Does Halloween seem to be coming earlier each year? The reasoning behind 'Summerween'

The hot days of high summer have dragged on for Americans facing extreme heat, energy shortages and a storm season that is shaping up to be record-breaking. The sweltering months of July and August have seen many clamoring for local pools, holing up with air conditioning blasting and....shopping for 12-foot Skeletons to stake in their yards.

That would be the doing of Summerween: the perfect blend of summer relaxation and shopping for throw pillows branded with ghosts and ghouls.

What exactly is this "Summerween" everyone is talking about? Originally, it was a reference to the animated television show "Gravity Falls," in which the characters celebrate their own Halloween-esque holiday set in, you guessed it, the summertime. It has since become a pop-culture phenomenon that allows and encourages Halloween enthusiasts to break out the skulls and scares a little (or a lot) early.

While the term itself has become more trendy in the past year or so, it references a phenomenon that is already well-known by retailers and Halloween heads alike: the spooky season has expanded far beyond the last week of October.

Walk into a crafts, home goods or even grocery store in July and you're likely to be smacked in the face with pops of orange and black, even as bathing suits and hot-weather items are still on the shelves. By mid-to-late August, you may have a hard time finding a retailer that hasn't cashed in on the ravenous hunger consumers have developed for all things All Hallow's Eve.

Has Halloween always been this way? And when did it become and entire month or even season somewhat reminiscent of Christmas?

When did Halloween hit shelves this year?

When it comes to maximizing seasonal sales, timing is key, retailers have learned.

According to Lance Allen, Senior Product Merchant of Decorative Holiday at Home Depot, the biggest determining factor is customer demand.

"Our Halloween launch is strategically timed to match the growing excitement among our dedicated fans," Allen told USA TODAY. "With trends like 'Summerween' gaining popularity, it's evident that customers are enthusiastic about planning their Halloween displays well in advance."

Home Depot became one of the quintessential Halloween hubs in 2020 after its 12 ft. skeleton decoration went massively viral online. Since then, said Allen, the company has been sending its Halloween collection live on its website in July. Two years ago, the retailer also began hosting a springtime event somewhat akin to Christmas in July, called the halfway to Halloween sale, giving enthusiasts a chance to grab items from the Halloween line as early as April.

Like years past, Allen said the line will hit brick-and-mortar store shelves by Labor Day.

"We have seen customers decorating earlier each season for the last five years and having products available when they want it is important to our customers," Allen said. "When it comes to deciding when to release Halloween and other holiday items...our top priority is meeting the customers where they are and the growing enthusiasm for early Halloween preparation."

Other stores including Target and Lowe's dropped their Halloween collections in July this year, offering either early, exclusive online sales or previews. Target, which announced its line on July 17, will have all of its décor rolled out in stores by late August. Lowe's likewise shared its "Haunted Harbor" items in July, all of which will be fully available online and in stores come Aug. 26.

And this year, like in years past, you are likely to be greeted by a fully spookified store when walking into Michaels, HomeGoods, Hobby Lobby, Costco or Walmart/Sam's Club by mid-August, though some begin stocking items as early as the first week of July.

Hope you aren’t afraid of clowns: See Spirit Halloween’s 2024 animatronic line

The ever-expanding “holiday season”

Joel Davis, Executive Director of the David F. Miller Retail Center of University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, previously told USA TODAY that holiday shopping used to be more of a last-minute errand. Even Christmas, which now has an entire dedicated season, didn't get nearly as much early play from retailers

“In the early 1900s, Christmas shopping was basically done a few days before Christmas. The whole family would gear up to go to that retail area and they’d shop for Christmas presents and then they would go home,” he previously told USA TODAY. That began to change over time, he said, especially leading into World War I.

“There was a push to actually have people do the shopping earlier to relieve the burden on the supply chain elsewhere,” Davis said. “I think it just continued since then.”

Many retailers now rely on the holiday season to account for up to 30% of annual sales, creating an incentive to expand the timeline even further, Davis explained. Historically, Thanksgiving served as a barrier, limiting opportunities for stores to sell holiday-themed goods until December. The solution? Halloween.

“I think retailers are looking for those [opportunities] and they're trying to drive, trying to create that holiday. That demand, if you want to call it that, because they need something other than Christmas,” he said. “They want to be able to spread their sales out through more of the year.”

This year's Halloween trends

Data compiled by Granularity, a trend forecasting service that uses AI to predict future demand, supports the theory that the expansion of the Halloween season isn’t simply a hunch.

Sales of Halloween-related items on Amazon have continued moving earlier and earlier. Excluding data from 2020, which was skewed due to COVID-19:

• 2019 saw a peak in Halloween item sales during the last week of September.

• In 2021 and 2022, the peak started two weeks earlier than each year prior, with more sales happening in August.

• In 2023, sales had moved yet another week earlier compared to 2022, placing most of them in mid-August.

• In 2024, peak Amazon sales yet again started a week earlier than last year, meaning Halloween shopping began ramping up in earnest in early August. This is six whole weeks earlier than in 2019.

The data also found that specific searches, such as those for "Halloween food" and "Halloween products" have also seen an uptick earlier in the season over the past few years.

• In 2021 and 2022, 56% and 60% of Halloween food and Halloween product searches, respectively, occurred in October.

• In 2023, 52% of these searches happened in October, with all other related searches happening earlier.

Interestingly, the data also show a decreased interest in Halloween in 2023 and this year compared to years that aligned with or around the 2020 pandemic.

“It really seemed like COVID was the big change right there where people were looking for something to do,'" Allen previously explained to USA TODAY. "Or, ‘all right, I'm stuck at home. I'm not going to the office. What can I do safely that everybody can enjoy'... Before [the pandemic], people normally just kind of decorated the last two weeks of October."

Never too early to have some fun?

To shop or to wait? That one is up to the individual consumer. While some may be chomping at the bit to get their hands on an elusive giant Skelly or licensed Michael Meyers prop, plenty of others are likely content to wait things out, at least until the weather starts to cool down.

For those looking to get ahead of the curve, early search data has shown some Halloween 2024 breakout trends:

• Pinkoween: It's pink, it's Halloween, it's exactly what it sounds like. Pinkoween has taken over the aisles of stores like Target, HomeGoods and Michaels with pastel skulls, pumpkins, ghosts and more.

• Summerween: A great excuse for enthusiasts to begin celebrating early, Summerween is a lighthearted mix of summertime leisure and a touch of Halloween spooky.

• Dark romance: Searches for "dark romance" have grown by 51% since last October. Perhaps inspired by the prominence of romance novels on social media in the last year, Spirit Halloween's Emily and Victor animatronics from the Tim Burton movie "Corpse Bride" come to mind as a Halloween-y example.

• Spooky spaghetti: A fun Halloween food trend that has grown by 80% since last October, spooky spaghetti is one of the simpler themed treats for families and friends to make together this season. Colorful noodles, eyeballs for meatballs, monster faces smiling back from atop a pile of sauce - the possibilities are endless.

• Ghostbusters: Probably inspired by the March release of "Ghost Busters: Frozen Empire," search data hints that we may be seeing a lot of ghostbusting costumes this year.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why retailers are embracing 'Summerween,' the Halloween predecessor