The kids like the costumes and I like the candy, but

Do we really need two to three months to prepare for Halloween now? I always thought of Halloween as the low maintenance holiday. Pick up costumes a week or two in advance, get candy, apples and pumpkins closer to the day of the event. Now, Halloween is everywhere when all I want is to successfully navigate all of this back to school stuff. There are orientations, back to school nights, a back to school barbecue, making sure everybody has what they need (clothes, supplies, shoes x four kids = do I really need to work out in addition to all of this? I know the answer. Sigh).