What Brands Need to Know About Pitching for Holiday Gift Guides

Jul 1

Christmas in July isn’t just for retail—it’s PR season too! Print editors are finalizing their holiday gift guides right now, which means if you wait until sweater weather to pitch your product, you’ve officially missed the sleigh. So here’s what you need to know.

What Products to Pitch & What to Include

Pitch products that are:

Gift-worthy
Available online
Ready to ship
Visually appealing

Your holiday pitch should have a:

Brief and engaging product description.
Product name and price.
Direct purchase link (to your website or retailer).
High-resolution images (white background and lifestyle shots are great).
Press contact information.
Shipping deadlines and availability.

Long-Lead Publications

Long-lead publications, like print magazines, plan their content 3 to 6 months in advance. Pitching happens in July and August to meet print production deadlines. Editors finalize holiday gift guides, stocking-stuffer roundups, and year-end lists for the October, November, and December print issues while it’s still summer. Long-lead pitching is all about playing the long game—so if you hit send and hear crickets, don't panic!

Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes:

Your pitch is sitting in a “saved” folder: Editors regularly star or archive emails to revisit when production officially kicks off.
Follow-ups are part of the process: Sending 2 or 3 polite check-ins over a few weeks isn't annoying; it's necessary.
Decisions move slowly: Final selections can take weeks or months to get locked in.
Publication takes time: Your summer effort won't show up in print until late fall or winter(October–December).

Short-Lead Publications

Short-lead publications are blogs and digital outlets with much shorter timelines, usually just a few weeks to a month ahead—and sometimes even up to the holidays. Their pitching season runs from September through November, sometimes extending into early December for last-minute and shipping-deadline gift guides. They mainly focus on rapid-turnaround digital articles, online roundups, flash sales, and last-minute holiday shopping tips.