Below is a list of the most popular Christmas stocks. Retailers and consumers begin planning for the Christmas holidays well before December, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday kicking off one of the busiest shopping periods of the year.
Strong holiday sales can benefit certain retail, e-commerce, and technology companies, but they don’t guarantee their stocks or the broader market will rise. Christmas also overlaps with the Santa Claus Rally, a historical market tendency around the final trading days of December and first trading days of January.
Here’s a look at some of the companies traders and investors may watch during the Christmas season.
Best Christmas Stocks 2026
| Symbol | Name |
|---|---|
| BABA | Alibaba |
| AMZN | Amazon |
| COST | Costco |
| HD | Home Depot |
| WMT | Walmart |
Below is our Christmas stocks list for companies with meaningful exposure to holiday spending. Retailers and consumers start preparing for Christmas well before December, with the first major wave of shopping activity arriving around Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Retail, e-commerce, technology, and other consumer-focused businesses can all see increased activity during the holiday season. However, strong Christmas sales don’t automatically mean a stock will go up. Investors also need to consider expectations, profit margins, valuations, earnings guidance, and broader market conditions.
What Are Christmas Stocks?
Christmas stocks are publicly traded companies whose businesses can benefit from increased consumer spending during the holiday season. Retailers get much of the attention, but companies across different stock market sectors can have exposure to Christmas spending.
Holiday marketing has also helped shape some of the world’s most recognizable brands. In 1931, Coca-Cola began using Santa Claus imagery in advertising that helped popularize the modern image of Santa associated with Christmas.
Today’s shopping season increasingly combines physical stores with e-commerce. Consumers can move between online ordering, delivery, curbside pickup, and traditional stores depending on price, availability, and convenience.
Christmas is also associated with the Santa Claus rally, a historical market pattern covering the final five trading days of December and first two trading days of January. The Santa Claus rally refers to the broader stock market and shouldn’t be confused with individual companies benefiting from holiday shopping.
When Is the Stock Market Open and Closed During Christmas?
Christmas Day falls on Friday, December 25 in 2026. Here’s the U.S. stock market schedule around the Christmas and New Year’s holidays:
- Wednesday, December 23 – regular trading hours
- Thursday, December 24 – early close at 1:00 p.m. ET
- Friday, December 25 – closed for Christmas Day
- Monday, December 28 – regular trading hours
- Thursday, December 31 – regular trading hours
- Friday, January 1, 2027 – closed for New Year’s Day
NYSE and Nasdaq normally trade from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET during regular market sessions. Always confirm the exchange holiday schedule before trading around Christmas.
Consumer Goods
Black Friday isn’t what it used to be for brick-and-mortar stores. Consumers increasingly shop online, which has changed how retailers compete during the Christmas season.
That doesn’t mean physical retail and consumer goods no longer matter. Shoppers move between websites, delivery, store pickup, and traditional stores while looking for holiday deals.
If you’re watching consumer goods stocks during Christmas, pay attention to sales expectations, promotions, margins, and how individual companies are performing rather than assuming the entire sector will move together.
Technology
Technology is another major part of holiday spending. Smartphones, computers, gaming consoles, headphones, smart-home devices, televisions, and other electronics are common Christmas purchases.
Companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Sony, and other technology businesses can benefit from holiday demand, but Christmas sales are only one part of much larger businesses. Product cycles, valuations, earnings expectations, competition, and overall financial performance can have a much greater influence on their stocks over time.
Christmas Stocks List Breakdown
Walmart (NYSE: WMT)
Walmart is one of the most obvious Christmas stocks because of its enormous retail footprint and growing e-commerce business. Holiday shoppers turn to Walmart for toys, electronics, clothing, decorations, groceries, gifts, and other seasonal products.
Walmart also has an advantage during the holidays because its physical stores and online operations work together. Customers can shop in stores, order online, use pickup, or have purchases delivered depending on what’s most convenient.
For investors, watch comparable sales, e-commerce growth, holiday promotions, margins, and management’s outlook rather than assuming strong Christmas traffic will automatically translate into a higher WMT share price.
Costco (NASDAQ: COST)
Costco gets holiday exposure from several directions. Members shop for groceries and entertaining supplies as well as toys, electronics, jewelry, gift cards, seasonal merchandise, and other Christmas purchases.
The company’s membership model makes Costco different from a traditional retailer. Holiday traffic can help sales, but investors should also pay attention to membership growth and renewal rates, comparable sales, margins, and e-commerce performance when evaluating COST.
Home Depot (NYSE: HD)
Home Depot isn’t primarily a gift retailer, but Christmas still creates seasonal demand for decorations, lighting, artificial trees, storage, tools, appliances, and home projects. The company operates a large retail network across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
That makes Home Depot a different Christmas stock than Walmart or Amazon. Holiday merchandise matters, but housing activity, interest rates, home improvement spending, and the broader economy can have a much larger influence on HD over time.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN)
You can invest in Christmas with Amazon. The company remains one of the biggest destinations for online holiday shopping, with consumers using Amazon for everything from electronics and toys to clothing, decorations, and last-minute gifts.
Amazon’s large fulfillment network, Prime membership program, and third-party marketplace give it significant exposure to holiday shopping. However, investors should remember that Amazon is much more than an online retailer, so Christmas sales are only one factor that can affect AMZN stock.
Alibaba (NYSE: BABA)
One of Amazon’s biggest e-commerce competitors outside the U.S. is Alibaba. Its connection to the U.S. Christmas shopping season isn’t as direct as Amazon’s, but the company gives investors exposure to online consumer spending in China and other international markets.
In China, Singles’ Day on November 11 is a major shopping event and an important period to watch for Alibaba. Investors should also consider China’s economy, consumer spending, competition, and the company’s overall business rather than treating BABA purely as a Christmas stock.
SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT)
Traders who want broader exposure to retail stocks can also look at the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT). Instead of relying on the performance of one retailer, XRT holds a basket of companies across different areas of the retail industry.
An ETF doesn’t eliminate risk, and XRT isn’t specifically a Christmas ETF. However, it can be useful for traders who want to follow the retail sector as a whole during major consumer spending periods.
If you’re new to exchange-traded funds, our ETF trading guide explains how ETFs work and how traders use them.
Final Thoughts on Christmas Stocks List
Christmas can create meaningful seasonal demand for retailers, e-commerce companies, technology businesses, and other consumer-focused stocks. Walmart, Costco, Amazon, Home Depot, and Alibaba each provide different types of exposure to holiday spending.
A strong Christmas shopping season still doesn’t guarantee a strong stock. Markets are forward-looking, and investors also need to consider expectations, valuation, earnings, margins, economic conditions, and company-specific risks.
We use Christmas stocks as a seasonal watchlist rather than a reason to buy a company by itself. If you’re trading these names around the holidays, build a plan around price action, volume, catalysts, and risk instead of assuming seasonal spending will push the stock higher.
Our stock market seasonality guide covers other recurring calendar patterns traders and investors watch throughout the year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Retail, e-commerce, technology, and other consumer-focused stocks can receive increased attention during Christmas, but no group of stocks reliably goes up every holiday season. Companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft may benefit from holiday demand, but their stock prices depend on many factors beyond Christmas sales.
Christmas isn't automatically a good or bad time to buy stocks. The market has historically experienced a seasonal pattern known as the Santa Claus Rally around the end of December and beginning of January, but it doesn't happen every year. Your trading or investment decisions should depend on your strategy and current market conditions rather than the calendar alone.
December has historically experienced periods of seasonal strength, but stocks don't go up every December. Economic data, interest rates, earnings expectations, geopolitical events, investor sentiment, and other market conditions can outweigh seasonal patterns in any given year.
The Santa Claus rally is a historical stock market pattern associated with the final five trading days of December and first two trading days of January. The market has often performed well during this period historically, but the pattern isn't guaranteed and shouldn't be used by itself to make a trading or investment decision.
