In a groundbreaking seasonal twist, Spirit Halloween announced it will swap spooky for merry this year by opening 10 Christmas stores, starting in Mays Landing, NJ on October 18—because who doesn’t love holiday cheer while still dodging ghosts?

With Halloween just around the corner, Spirit Halloween is taking a bold leap into the Yuletide spirit, opening its first-ever Christmas store in Mays Landing, NJ, and planning to launch nine more throughout the Northeast by early November. This ambitious transformation signals a desperate attempt to cash in on the holiday cheer before the lingering scent of pumpkin spice fades away—because if there's one thing more uninviting than a half-opened haunted house, it's a ghost that doesn’t celebrate Christmas.

Spirit Halloween, the temporary retail phenomenon that populates shuttered storefronts with gory decorations and resin skeletons, has decided to hang up the faux cobwebs and don a Santa hat instead. This year, the flagship Christmas store will feature an array of holiday-themed items, including gifts, decorations, inflatables, and a life-sized gingerbread village. Because nothing says 'dreamy holiday vacation' quite like a gingerbread village built with materials that aren’t biodegradable.

Opening for business on October 18, the Mays Landing store may just be the most festive destination for families looking to squeeze every last drop of holiday magic from the Halloween season. A mere three days post-Halloween, the store will not only deliver a sugar-high whiff of gingerbread but also provide opportunities for families to snag free photographs with Santa Claus himself. Just what every parent dreams of: a photo with Santa while avoiding the horrors they might still see lurking behind their front porch decorations.

As for the remaining nine stores, they’re expected to pop up in early November, strategically placed to capitalize on the inevitable holiday shopping spree. Positioned right alongside the leftovers of Halloween decorations, the new stores will bring joy, festive annoyance, and possibly a surplus of inflatable snowmen to neighborhoods previously overwhelmed with carved pumpkins.

Nothing illustrates the commercial aspirations of American holiday culture better than this impulsive transition from one holiday to another. In 2023, Spirit Halloween set a record by launching 1,525 stores across the U.S. and Canada, undoubtedly determined to maintain peak seasonal sloganeering. The thrill of the Halloween shenanigans is hard to shake off when the spookiest thing in the world is a candy bar that somehow got stuck under the couch for far too long.

Even with the booming Halloween spending forecasted to hit a staggering $11.6 billion, it may appear that the company is hedging its bets in the face of growing consumer excitement for the winter holidays. Last year demonstrated the festive trend with nearly 4% growth in holiday spending, to reach a total shopping frenzy of $964 billion. Clearly, the spirits governing holiday economics have authorized an early jump into Christmas to maximize profit margins, because nothing screams 'spirit of the season' quite like profiting off people’s fervor for festivities.

So, as ghouls hang up their hats and elves dust off their candy canes, one must ponder if the trademarked Spirit Halloween phrase, 'We’ll be back!' should now come with a little added disclaimer: 'But first, we’ve got a sleigh ride full of Christmas cheer!' This season, prepare yourself for the jingle of bells amalgamating with the whispery cries of recent hauntings, and don’t be surprised if you find Frosty sharing a shelf with the latest animatronic zombie. After all, it’s only in America where the lines between Christmas cheer and haunted houses are as blurred as your visions after too many Halloween parties.

In reality, the transition from Halloween to Christmas sales is becoming so seamless that one might consider preparing for an Easter-themed Labor Day barbecue next. For now, as families are socialized into gifting and glorifying Christmas before fully wrapping their heads around ghoulish creature design, the merging of celebrations may prove to be just as fashionable as candy corn-flavored eggnog, though possibly with fewer gastrointestinal repercussions. Merry haunting!