As we plan forward to 2024, we discovered that Thanksgiving runs “late” and our normal third weekend in December would end on Dec 22. That’s a bit closer to Christmas than we typically hit, although I am aware of many Christmas Markets around the nation that focus exclusively on that same timeframe - they prefer the last minute focus.
I’m a bit undecided myself; we could either start Nov 30/Dec 1 (Black Friday weekend) and end on Dec 15, or start Dec 7/8 and conclude Dec 21/22. Share your thoughts using the poll below:
It’s been my experience that most have Christmas parties, etc earlier in the month rather than later. Teacher gifts, etc would be purchased earlier in the season, plus people start going out of town for the holidays especially with Christmas Eve being on a Tuesday. A lot of folks will head out on Saturday. Black Friday Weekend might be a really cool thing!
Families are still gathering Thanksgiving weekend. It is a time to pull ourselves together to get ready for the Holiday Market… I think the quality of the customers would be more groups of tired people looking
for something to do - entertainment, rather than shopping.
I would expect multi-generational family groups with all that goes with it so I would prefer the regular schedule…
It is true it goes late, but the last-minute shoppers are generally, in my experience quality shoppers.
It’s an evenly split crowd, which implies what we already suspected - there is no perfect answer.
Given that our 10y+ Holiday Market efforts have focused on the “first three weekends in December”, we’re going to maintain course and stick to the long-term plan. There are so many incentives by the Big Box Retailers on Thanksgiving weekend that we are unlikely to pierce the marketing storm, although we are established in the early December messaging. It feels like the conservative, more impactful approach.
Thanks for the public discussion, and for voicing your perspectives.
