Spirit Halloween Relaunches Spirit Christmas with 3 New York Locations

I was at the Spirit Halloween in the Colonie Center up in Albany a couple of weekends ago. While I was there, one of the workers was going around in a Michael Myers costume. For the older customers, he would sneak around and try to scare them. For the little kids, he was really cool and would try to come down to their level and give fist pounds and make heart-hands. When I first spotted him, he was hiding in a fortune teller booth. I thought he was an animatronic at first! This dude was cool! His name was CJ, and he's well over 6 feet tall (I think he said 6 foot 5 inches. I'd believe it). Even though Michael Myers is only 5 foot 10 inches in the movies, CJ's presence was certainly unmatched. My girlfriend absolutely loved it - Michael Myers is her favorite horror icon. You can see CJ in the video below:

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We got talking with him, and one thing that he told us was that Spirit Halloween was looking to do a Christmas-themed pilot program with limited storefronts, and that the Colonie Center location was to be one of them. Ironic, because the storefront the Colonie Center Spirit Halloween was occupying was a former Christmas Tree Shop. He said when they make the transition from Halloween to Christmas, he's going to continue to show up in the Michael Myers costume, but where a Santa hat. Honestly, I'd pay more to get a picture on Santa Myers' lap than I would to get a picture on Santa Claus's lap.

Spirit Christmas Comes to the Hudson Valley

Spirit Christmas is a seasonal retail store operated by Spencer Spirit Holdings. A sister brand to Spirit Halloween, the store offers various decorations and costumes for the Christmas season, along with visits from Santa Claus. If you're expecting it to be a spooky kind of Christmas store, don't. It will be a tried and true Christmas store.

In 1990, seasonal pop-up store Spirit Halloween began extending their leases into November and December to test out a Christmas store concept. Founder Joseph Marver once stated, "The Christmas stores were just something I had to try since it wasn't difficult to add another 2 months to our 3 month lease." Adding "So it seemed like a no brainer to extend into Christmas."

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At some point, the 1990’s incarnation of the store was discontinued. Spencer Gifts tested the concept themselves after acquiring the Spirit Halloween brand in 1999, operating their own Spirit Christmas stores in 2005 and 2006. In 2024, the store was revived once more, with 10 locations set to open.

Below, you can find the full list of locations for the 2024 Season:

• Waterford, CT
• Dartmouth, MA
• Brick Township, NJ
• Marlton, NJ
• Mays Landing, NJ
• Woodbridge, NJ
• Albany, NY
• Bohemia, NY
• Poughkeepsie, NY
• Erie, PA