How soon is too soon to start advertising the holidays?

[Bronze_Palms]

Have you been in Target or TJ Max yet? It is Halloween galore! The coffee shops have pumpkin drinks out! MY FAVORITE.

Next it will be Thanksgiving then Christmas lol how soon is it too soon to start advertising for the holidays?

We are pulling stock numbers while purchasing inventory and operational supplies to stock up now. The money for us is coming in quickly now so I would rather burn some extra cash now while we are busy so we feel comfortable in the slower season.

[Candlestore]

@Bronze_Palms ,

Not sure if there is a Time that is too soon or not too soon.  Being a vacation area in the mountains we have a lot of campgrounds around us.  They have different events for their visitors at all times of the year.  So in July they have Christmas in July events and in June a "Thanksgiving" diner event.  I forget exactly when they have a Halloween styled event too.  So for us we have our Holiday scents all year and a few holiday items out all year for these types of camping events.    Of course we do not do major Holiday sales for these but the customers appreciate being able to get "Holiday" scents all year especially if they come here once or twice a year and then take them home for the actual Holiday.

[DinaLRosenberg]

We're a metaphysical shop so we are READY to get halloween in our windows (we already have our halloween merch out). 

We host a huge street fair on 10/5 so we're going to run Halloween now (just waiting on a few more decorations to come in).

Christmas we setup about a week before thanksgiving....

[HC_Charlie]

Depending on what you sell or your kind of business, it may never be "too early" for the holidays. Personally, I don't like to think about Christmas until after Halloween is OVER, but working in retail it seems like during the past several years...the back-to-school season is also the start of Halloween!

If you're a service business you could start putting together packages NOW...there are many friends and families looking for things to do over the holidays. Think of a "sisters" or "ladies night" events where you offer a special in bring in small groups to share in a salon experience. You could sell tickets and even reserve nights/days just for these groups, offer refreshments or partner with another local business that could provide a catered type of event. Offer a menu of your services and you could also present a menu of services of your partnered businesses.

You could also have Santa type photos for families, children, or pets. But the sooner you plan the sooner you can begin advertising and getting your customers excited via social media or print ads. Good luck to you and everyone this holiday....hoping for a great prosperous ending to 2024 ! 🎆

[DinaLRosenberg]

the dogs are excited for their Golden Retriever decoration to be up!

[rtfulk]

Since we are a mobile business and travel most of the country, we started selling Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas in July. This year for some reason they have sold better than last year. Normally we place our Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas clothing designs in January for spring production, this year we have had to resort to RTS seasonal clothing because we are selling out of some of our designs.

[CareyJo]

I say no matter what business you're in don't go before September 1st.  There are a LOT of Halloweenie people in the world and they start the minute school starts but I think August is Fall and September and October are Halloween 🙂  But do what suits you best!!

[rjonin]

There's never a "too soon" IMO.  I think it depends on the marketing language that you use.  Like subtle language & imagery or more direct.

Here's why...we stay in the forefront of the customer/client mind.  We/You can be first off the pitch compared to others in your industry.  I've done a gift card promo in October-waaaay ahead of the holiday season.  I sell this as a holiday, birthday or just for you gift.  I run the promotion for about 30-45 days.  It's usually a multi-email campaign and last year, I also put it on my IG.

I don't typically do discounts, so this gift card promo is one of the only ways clients will get discounts at my business.

[phillipsrw]

@Bronze_Palms we have the same dilemma every year. I personally do not like to see seasonal items in our shop too soon, but the team over ride me every year, and to their credit they know their customers and it works. So we start slipping seasonal items in pretty early and customers buy it. You get the odd comment like wow they have Christmas items in already but hey its a choice whether you buy it or not. I'll absorb the odd comment if it drives sales volume.