5 Seasonal Trends for the Holidays (And How to Find More)

The holiday season brings with it some of the biggest E-commerce events of the year.

Adobe predicts that shoppers will spend more than $275 billion online in November and December 2026. They will visit US retail websites more than 1 trillion times.

But as a retailer, how can you prepare your storefront for the holiday season? You might think that your industry is more or less sheltered from seasonal trends, but the data tells a different story.

Some seasonal trends are obvious. Advent calendars, for example, naturally enjoy massive spikes in the run-up to December every year.

But what you may not realize is that there are trend graphs that look something like this across all kinds of sectors and niches. Finding them and updating your inventory accordingly can be the difference between a good holiday season and a great one.

And if you aren’t a retailer, then you might at least get some gift ideas! Here are 5 seasonal trends we’ve spotted this year:

1. Scarf Coat

A scarf coat is a practical fashion piece in which the scarf is integrated into the design of the coat. In this case, the seasonal spike is literally driven by the seasons: as the weather gets colder, the scarf coat comes into its own.

And what makes this trend especially interesting for retailers is that the November/December peak has been growing for each of the last 5 years. Exploding Topics predicts that it will reach another new high in 2026.

Data from the Exploding Topics product page shows that top-selling scarf coats on Amazon generate in the region of $14,000 per month.

And that’s just mass-market; designer brands can expect to make even more. The scarf coat first came to real prominence in 2022 off the back of a viral release by Swedish fashion house Toteme, which retailed at $1,130.

Ferragamo, Burberry, and Sportmax all released variations on the scarf coat concept for last year’s Autumn/Winter ranges, with interest already starting to rise in 2026.

Find seasonal trends using Exploding Topics

We’ve curated a handful of the best and most interesting seasonal trends for you here. But if you’re really serious about keeping up to date with regular, predictable search spikes, then you need the full Exploding Topics database.

As well as tracking overall search growth, sentiment, and volatility, along with a 1-year forecast from a model trained on millions of data points, Exploding Topics measures seasonality.

Topics that measurably and routinely see search peaks and troughs based on the time of year are classified as highly seasonal. Where the correlation is weaker, or the changes less pronounced, a trend may be classed as medium seasonality.

And the concept of seasonality applies beyond just the November-December holiday season. For instance, glass pumpkins spike each year ahead of Halloween:

And the trumpet vine, a type of climbing plant, reliably sees an uptick in searches each spring:

You can even observe increased interest in bedroom mini fridges around the time that new college students begin to settle in. So from horticulture to household appliances, it’s important to keep an eye on seasonal trends, and plan your inventory and promotional events accordingly.

As an Exploding Topics subscriber, it’s easy to focus on highly seasonal trends by downloading the CSV file for any niches you’re interested in, and sorting by the seasonality column. You can even use the Exploding Topics API to directly populate your inventory or content calendar with seasonal products and ideas.

You can sign up for a 7-day free trial today.

Now, back to the list…

2. Laneige

Laneige is a Korean skincare and makeup brand that has carved out hugely consistent “stocking filler” status in the US, despite having no inherent tie to Christmas.

It is best known for its lip products: an overnight lip mask sells more than 10K units a month on Amazon. Capitalizing on its seasonal popularity, Laneige has released a holiday collection in the US, featuring a number of limited edition products and gift sets.

Part of the Amorepacific group, Laneige achieved revenues of $540 million last year, with almost 90% coming from outside South Korea. The brand now accounts for more than 60% of its parent company’s revenue in the Americas.

Laneige products are available via wholesalers, so you can stock them in your own online store in time for Christmas.

3. Lasagna Soup

The food industry is among the most susceptible to seasonal trends. And lasagna soup is a prime example.

“Soup season” is a popular concept on social media, especially on TikTok. Warm, comforting dishes grow in popularity in fall and winter.

For example, around this time last year, a TikTok about lasagna soup reached more than 1.8 million likes, as part of a “cozy soups” playlist.

Lasagna soup benefits from being at the intersection of seasonal soup hype, and a long-term meta trend favoring convenience cooking. Making the Italian classic in soup form removes a lot of the preparation time, and lends itself well to batch cooking. So it’s set for a big 2026 holiday season.

It’s a relevant trend for certain E-commerce players, e.g. in the form of meal kits. It’s also a menu option to consider for brick-and-mortar businesses like restaurants and cafes. And zooming out a little, we can expect a corresponding seasonal rise in appliances like slow cookers and dedicated soup makers.

4. Heated Outdoor Cat House

Much like the scarf coat, heated outdoor cat houses see seasonal variations primarily as a result of colder weather. But this trend underlines the wide variety of products and industries that can be affected by fluctuating seasonal demand.

As a pet supplies retailer, you might not immediately consider the possibility of seasonal opportunities. But when it comes to heated outdoor cat houses, the pattern of search activity is now extremely clear over a long-term window:

And as with a lot of the other trends we’ve found, this year’s winter spike is forecasted to be the largest to date.

Heated houses allow outdoor cats - or cats with dedicated, enclosed outdoor areas - to keep warm in the winter months. There’s also a lot of interest among non-pet-owners who have noticed “neighborhood cats” (feral/stray cats, or simply other people’s pets) regularly visiting their garden.

Heated cat houses have been further popularized on TikTok. One on-commission video last October surpassed 267,000 likes.

5. Vanilla Perfume

We’ll round off our list with vanilla perfume. It’s one of the more interesting seasonal trends, because it lacks some of the obvious seasonality signals; it isn’t strongly weather-dependent, for instance, and nor is it a classic holiday gift.

Nevertheless, the chart shows high seasonality. Searches peaked every December from 2021-2024, and again in November 2025.

So why does vanilla perfume spike seasonally? A lot of it can be put down to little more than “vibes”; Cosmopolitan describes vanilla fragrances as “cozy” and “perfect for autumn.” There’s also the logic that a stronger, sweeter fragrance is more suitable in the colder months, when perfume is worn under more layers, and a slower evaporation rate makes the scent less cloying.

But in many ways, the “why” doesn’t matter a great deal. As a seller, all you need to know is that you can be confident of increased demand for vanilla perfume throughout the winter months. Top sellers on Amazon are already generating more than $240,000 per month.

Start harnessing seasonal trends data for your online store

If you aren’t already considering the impact of seasonal trends on your E-commerce store, then it’s time to start. And if you are already considering it, it’s time to upgrade your processes with hard data.

The holiday season is a great time to begin. But by keeping on top of seasonal patterns, you can make sure you’re ahead of the curve all year round.

There are so many products, topics, and trends where search spikes reliably happen at the same time every year. I’ve used 5-year charts throughout this guide, but you can use Exploding Topics to check back as far as 15 years to validate the peaks and troughs.

So while seasonality might sound volatile, it’s actually one of the most reliable forms of trend forecasting there is (when it’s done right). Sign up for Exploding Topics now to get your data-driven edge on the competition.