Spirit Halloween is known for swooping into vacant storefronts each spooky season and selling costumes and decorations galore. The South Jersey-based company now is setting its sights on another major holiday.
The company is rolling out its new Spirit Christmas concept, which will have 10 locations throughout the Northeast. The first to open will be the flagship in Hamilton Township on Friday, Oct. 18. Other locations, including one in Marlton, will open in early November.
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Each Spirit Christmas store will offer a "unique shopping experience," with an assortment of holiday decor, apparel, inflatables, gifts and stocking stuffers, according to the company. Along with buying holiday merchandise, shoppers can wander through a gingerbread village, mail their letters to Santa Claus at the North Pole and find out whether they're on the naughty or nice lists. Santa will also be at the Spirit Christmas stores, and visitors can take photos with him and receive a free digital postcard. Santa photos can be booked in advance online.
Unlike its sister store, Spirit Christmas will not be scary. But the logo does feature a winking Santa, which pays tribute to the one red eye of Spirit Halloween mascot Jack the Reaper, the Press of Atlantic City reported.
The flagship store will be located at 230 Consumer Square in a space that formerly housed a Christmas Tree Shops, a chain that closed all its locations last year after filing for bankruptcy. The Hamilton store is less than 10 miles away from Spirit's headquarters in Egg Harbor Township, where the Spencer Gifts-owned company moved in 1999.
Spirit Halloween has more than 1,500 stores throughout the United States and Canada. The Halloween chain, which was spoofed in last week's season premiere of "Saturday Night Live," has amassed a cult-like following — as evidenced by the yearly Spirit Halloween grand opening festivities that draw thousands of people to the Egg Harbor Township flagship location. This won't be the first time Spirit takes on Christmas, as the chain opened holiday stores in the '90s and early 2000s.
The Marlton store will be located at 740 Route 73 South. Other Spirit Christmas stores will be in Brick, N.J.; Erie, Pa.; and Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
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