No one wants to be a Grinch. Not after the year we’ve had.
Instead, more of us are emulating Clark Griswold. Christmas decorations, ornaments, trees, outdoor lights, and displays are in high demand across the country as many families deck out their homes in festive cheer.
“People are looking for a little happiness, a little joy,” said Dan Friedman, who owns Light Before Christmas, an Ohio company that installs Christmas lights on homes and businesses. “One way to find that might be through decorations.”
Friedman told the Columbus Dispatch that his sales are up 25% to 30% compared to previous years.
You can probably see the surge in inflatable Santas and gaudy light displays in your own neighborhood. Retailers are noticing it, for sure.
Merchandise is flying off the shelves so quickly that customers are having a difficult time finding basic goods such as Christmas lights, said Jamie Jo Boulogne, a senior vice president of At Home, a national chain of retail home good stores. Andrew Wolf, a holiday merchant at Ace Hardware, told Vox there has been a 45% increase in holiday lighting and a 42% increase with wreaths and garlands compared to last year.
Boulogne also noted that customers began shopping for traditional Christmas decor much earlier in the holiday season.
“I put up an outdoor tree and outdoor lights on November 2,” Caroline Moss, a California resident, said. “I was very nervous because I didn’t want to be seen as the crazy new neighbors. I texted my next-door neighbor, and she was like, ‘Oh, we’re doing it too.’”
Moss is one of many Christmas enthusiasts who bypassed traditional decor this year in favor of over-the-top displays. She said she put up an outdoor lights display for the first time — as did Maya Robinson-Napier, a Charlotte, North Carolina, native who said she invested in an 18-foot inflatable Frosty the Snowman and a champagne-colored archway to brighten her neighbors’ spirits.
“I didn’t intend on it being a whole thing,” she told the New York Post. “Once you start, it’s kind of hard to stop. So, we just keep putting more stuff out.”
Moss and Robinson-Napier aren’t the only ones going all out. Several major retailers said they can’t even keep Christmas inflatables in stock. Walmart is sold out of 68-inch nutcrackers, Hammacher Schlemmer is sold out of 18-foot Frosty the Snowmans, and Home Depot said blow-up reindeers are nearly impossible to come by in stores.
The demand for Christmas decor proves people are looking for a bit of cheer. Maybe “cheer” is too strong a word. Maybe it’s more a degree of solidarity — to make us feel we’re all celebrating the holiday together even though, by order of the county department of health, we’re all apart. And the Christmas trees, stockings, gingerbread houses, and wreaths all serve as a reminder that there is something to look forward to, even if the way we celebrate Christmas looks different this year.
