I'm not a fan of horror or scary stuff but even I like Halloween. I'm also interested in wicca and paganism so the whole spiritual angle of the holiday appeals to me as well.
I like the idea behind trick or treating, I like the concepts of a community getting together to basically have "spooky christmas", people getting together as a community to carve pumpkins, bake pumpkin pie, decorate their homes all spooky-like, stuff like that. I love it.
And the candy is a big bonus I won't lie. I look forward to Halloween for the gianter bags of candy just like I look forward to easter so I can have dozens and dozens of cadbury creme eggs.
As a holiday, is it essential? Well, I think so. I think Halloween needs to be preserved as part of american culture. You can't deny that Halloween has impacted our culture in incredible ways. Whether it be the drive to make tons of candy to fuel the corporate capitalists, or running a spook house, or just decorating everything in orange.
And the religious folks of extreme christianity who want to turn the holiday into some kind of evil witch party where people gather to practice black magic and find some way to kill jesus again are just a hoot to listen to with their rabid paranoia about magic and demons.