Years ago, I temped for about six months in an office where an artificial evergreen tree in one lobby was always on display, decorated for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day, or any other event that the tree’s owner felt like observing. I’m not sure whether that creative person or even the holiday mashup artists over at Hobby Lobby would have ever thought of this decoration that reader Jason recently shared with Consumerist, though. [More]
holiday mashups
Brach’s Introduces Easter Chick Shaped Candy Corn For Some Reason
By 3.5.15
Fear not, candy fans: Brach’s is now able to fill in the bleak waiting time between Valentine’s Day candy corn and Independence Day candy corn with Easter candy corn. Except they’re not “corn,” they’re candy corn chicks. We live in a world where this kind of thing is acceptable. [More]
Prairie Farms Introduces Peeps-Branded Marshmallow Milks And Easter Egg Nog
By 3.4.15
Last year, we brought you the news that Prairie Farms sells Easter-themed dairy beverages: specifically, jellybean milk and Easter egg nog. Now the company has partnered with Just Born, creators of Peeps marshmallow-shaped holiday treats, to sell Peep-flavored milk. Yes, that just means sugar, artificial flavors, and food coloring. That’s what Peeps are. [More]
Starburst Introduces Christmas-Themed Jellybeans For Some Reason
By 11.19.14
Here at Consumerist, we’re fascinated with holiday mashups: items that we associate with one holiday re-purposed for another, usually for marketing reasons. Items like pumpkin spice egg nog and Independence Day candy corn exist because the makers of candy corn and egg nog want to expand these festive treats out to other holidays. Now let’s welcome Christmas jelly beans to the holiday mashup fold. [More]
Live The Dream: Hand Out Candy Canes To Trick-Or-Treaters
By 10.30.14
Most people have bought their Halloween candy, which leaves lots of empty retail space. What’s a smart store manager to do? Fill that space up with merchandise for the next holiday. This makes retail sense, but results in horrified Consumerist readers when they see a huge display of candy canes two days before Halloween. [More]
Pumpkin Spice Egg Nog Exists To Quench Public’s Infinite Pumpkin Spice Thirst
By 10.7.14
Remember when we featured the Creamsicle-flavored, Halloween-marketed, orange-colored TruMoo novelty milk and said, “At least it isn’t pumpkin spice”? Well, about that. In the novelty dairy beverage cooler at Walmart, right near the orange TruMoo, we found the newest and greatest holiday mashup: pumpkin spice egg nog. [More]
Another Beautiful Nightmare Before Christmas Display At Target
By 9.26.14
Every retailer has its own specialty when it comes to holiday mashup decorations. At Hobby Lobby, it’s beautifully decorated evergreen trees with a fall theme. Target has settled on a holiday specialty, and that is “Nightmare Before Christmas” displays that combine elements of the two holidays. We’re pretty sure that it’s accidental, but maybe it’s not. We have to admit, though, when you see these displays in the wild at Target, they sort of work. [More]
Here’s Hobby Lobby’s Nightmare Before Christmas
By 9.8.14
We complain about holiday mashups and Holiday Creep, but we secretly love “Nightmare Before Christmas” displays, where retail necessity meets art, and cool holiday mashups ensue. Hobby Lobby puts out their Christmas merchandise early, even by craft store standards, and we have gradually grown to enjoy these Halloween trees, even as it’s fundamentally wrong to celebrate the coming of autumn with evergreens. [More]
Back-To-School Halloween Candy Keeps Kids Healthy And Happy
By 8.25.14
Okay, we get that it’s difficult to swap out seasonal sections in retail stores, and that items sell out when we think it might be too “early” for the next holiday to come along. However, Michael spotted an odd combination of one retail “holiday,” back to school season, and the following holiday, Halloween. [More]
Will Easter Egg Nog And Jellybean Milk Ever Catch On?
By 4.17.14
Here at Consumerist, we love and hate holiday mashups. Here’s one that has been around for a while, but was new to us: easter egg nog. Makes sense, doesn’t it? A holiday for which the decorations include brightly-colored eggs, and a festive, occasionally boozy, holiday beverage. Yet it seems so very wrong. [More]
Walmart’s Nightmare Before Christmas: Cereal Edition
By 11.14.13
In practical terms, there isn’t much of a difference between one sugar-coated breakfast grain product and another. There’s even less of a difference between Cap’n Crunch products for different holidays. Somehow, though, we still find this combined cereal display spotted at Walmart just as amusing as an honest-to-Santa Halloween tree. [More]
Even We Grudgingly Admire This Christmas/Halloween Mashup Wreath
By 10.23.13
Yes, we spend much of the fall whining about Christmas creep, Halloween creep, and retailers’ methods of mashing up the holidays so that one could, in theory, hand out candy canes to trick-or-treaters. We admire eye-catching displays when we see them, though, and this one from a small local pet store is just so wonderful. [More]
We Will Pretend These Nightmares Before Christmas Are Intentional
By 10.9.13
Maybe this “Nightmare Before Christmas” holiday mashup thing is becoming more popular in retail decor. It’s starting to grow on us, we have to admit. Maybe this should continue to be a thing, like Hobby Lobby’s Halloween trees. [More]
Retail Nightmare Before Christmas Reaches Pier One, Canadian Walmart
By 9.30.13
In the classic animated film “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” the Pumpkin King learns about Christmas and convinces the other scary creatures of Halloween Town to take over the holiday. In the North American retail Nightmare Before Christmas, retailers begin to set out Christmas merchandise as soon as the school supplies are off the shelves. [More]
Sears Declares Halloween "Black Friday"
By 11.7.09
Forget Christmas creep. How about Black Friday creep? Sears went ahead and declared last weekend, October 30 and 31st, the beginning of Black Friday, and told their mailing list so.
Make Your Own Haunted Gingerbread House
By 10.15.09
Are you decorating your house for Christmas Creep, and your Halloween tree just isn’t enough? Williams-Sonoma has combined Christmas and Halloween traditions, and is selling a kit to make your very own haunted gingerbread house. Haunted gingerbread house?
Hobby Lobby Worships The Great Pumpkin With Halloween Tree
By 10.7.09
Hobby Lobby, with its devout Christian ownership, isn’t the first store we’d think of to honor the Great Pumpkin. Yet reader James spotted this festive tree back in mid-September.
