RetailThrough the year
Pre-Christmas on screen: the plan up to the turn of the year
From Black Friday to New Year's Eve there are eight dates. Anyone who puts them in order now will not have to rebuild playlists in December.
Kapaso solution: AIO Hub is made by the publisher of this magazine.
For many shops the weeks before Christmas bring the most screen changes of the year: promotions, changed opening hours, greetings, company holidays. Anyone who starts only in December changes something every day. Anyone who plans in early November changes it once.
Eight dates, viewed backwards
The weekdays have been recalculated for 2026:
| Date | Day | What the screen needs | |---|---|---| | Black Friday | Friday, 27 Nov | promotion with an end date, honest prices | | First Advent | Sunday, 29 Nov | Advent and Christmas motif | | St Nicholas | Sunday, 6 Dec | short promotion, effective on the Saturday before | | Holiday opening hours | from mid-December | a board with all changed days | | Christmas Eve | Thursday, 24 Dec | usually shortened hours, not a statutory holiday | | 25 and 26 December | Friday and Saturday | statutory holidays in every state | | New Year's Eve | Thursday, 31 Dec | not a statutory holiday | | New Year's Day | Friday, 1 Jan 2027 | statutory holiday |
The rows are the framework. To these come company holidays "between the years" and, in retail, stocktaking.
Four questions to settle before building
- Who decides on promotions, and by when? The later the approval, the more content is made under time pressure.
- Which screens show what? The shop window needs different content from the till and the waiting area.
- Which prices apply when? For price reductions the lowest total price of the last 30 days must be stated (section 11 of the German Price Indication Ordinance). Anyone discounting in early December and again in January should document their prices. This article is not legal advice.
- Who can be reached in December if a screen fails or a price is wrong?
Order of work
By mid-November: draft motifs and texts for all dates, fix prices, obtain approvals. Last week of November: upload Black Friday and Advent content and schedule it with time windows, not on the day itself. By 10 December: set the holiday opening hours and check them in advance. After that: only small changes.
As a rule of thumb: the closer the date, the less may be newly created. What is still missing on 20 November will not be better on the 27th. Plan a week of buffer between completion and first playout.
What this looks like with AIO Hub
AIO Hub from Kapaso has time windows per item with date range, time of day, weekdays and public holidays. An item can thus be created as early as November and runs by itself only on the days it is meant for. The playlist planner offers ready-made blocks for this, including "promotion" with a start and end date.
Among the 20 standard templates of version 6.1.0, in operation at the manufacturer since 3 October 2026, are "Christmas: opening hours" (times from 24 December to New Year) and "Company holiday". Both are own designs with sample text and are adapted. They come in landscape, in portrait and as an e-paper version for 13.3 inches.
The limits: a template is only design. Prices, dates and texts are right only if someone enters them correctly. The version does not ship further Christmas motifs.
A test
Walk through the calendar backwards from Christmas Eve. For every date there must be an image, a person responsible and a date by which it must be online. Where one is missing, start there.
