Why It’s Your Fault There’s Already Christmas Stuff in Stores

Everybody complains about seeing inflatable lawn Santa and Christmas ornaments stocked next to the candy corn and costumes in October or even earlier. Better get used to it, though. Plenty of research indicates that ‘Christmas creep’ shows no sign of slowing down—and stores are just delivering on what shoppers today want.

Consulting company the Hay Group finds that more than half of retailers surveyed say they’ll have kicked off their holiday promotions by this month (including almost 20% who said they started last month), up significantly from last year. That’s a lot of red and green mingling with Halloween orange and black.

“Shoppers can expect to start seeing holiday sales early this season, as retailers work to get customers in the door sooner,” the company says.

Both the Hay Group and the National Retail Federation are predicting healthy increases in holiday spending this year, and after a largely disappointing back-to-school shopping season, stores are scrambling to be the first ones getting a crack at your wallets.

If the NRF’s prediction of a 4.1% increase in holiday shopping this year is correct, it will be the first time in three years that holiday sales increase by more than 4%. “Consumers are in a much better place than they were this time last year, and the extra spending power could very well translate into solid holiday sales growth for retailers,” the group says.

The funny thing is, as much as we complain about holiday promotions pushing into ever-earlier parts of the calendar, retailers are just delivering what customers today seem to want. We might gripe, but we’re still buying holiday stuff as soon as it’s on shelves. The NRF found last year that 40% of shoppers started before Halloween, including nearly 20% who started in the month of September or earlier. The Omaha World-Herald says the Mall of America even sells plenty of holiday-related items over the summer.

“You’re going to see holiday promotions coming on maybe even prior to Halloween… with ‘Black Friday’ thrown in there repeatedly before Thanksgiving,” Ken Perkins, president of research firm Retail Metrics, tells the newspaper.