Holiday sales calendar 2026
Every major US sale window of the year — the peak date, the real promo window around it, and what each moment means for a DTC brand's planning.
Next big sale
Halloween — October 31, 2026
18 days away. Promo window: Oct 1 – 31.
| Sale | Peak date (2026) | Promo window | Planning note |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year's Sale | January 1, 2026 | Dec 26 – Jan 5 | Clearance, "new year, new you" positioning for wellness and fitness. |
| MLK Day Sale | January 19, 2026 | Jan 16 – 19 | Winter clearance weekend; furniture and mattress categories lean in hard. |
| Valentine's Day | February 14, 2026 | Feb 1 – 14 | Gifting cutoff drives urgency; shipping deadlines are the real conversion lever. |
| Presidents' Day Sale | February 16, 2026 | Feb 13 – 16 | First major sitewide sale weekend of the year for home and apparel. |
| St. Patrick's Day | March 17, 2026 | Mar 13 – 17 | Light-touch moment; mostly a content and social hook for DTC. |
| Easter / Spring Sale | April 5, 2026 | Mar 30 – Apr 5 | Spring refresh; strong for beauty, kids, and home categories. |
| Mother's Day | May 10, 2026 | Apr 27 – May 10 | Second-biggest gifting moment of H1; watch shipping cutoffs. |
| Memorial Day Sale | May 25, 2026 | May 22 – 25 | Unofficial start of summer; one of the biggest discount weekends before Black Friday. |
| Father's Day | June 21, 2026 | Jun 8 – 21 | Gifting peak for menswear, grooming, and outdoors. |
| 4th of July Sale | July 4, 2026 | Jul 1 – 6 | Mid-summer sitewide promos; often stacked against Prime Day timing. |
| Amazon Prime Day | July 14, 2026 | Typically mid-July (dates announced by Amazon) | Even non-Amazon brands run counter-programming "anti-Prime" sales this week. |
| Labor Day Sale | September 7, 2026 | Sep 4 – 7 | End-of-summer clearance and the last big sale weekend before Q4 planning locks. |
| Halloween | October 31, 2026 | Oct 1 – 31 | Costumes, candy, decor — plus an increasingly popular early-Q4 promo hook. |
| Black Friday | November 27, 2026 | Nov 23 – 27 (many brands start Nov 1) | The biggest sale window of the year; deepest discounts and highest competition for attention. |
| Cyber Monday | November 30, 2026 | Nov 28 – 30 | Online-focused follow-up; often extends into Cyber Week. |
| Green Monday | December 14, 2026 | Dec 14 | Second Monday of December; last-call gifting push before shipping cutoffs. |
| Super Saturday | December 19, 2026 | Dec 19 | Final Saturday before Christmas; panic-buying peak. |
| Boxing Day | December 26, 2026 | Dec 26 – 31 | Post-Christmas clearance and gift-card redemption spike. |
How to use this calendar
- Plan backwards from the peak date. Creative locked three weeks out, email and SMS copy two weeks out, site QA one week before.
- Don't run every sale. Most healthy DTC brands pick one meaningful promotion every 4–6 weeks instead of discounting at every holiday.
- Watch shipping cutoffs, not just the holiday. For gifting moments, the real deadline is the last day for standard delivery.
Keep planning
For the full month-by-month view with cultural moments and campaign angles, see the 2026 retail calendar, or start from our free marketing calendar template. Want to see which of these sales your competitors actually ran? Try the free brand promo lookup.
Turn this into your team's plan
DTC Calendar turns these moments into one shared promotional and product-launch calendar across brand, agency, and paid teams — with owners, statuses, reminders, and competitor tracking. Sign up free and import the 1970 calendar in one click.
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