It's Not Too Early: Get Your Event Gift Cards Ready for the Holidays

If you're thinking "it's still September, isn't it a little early to be talking about the holidays?"...I get it. But when it comes to gift cards, early is exactly on time. Event organizers who see the strongest holiday sales aren't the ones who scramble the week before Black Friday. They're the ones who had everything live, tested, and being promoted weeks before anyone started their holiday shopping.

If you turned on stored value gift cards after our last post, this is your sign to make sure they're holiday-ready. If you haven't set them up yet, this is your sign to do it now…not in November.

Why Timing Matters for Event Gift Cards

Holiday shopping doesn't start on Black Friday, and it doesn't happen all at once. A meaningful chunk of gift-buying happens well before Thanksgiving, and it ramps steadily through December. If your gift card option isn't live, promoted, and easy to find by the time that shopping window opens, you're not just missing early sales…you're missing the customers who are the most organized (and often the most likely to spend more, since they're not shopping under pressure).

There's also a simpler reason to start early: campaigns take time to work. Email sequences, social promotion, and any paid promotion all perform better with a few weeks of runway rather than a last-minute push. Starting now means your gift card offer has already had multiple touchpoints with your audience by the time peak shopping hits, instead of trying to cram awareness, consideration, and purchase into the same two weeks.

Your Holiday Readiness Timeline

Here's a simple month-by-month framework to keep you on track:

Now (September/October): Get the foundation live

• Confirm your gift card product is set up and tested (see the setup steps below if you need a refresher)

• Decide on your denominations: consider adding a couple of higher-value options for holiday gifting, since people tend to spend more on gifts than on themselves

• Turn on both Upsell and Standalone visibility so gift cards are discoverable wherever customers are shopping

• Start soft-promoting: a mention in your newsletter, a note on your event pages

Early-to-Mid November: Ramp up visibility

• Send a dedicated email announcing gift cards as a holiday gifting option

• Add gift cards to your social content calendar: a few posts spaced out, not just one

• If you run any paid promotion, this is when to start testing it

• Consider a "gift guide" style post or email featuring gift cards alongside your most popular events

Late November through December: Peak push

• Increase promotion frequency as key shopping dates approach (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the final week before major holidays are typically strong gift card windows)

• Make sure your upsell messaging at checkout is holiday-specific ("Add a gift card: the easiest gift on your list")

• Keep an eye on your top-selling denominations and adjust if one option is clearly outperforming the others

Late December: Don't stop at the finish line

• Gift cards purchased right up until the holidays are often redeemed in January and beyond…that's a wave of engaged customers coming back to spend, so make sure your catalog is fresh and inviting when they do

A Quick Refresher on Setup

If you haven't turned gift cards on yet, it only takes a few minutes:

1. Create a product and check "This is a Gift Card"

2. Set your dollar-amount variants (consider a holiday-friendly range, like $25, $50, $100, and $150)

3. Choose your redemption landing page

4. Set visibility to Upsell, Standalone, or both

5. Choose which events and venues the gift card applies to

For the full walkthrough, check out our gift card setup guide.

Promotion Ideas Worth Trying This Season

• Reframe your upsell copy for the season. "Add a gift card to your order" is fine year-round, but "Still need a gift for someone on your list?" does more work in November and December.

• Give your standalone gift card page some visibility. Feature it prominently on your homepage or event listings during peak shopping weeks…don't make people dig for it.

• Lean into last-minute shoppers. One of the best things about a stored-value gift card is that it's instantly deliverable: no shipping, no waiting. That makes it a strong option to promote specifically in the final days before a holiday, when physical gifts are no longer an option.

• Bundle the message with your events. If you have a can't-miss show or event coming up, pair it in your messaging: "Not sure if they can make the date? Give them the flexibility to choose with a gift card."

• Don't forget corporate and group gifting. Companies looking for an easy holiday gift for employees or clients are often looking for exactly this kind of simple, flexible option: a short outreach to any past group bookings can go a long way.

The Bottom Line

Holiday gift card sales aren't something that happens to you…they're something you build toward with a few weeks of intentional setup and promotion. The organizers who start now will be the ones with fully warmed-up campaigns by the time the season actually hits, while everyone else is just getting started.

Get your gift cards set up and promoted today, so all you have to do in December is watch the redemptions roll in.

Need some help getting your stored value gift cards set up? Schedule a call with our team; we’ll do all the heavy lifting for you!