At this point, you should be in a full advertising and promotion mode for the upcoming holiday season.
Below is a printable calendar for November 2021. Hopefully, this easy reference can help you plan events, sales, and marketing. You certainly don’t need to create something for every day, do what feels right for your store.
1st – National Author’s Day
Author’s Day and Family Literacy Day together make a great combination. If you’ve got comic books, great. If you’ve got novels, even better. Got RPG books, talk about those authors and books.
1st – National Family Literacy Day
Find some family comics or RPGs that you can use to highlight the authors.
1st – National Stress Awareness Day
This is a day dedicated to identifying stressors in our lives and developing strategies and skills to cope. Not only something to promote to your customers but also a great opportunity to check in with yourself and your staff.
1st – Day of the Dead
The Day of the Dead is a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31 or November 6, may be included depending on the locality. It is widely observed in Mexico, where it largely developed, and is also observed in other places, especially by people of Mexican heritage.
1st – Movember
Movember is an annual event involving the growing of mustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men’s suicide. It is a portmanteau of the Australian-English diminutive word for mustache, “mo”, and “November”. Consider discounts for those participating or creating a promotion that supports the cause.
4th – National Candy Day
If you’ve got some leftover Halloween candy, this is what you’ve been saving it for.
5th – National Doughnut Day
The second National Doughnut Day each year, today is yet another day to celebrate these classic goodies.
5th – Guy Fawkes Day
“Remember, remember the 5th of November.” Popularized by the comic-turned-movie V for Vendetta, this day celebrates the failed attempt to overthrow the British parliament by religious radicals.
5th – Daylight Saving Time Ends
Don’t forget to move those clocks back one hour. Then figure out what you’re going to do with that extra hour. Besides sleep.
6th – National Nachos Day
Like anyone needs an excuse to get some nachos. But in case you need one, you got one on this day.
8th – National STEM/STEAM Day
Today we encourage kids to innovate (NOV8) through Science, Technology, Engineering, (Arts), and Math. Find and highlight products that promote this.
11th – Veterans Day
Today we honor all those military veterans who served in the United States Armed Forces. Also celebrated today are Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, marking the end of World War I.
13th – World Kindness Day
We shouldn’t need a World Day to promote kindness, but maybe today we can encourage everyone to go that extra step.
17th – Star Wars Life Day
Probably the most infamous installment in the Star Wars franchise, Star Wars Life Day was an interesting attempt at capitalizing on the popularity of a major motion picture combined with a television holiday special. While the actual show may be considered a failure, the sentiments it tried to convey were not. Celebrate life, remember those lost, and spend time with loved ones. Don’t forget the Hoth Chocolate!
18th – Mickey Mouse’s Birthday
First introduced on this day in 1928 as a rabbit named Oswald, Mickey Mouse is nearing his 100th birthday. Chances are you’re already carrying some kind of Disney-owned property – show it off!
19th – National Play Monopoly Day
One of the most popular board games in history, known for tearing apart many relationships, Monopoly is truly a shelf staple. With so many special editions of the game, there is one for just about every customer.
23rd – Doctor Who Day
Dr. Who fans, or “Whovians” as some may call them, celebrate their favorite five-decade-old franchise on this day. Grab your sonic screwdriver and plan those celebratory posts or Dr. Who-themed promotions.
23rd – Fibonacci Day
1, 1, 2, 3… is the simplest Fibonacci sequence, where a number is the sum of the two numbers before it. So it makes sense that in countries with a MM/DD format, on 11/23 we celebrate Leonardo Fibonacci’s discovery of this sequence, an accomplishment that actually originated from a puzzle about rabbit procreation.
23rd – Thanksgiving Day
For most Americans, Thanksgiving is a time for family, bountiful feasts, and the start of the holiday season. For retailers and store owners, it’s the calm before the storm that is possibly the busiest sales weekend all year.
24th – Black Friday
Less of a one-day sale recently than in previous years, chances are big box retailers have already been advertising or even running sales for weeks or more. Hopefully, you’ve also been running ads, promotions, and even some sales.
25th – Small Business Saturday
Even if you’re running sales for Black Friday, save something special for Small Business Saturday. Encourage people to spend money right in their own communities, ideally at your small business and others in your neighborhood.
27th – Cyber Monday
If you have a web store be sure to plan out some deals for those buying online today.
28th – Giving Tuesday
Sometimes one of the greatest ways to promote your business is by giving back to your community. On Giving Tuesday, feature a local nonprofit organization in-store or online, and encourage your customers to support them. You could even offer to match donations that your customers make or to donate a percentage of that day’s store sales.
