What does your business do for the Festive/Holiday Season?

[Pesso]

Hey Sellers,

It may feel like it's early to think about, but we're more than halfway to the Festive/Holiday Season!

It's never too early to plan ahead, and we love to inspire here, so:

What does your business do for the Holidays?

Fall & Autumn holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving; Festive & Winter Holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Years, Boxing Day, and any other holidays that we didn't think of!

Do you decorate your space?
Do you set up special Holiday Themed offerings like menu items or specials?
Do you run Events for your community?

How do you handle staffing and employees' time off?
How you handle long lines or large orders?

How do you promote and market your business during this time?

We'd love to see pictures too, so please share them in the comments!

Looking forward to seeing and hearing what you do.

[GourmetOnWheels]

@Pesso I am already taking orders for Heritage Turkeys, as the farmers need to know by middle of August how many poult's to raise.

René

[Helen]

Would most of the orders be for Thanksgiving or do you have some for Christmas?

[GourmetOnWheels]

The ones for Thanksgiving are fresh the ones for Christmas are Flash Frozen

René

[Pesso]

Wow! Hope the ordering goes well!

[Doran]

I have an over-the-top window display each month starting in October.  It takes months to plan them out and a few friends help me.  We love it.  Each year since doing it I get new people in saying, "I've never seen this place before but your window caught my eye." So totally worth it.  

[Pesso]

That's so great that the constant changes help bring in new folks! Thanks for sharing @Doran!

[acctdept3sservi]

I have announcements and posting for the observance or holiday,celebrations or occasions.

These announcements are shown on my online ecommerce website and postings on social media.

[Pesso]

That's a great way to share and post about it! Thanks for telling us!

[doc_choc]

As chocolatiers our busiest months are October through to April, covering Halloween, Christmas,  valentine's, Easter and Mother's Day.  As soon as Easter is done we are straight in to Christmas mode and NPD with the aim of completing artwork, designs, recipe development by the end of July and start manufacturing in August. We offer a pre orders for some of our items like Advent Calendars during July (always seems early but amazes me how many people want to be organised) which is great as we can get a more accurate handle on print quantities. We also talk to our wholesale customers in July and start taking orders at this point. Come to October we are straight in to Valentines and Easter Egg designs. It's a pretty strange existence as you are always out of sync with the rest of the world and the years seem to fly by so fast as we are always ahead of the curve.

[Pesso]

Thanks for sharing @doc_choc - that definitely does sound strange to constantly hop forward in time to thinking about the holidays.

Do you have any pictures of your holiday chocolates or the advent calendars?

[JessPoynter]

Do you decorate your space?

Sure do!! Each month gets their glory (I do not decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving). 

Do you set up special Holiday Themed offerings like menu items or specials?

Yup! 
Halloween - candy bucket for clients; "haunted house" theme for the studio

Thanksgiving - annual sale; Pumpkin spice treatment in the shampoo bowl; specialty Thanksgiving cocktail

Christmas - tabletop tree with special prizes for clients on their day of service 

Do you run Events for your community?

Haven't been able to do a whole lot the last few years. We did do canned food drives in our Sola location. That is definitely something I want to get better about this year.

[Pesso]

That sounds wonderful, @JessPoynter  - thanks for sharing!

Do you have any pictures of the Cocktail, pumpkin spice treatment, candy buckets, or table top tree with prizes?

[Twiggy]

 

 

 

 

 

[Twiggy]

Every day is a holiday!

We close 24th - 6th Jan as logistics is a nightmare and often the stock is old or fridged.  We will open for a large event

Long lines -  the rope comes out one out one in and pick up only area to one side for pre orders. 

promote. - we decorate lotta of pubs and offices so they see our product December 1st. 

 

[Twiggy]

Halloween belinda - smoke machines - the works. 

[Pesso]

Thanks for sharing all of these @Twiggy !
Great strategies!

[credereorganics]

I personally dress in costume on Halloween.  In Idyllwild, we have a huge Halloween parade and the center of town is closed.  My store is located in what is considered the "center of town".  I also hand out full size candy bars/packages.

For Christmas, we have another parade (not as large as Halloween) and the town center is closed off.  Santa is available to kids - and we have a tree lighting right after Thanksgiving. My store has hot mulled apple cider that is free, available in a self serve airpot. 

[Pesso]

That sounds like an absolutely fantastic time for the whole community! Thanks for sharing!

[Highlands_N]

Decor in the office and Front Shop!! I love the mood of the holidays. It just makes you appriecate everything around you. I run a month of free goody for every purchase. Mostly I make samples of new arrival or other items and add them to the orders. Or Say just a weekend do a Sale, discount or Free shipping. On Holidays I give my employees a day off to be with family. I look around my comminuty and see if any donations or volunteers is happening. I always say a little help goes a long way. 

[Pesso]

That's so great @Highlands_N ! I love the idea of a free goody with every purchase and some other samples and sales. 

And giving back to the community through donations and volunteering are incredible. Thanks for doing that!

Do you have any pictures of any of those you'd like to share?

[HHcsJoe]

We have a general store/home decor store, so the change in seasons and holidays are important to our business.  We are gearing up for fall right now and our town holds an Apple Fest- so all things pumpkin spice, apple and maple come to the forefront.  Soon we will be gearing up for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Our goal is to be set for Christmas by 11/1 then we usually hold three weekend events starting with Black Friday/Small Biz Saturday.  We offer free gift wrapping, snacks throughout the day and usually in store specials. We decorate the store and our windows, which our customers LOVE! We set holiday themed tables up throughout the store with candle displays, dishes and glassware and decorate our 11’Christmas tree with ornaments that are for sale.  I’ve been searching for and buying holiday themed merchandise already.  It’s my favorite time of year!