Trash can or desktop computer? You decide. (Photo via MacRumors)

Apple set technophiles' hearts aflutter yesterday with the announcement of new iPads, free software and new Macs. But it was the formal reveal of Apple's striking Mac Pro that became the most divisive topic within the newsroom.

SEE ALSO: Say Hello To The New iPad Air

The Mac Pro, touting a new form factor that one newsroom editor likened to "a Dyson vacuum cleaner," is an elegant, bullet-shaped tower of raw computing muscle. The system comes standard with a 3.7GHz quad-core Intel Xeon processor, dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics cards and 12GB of RAM.

Simply put, this thing will fly.

The Mac Pro is also whisper quiet and stands less than 10 inches tall. Manufactured in the United States, Apple's high-end desktop is an incredible feat of computer engineering. 

But starting at $2,999, the Mac Pro is also incredibly expensive. More advanced builds will cost well in excess of $4,000 - that's enough to pay for you and 53 friends to attend Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. And have money left over to buy a cronut.

So just in time for Halloween, here's a list of seven holiday-themed items that will put you back the cost of just one Mac Pro:

Prepare yourself for an epic electric bill. (Flickr/oskay)

If your dream is to chain orange, tacky string lights across a distance that is the equivalent to walking from the Los Angeles Convention Center to Pershing Square, then you're in luck. Instead of rendering some lame YouTube video on your onyx tower of Apple hotness, you can buy 333 boxes of these generic bulbs instead. A way better use of time and money. 

Become king of the pumpkins! (Flickr/Patrick Stahl)

Would you rather fight an endless stream of zombies in Call of Duty: Blacks Ops 2 on a desktop that Apple is stating will last you for "the next 10 years," or buy enough pumpkins to outlast the actual zombie apocalypse?

For just $5, you can swing by the Kellogg Ranch at Cal Poly Pomona and purchase so many orange-hued gourds that  subsequent pumpkin carving will give you carpal tunnel.

I said *all* the cider. (Flickr/TheFairView)

367 gallons of delicious apple cider.

While the new Mac Pro boasts up to 7 teraflops of graphics performance and can support up to three 4K displays, man cannot subsist off visual fidelity alone. Foregoing the purchase of Apple's premium desktop will allow you to purchase 687,024 calories worth of apple cider. But as everyone knows, calories don't count on Halloween.

You need more candy corn. (Photo via Creative Commons)

Apple claims the new Mac Pro has a light carbon footprint and uses 70 percent less energy than existing Mac Pro desktops, but what's more environmentally friendly than abstaining from meat altogether? For $3,000, you could survive on a steady diet of sugary, diabetes-inducing candy corn.

Your dentist will thank us.

The discs are coasters too! (Flickr/John Ward)

Apple is targeting industry professionals and video editors with its powerful cylindrical computer, but isn't it all for naught when we all know film reached its apex with Catherine Hardwicke's magnum opus? Instead, power users could purchase enough DVD copies to watch "Twilight" for over 38 straight days before reusing a single disc.

Sadly, one Mac Pro will only net you 364 copies of "Twilight" in paperback, thus confirming print is dead.

A seasonal beverage for adults! (Flickr/Donnie Dark)

For some tech enthusiasts, the happiest day of the year is when that shiny, new Apple-engineered gadget rolls off production lines and is delivered by an incompetent parcel carrier to their front doorstop. For regular people, that day comes sometime between July and August, when the largest American-owned beer maker ships its Octoberfest brew to grocers and other fine establishments. Instead of booting up Final Cut Pro X really, really fast, you could be enjoying 2,760 bottles of Sam Adams Octoberfest (and its respectable 83 BeerAdvocate score).

… responsibly, I might add.

If you should die before you wake... (Photo via Wikimedia)

Rent a clown for 30 hours.

Sure, you could buy a stylish rig capable of endless creative possibilities that will also create 3,600 new jobs for American workers, or you could rent a clown to terrify entertain you and your loved ones for 1,800 straight minutes. This one is a no brainer.

The Mac Pro ships in December. Choose wisely.

Reach Staff Reporter Will Federman here or follow him on Twitter @wfederman.