The countdown to the holidays doesn’t start the day after Thanksgiving anymore. For a growing number of shoppers, it starts months earlier.

That’s according to Shelley E. Kohan, retail expert and faculty member in the Whitman School of Management, who says the retail industry has been watching a steady shift. Holiday purchasing is creeping earlier into the fall, with some shoppers beginning as early as October—and a smaller but growing group starting their planning even before that.

“What we’ve seen is what we call ‘holiday creep,’” Kohan says. “What that is, is that the holiday is actually getting further and further away from the actual event itself. You have Christmas in July, you have Halloween in September.”

The shift reflects a few converging forces, including shoppers’ continued price sensitivity and a retail landscape still adjusting to tariff-driven cost pressures, Kohan says.

Rather than waiting for Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals, many consumers are spreading out their spending, comparison shopping earlier and leaning into value over splurge purchases. It’s a pattern that’s held for the past couple of holiday seasons.

For retailers, the longer runway means holiday marketing increasingly has to start before the season “feels” like the holidays at all. For shoppers, Kohan suggests the earlier window can actually work in their favor—more time to plan, compare and avoid the last-minute price crunch.

Kohan is a marketing instructor in the Whitman School of Management. She also serves as chief strategy officer of The Robin Report and writes for Forbes, where she covers retail and consumer trends.

To connect with her on this topic and other retail angles, please contact Daryl Lovell, dalovell@syr.edu.