When should restaurants start holiday marketing?

Holiday money comes to a restaurant in three waves. Office parties get planned first. Catering orders build from the week before Thanksgiving into December. Gift card sales climb through November and peak at the holidays. Each wave has its own start date.

So one December email comes too late for all three. Work back from when each guest decides, not from when they show up. A party host decides weeks before the party. A gift card buyer often decides on Thanksgiving weekend. Your marketing has to land before each of those moments.

Earlier than December. SpotOn, which sells restaurant point-of-sale systems, says office party planners and families start booking in early November. It advises restaurants to start planning in September or early October. Your party menu has to be public before the first planner starts looking.

The checks are worth chasing. ezCater surveyed employees and party planners in August 2024. It found 43% of decision-makers expected to spend more on that year’s party. They planned to spend $44 per guest on food and drink. At that rate, a party of 30 guests is a check of about $1,320.

Guests want to come, too. In the same survey, 81% of employees said they planned to attend their company’s party. So put a party page on your site by mid-October. List your rooms, a set menu or two, and the deposit. Give a booking deadline, so planners decide now. Then email last year’s party hosts first.

Catering runs on a later clock than parties. A Lunchbox guide cites Toast data on the pattern. Orders jump the week before Thanksgiving. They keep rising through the first three weeks of December. The same guide says 33% of all catering orders come in the fourth quarter.

Lead time matters most here. The same guide says most corporate catering orders are placed one month in advance. And many offices skip the evening party. In ezCater’s survey, 55% of employees favored afternoon office celebrations. That often means a lunch order, not a dinner booking. So post a holiday catering menu by late October.

Gift card sales pile up at year end. Paytronix tracks restaurant gift card sales. It found November and December make up 45% of annual restaurant gift card sales. Its October 2024 report put plastic cards even higher. It found 80 percent of all physical gift cards sold in those two months.

Diners plan to give them. The National Restaurant Association surveyed adults in November 2024. It found 59% planned to give restaurant gift cards. And 48% said they would buy straight from the restaurant, in store or online. That second number is the one to act on. A buyer who comes to you needs a card that is easy to find.

Yes. The peak has been moving earlier. In November 2023, Paytronix found Cyber Monday outsold Black Friday. A year later the peak came sooner. Shoppers spent 13.2 percent more in dollars per card on Black Friday than the year before.

Paytronix’s chief data officer explained the shift. He said gift card sales surged “as much as two weeks before the holiday weekend.” In his view, brands had moved their gift card offers earlier. The restaurants that start early pull the peak toward them.

A bonus offer can be simple. Give a small bonus card with a larger purchase. Make the bonus good only after the holidays. That brings the buyer back in January, when tables are quiet.

Many do, and many wait. The National Retail Federation published its holiday survey in October 2025. It found 42% of shoppers planned to start browsing and buying before November. It also found 63% planned to wait until Thanksgiving weekend to do most of their shopping.

Those two groups need two messages. Early shoppers need to know your gift card exists. Thanksgiving buyers need a reason to pick yours today. The same survey found gift cards were the top gift people wanted, named by 50%. So a gift card is not a fallback gift. It is the gift people ask for.

Start with your franchise agreement and your brand’s marketing guide. Many brands run gift cards and national holiday offers from the top. Ask your franchisor three questions in early October. Which holiday offers are national this year? Which local promotions need approval? How long does an approval take?

Then plan around the answers. A national gift card offer still needs your counter and your receipts to sell it. Party rooms and office catering are usually local business. Those are the pushes you can own. If creator posts need approval, send the request with your October plan, not after the visit.

Earlier than most restaurants think. The social media company Later surveyed 354 creators for its holiday research this year. The share happy with just 3 to 4 weeks of notice fell from 32% to 24%. The share who prefer 2 to 4 months grew from 14% to 22%.

Late outreach is the complaint creators make most. In the same research, 27% named it their top obstacle in holiday campaigns. A local food creator’s visit is smaller than a brand campaign. But their calendar still fills. Many restaurants in town want a video before Thanksgiving.

Decide what the video should sell before you invite anyone. A holiday dish, a party room and a gift card are three different shots. Our guide on how to invite food influencers covers what to put in the message.

December is not dead. But much of December’s business is decided earlier. The tables get booked and the catering gets ordered weeks ahead. The gift cards are bought by people who saw your offer in November.

October is your busiest planning month. Someone still has to find creators, write to them and chase replies. Then someone has to check that each video went up. Our guide on what food influencers cost breaks down that work. The one-month creator campaign plan lays out the weeks.

CreatoRain does this for restaurant chains and franchises. Our in-house team finds, invites and pays food creators. It follows up until each video is posted. Creators book their own visit, and you host it. The price is $300 a video, the creator’s pay included. That one price covers the search, the booking and the follow-up.

Put each start date in your calendar now. Then work back from it. A push that starts on time costs no more than one that starts late. It just finds people while they are still deciding.

If a creator eats and the video never goes up, the season will not wait. Agree on a posting date in writing, and check the day after it passes. The no-show follow-up steps cover what to send.