Christmas creep (also referred to as holiday creep[1]) is a merchandising phenomenon in which merchants and retailers introduce holiday-themed merchandise, decorations or music well before the traditional start of a holiday shopping season.[2] The term "Christmas creep" was first used in the mid-1980s but the phenomenon is much older.[3]
Christmas is often referred to by retailers as the "golden quarter"; that is, the three months of October through December is the quarter of the year in which the retail industry hopes to make the most profit.[4][5] The phenomenon of Christmas creep is associated with the desire of merchants to take advantage of particularly heavy Christmas-related shopping well before Black Friday in the United States and before Remembrance Day in Canada.[6] In the United States, historical motives for extending the Christmas shopping season have also included concern for the well-being of factory workers, shop girls and delivery boys, and the need to mail gifts in time to reach overseas troops during wartime.
Holiday creep is not limited to the northern hemisphere and the concept can apply to other holidays, such as Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras, Saint Patrick's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Bastille Day, Columbus Day, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Rosh Hashanah, and the Mid-Autumn Festival. The motivation for holiday creep is for retailers to lengthen their selling interval for seasonal merchandise in order to maximize profit and to give early-bird shoppers a head start on that holiday. The next major holiday is marketed as soon as or before a previous one has ended.[1] However, it is not clear that this practice has been consistently beneficial for retailers.[7]
Holiday creep is becoming a more general seasonal creep, affecting merchandise associated with general seasons of the year. Advertising for winter-, spring-, summer-, and fall-related goods often begins midway through the previous season.[8][9] The COVID-19 pandemic and its disruption of world-wide supply chains may also have encouraged seasonal creep, as retailers order farther in advance, and buyers shop earlier.[10]
- ^ a b Meyersohn, Nathaniel (2022-09-29). "Holiday sales creep has gotten out of hand | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
- ^ Goodier, Michael (28 October 2024). "'Christmas creep is real': festivities start earlier every year, analysis finds". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 January 2025.
- ^ Maxwell, Kerry (September 18, 2006). "Macmillan English Dictionary Word Of The Week Archive – "Christmas creep"". New Words. Macmillan Publishers. Archived from the original on March 20, 2007. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
The term Christmas creep was first used in the mid-eighties, though gained wider recognition more recently, possibly due to subsequent coinage of the expression mission creep.
- ^ Zoe Wood (Tuesday December 21, 2010) Snow chaos raises fears for Christmas dinners minus the trimmings The Guardian
- ^ Doherty, Brennan (31 October 2023). "'Christmas creep': Why holiday candy hits shelves so early". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 21 January 2025.
- ^ Siewers, Alf (November 25, 1987). "He's well-suited to enjoying life of Santa". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
And so does the culture, with a commercializing of himself that Santa deplores even as he has watched the holiday season creep back to Labor Day.
- ^ "Christmas Creep: The Shopping Season Is Longer, but Is It Better?". Knowledge@Wharton. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. March 1, 2006. Retrieved December 27, 2007.
Wharton marketing scholars and other analysts say an extended Christmas season is something of a mixed bag. It may hold advantages, disadvantages — or even no advantages — for store owners.
- ^ "October in July: Walgreens already stocking Halloween candy". Jill Cataldo. 21 July 2015.
- ^ Hautala, Shelby (2023-10-24). "Canadian Halloween Loses Its Spark, Calls for More Innovation and Seasonal Balance in Retail [Interview]". Retail Insider. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
- ^ McMarlin, Shirley (16 September 2022). "'Holiday creep' means seasonal merchandise hits stores earlier every year". TribLIVE.com. Retrieved 21 January 2025.