Select Spirit Halloween Stores Will Transform Into 'Spirit Christmas' Complete with Santa Meet-and-Greets
10 pop-up locations have been announced at malls across the Northeast, with most slated to open in early November
courtesy Spirit Halloween
Spirit Halloween has plans to make the transition from spooky-ooky to holly jolly!
The temporary retail chain that pops up in storefronts around the country in September and October will be sticking around longer than usual this year. the company confirms to PEOPLE.
Ten Spirit Christmas stores will open around the Northeast, with some taking over current Spirit Halloweens and others opening in new locations, where, instead of the retailer’s typical cloak-wearing skeleton mascot, guests will be greeted by a giant winking Santa Claus.
A real-life version of the Christmas icon will also available to meet and snap photos with inside.
“Each store offers a unique shopping experience, brimming with a vast assortment of holiday décor, apparel, inflatables, gifts, and stocking stuffers,” a spokesperson for Spirit Halloween told PEOPLE of the new pop-ups.
Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty
“Guests can meet Santa for their annual Christmas card photo and receive a free digital postcard featuring you and Santa,” the spokesperson continued. “Wander through the life-sized gingerbread village, where you can mail your letter to Santa at the North Pole and find out whether you’ve been naughty or nice.”
The official Spirit Christmas website also teases what the free Santa pictures — which are already available to book — will look like, showing a family posing with the big guy as they sit among oversize presents and gingerbread houses.
The first Spirit Christmas store in Mays Landing, New Jersey is set to open its doors on Oct. 18, while the other nine locations are slated to open in early November.
New Jersey will see several more of the festive mall pop-ups, with locations opening in Marlton, Brick and Woodbridge. In New York, Spirit Christmas pop-ups will also be opening in Albany, Bohemia and Poughkeepsie.
Locations are also scheduled to open in Erie, Pennsylvania; Waterford, Connecticut and Dartmouth, Massachusetts. All of the pop-ups will stay open through the holiday season.
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News of Spirit Halloween’s Christmas pop-ups comes on the heels of its headline-making beef with Saturday Night Live.
After the live show’s season 50 premiere included a Spirit Halloween sketch — a commercial parody that poked fun at the chain and its short-lived nature — the retailer responded on social media.
Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty
On Sept. 30, two days after the parody first aired, the chain replied with a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) and tagged the series’ official account.
"We are great at raising things back from the dead @nbcsnl," Spirit Halloween wrote alongside a meme of a Spirit Halloween SNL costume dubbed "irrelevant 50-year-old TV show."
Adding to the burn were the faux costume’s contents, which included "dated references," "unknown cast members" and "shrinking ratings."
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