course, with lots of candy.

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And don't forget the eye candy: If you can't afford to have painters do your whole house, just have them freshen the rooms that get the hardest wear (usually the kitchen and baths), as well as the front door.

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