Holiday

Halloween may not be the new Christmas, but it is close. Consumer interest in this holiday is branching out from costumes and candy to a whole array of sophisticated, giftable treats, with an emphasis on tabletop for entertaining. Though still a niche market, blown-glass Halloween ornaments continue to be popular, driven both by collectors and by the widespread use of artificial trees.

Meanwhile, Easter and Thanksgiving, while popular celebrations, are largely fading from the gift scene. In their place: truly seasonal rather than product for various holidays. Consumers are responding strongly to decor that changes with the seasons, yet has longer use life than the few weeks' run-up to a holiday. Whether it's bright butterflies for spring or a leaf motif for fall, such products appeal to people who celebrate different occasions in the same season.

Among gifting occasions, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day remain strong, with Father's Day lagging behind (perhaps due to heavy competition from consumer electronics and home improvement retailers).

Christmas, of course, is still the granddaddy of all holidays, but here the trends are more notable for a changing retail landscape than dramatically different decorations. Early-but-subtle holiday promotions from mass merchandisers, “Cyber Monday” and double-digit growth in online shopping, as well as the huge popularity of gift cards, are rewriting the Christmas rule book, taking shoppers out of the stores on Black Friday and bringing them back after Christmas to spend those cards in the otherwise slow first quarter. It remains to be seen whether the record-breaking wave of product recalls will put a damper on the annual search for the year's hot toy, and send shoppers in hot pursuit of “Made in America” instead.

Decorations for Christmas are sticking close to home, with variations on traditional themes and color schemes remaining the most popular. Although explicit Christmas themes are still extremely popular, here too seasonal (winter) decor is making its presence felt — though more as an addition to than a substitute for traditional decorations. Some subtle, barely seasonal tabletop and entertaining products are being marketed as part of Christmas collections, particularly in the trendy metallics, gold and silver. Regional variations such as coastal and lodge also continue to find an audience. On the whimsical side, vendors are venturing into a wide variety of colorful holiday characters beyond Santa or his licensed friends, and penguins seem poised to remain popular even after the movies that brought them stardom have passed.