Mariah Carey has defrosted.
It’s that time of year when Carey’s iconic “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” released in 1994, returns to the radio waves and music charts.
Many people consider Nov. 1 the official first day of the holiday season. With Halloween already a distant memory, store shelves are stocked with winter holiday decorations, gift supplies and other cheery items.
This phenomenon has been dubbed the “Christmas creep” — retailers introducing holiday-themed merchandise before the traditional holiday shopping season, which usually starts on Black Friday, or the day after Thanksgiving.
James Ellis, former dean of USC’s business school and current marketing professor, said the holiday season is a huge deal for stores and other retailers looking to make their end-of-the-year profit goals.
He said some companies make up to 35 percent of their annual profits during the month of December, a factor driven mainly by holiday shopping.
“There’s so many stores that do after-Thanksgiving sales to try and boost their sales,” Ellis said. “So in the first three weeks that they have right now, they’re just going to put it out and let people look at it and get a sense that it is the holiday period.”
Some psychologists have discussed how decorating early for the holidays can lift people’s spirits and spike dopamine, which promotes feelings of pleasure and satisfaction.
While holiday festivities can bring warm, joyful feelings of happiness and nostalgia to many people across the U.S., for retailers, this feeling translates to dollar signs as more people buy holiday items in October and November.
“People like to get in the holiday spirit early, especially when things are so difficult globally and geopolitically,” Ellis said. “The one thing the holidays do is lift people’s fears and make people more philanthropic, more giving and more family-oriented.”
Surveys conducted by the National Retail Federation found that Americans spend an average of nearly $900 on gifts, decorations, food and other key seasonal items.
Nearly all U.S. adults — 92 percent — say they plan to celebrate winter holidays such as Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa this year.
Itzel Ivarra, a junior studying health and human sciences, said Nov. 1 is fair game to get the festive season started.
“For Thanksgiving, you don’t need to plan as much as you do for Christmas,” Ivarra said. “Christmas is just more of a recognized holiday. The feeling of Christmas is spread out through more than just December.”
A survey of 1,000 Americans conducted by Home Depot and Wakefield Research last year found that 55 percent of respondents also begin their holiday decorating and festivities before Thanksgiving.
“Passing by houses, I don’t think anyone decorates for Thanksgiving,” Ivarra said. “It’s Christmas lights. By the time you put up Thanksgiving decorations, you’d be taking them down pretty soon to be putting up Christmas decorations.”
Other holiday shopping promotions are beginning soon. Popular Starbucks holiday items and cups are returning Nov. 2, including a new Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai and other seasonal favorites like the Peppermint Mocha.
The Dunkin’ Donuts holiday items officially launched on Nov. 1, including a new drink — the Spiced Cookie Coffee.
Lars Perner, a business professor at USC and expert on holiday shopping, said the “Christmas creep” keeps retailers competitive.
“It used to be that, whether things were on sale or not, there really wasn’t a lot of holiday shopping or merchandising going on until Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving,” Perner said. “But in recent years, that’s crept back further and further.”
Perner said that up to 50% of toy sales in the U.S. occur during the holiday season — a huge motivating factor for online and brick-and-mortar stores to get their holiday items out earlier.
Perner also emphasized that Thanksgiving is happening on the earlier side this year. Since Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November, the actual date of the holiday shifts each year. The earliest Thanksgiving can occur is Nov. 22 and the latest is Nov. 28.
This year Thanksgiving is on Nov. 23, leaving slightly more time for holiday shopping afterward.
“You wouldn’t think that a few days would make a huge difference in the total amount of holiday merchandise you sell, but it actually does have quite a considerable impact,” Perner said.