Christmas

When should you order Christmas T-shirts?

Christmas apparel has the same supply problem as Halloween apparel, stretched over a longer season. Ranges are manufactured months ahead against a forecast and are rarely restocked, so a design that sells through in early December is usually gone for the year. Adult medium and large and the middle youth sizes go first, because most buyers need them.

The date also matters more than it does for Halloween. Christmas shirts are usually bought for an event — a school party, an office sweater day, a family photograph — and those events cluster in the first three weeks of December, exactly when carriers are busiest. A shirt that is in stock can still arrive too late.

For a single shirt, early November is comfortable. For a set in several sizes, look in October: the set is only complete when every size is available from the same listing, and one missing size can undo the whole order.