The first show of the season was lively and a good indicator that retailers had a strong holiday and are optimistic for the new year.

The 2025 holiday shopping season turned out to be surprisingly robust for most retailers in the gift and home industry. The big question was how that would translate into the start of the wholesale buying season this month, starting in Dallas and continuing through to Atlanta, Las Vegas and New York.

The short answer, at least from Dallas, is that nothing got lost in translation. The Total Home & Gift Market at the Dallas Market Center was a particularly lively event, and show organizers were jubilant in announcing it as the “ best attended January show in multiple years.” Many exhibitors concurred, and the lines at the registration desks, escalators and parking lots — not to mention at Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A — seemed to reinforce the point.

Independent specialty retailers almost uniformly said they had solid Christmases and came into the show looking for the perennials — what’s new, what do you have as a deal and what can you get me sooner rather than later.

Those conversations were colored by the ongoing hot topic of 2025, which shows no signs of abating even as the calendar pages turned: tariffs. Neither retailers nor consumers seemed to let increased prices get in their way in December, although there were anecdotal reports of shopping baskets composed of several lower-priced items versus fewer higher-ticket goods. So, coming into Dallas showrooms last week, buyers were resigned to the fact that they would be paying more — anywhere from 5 to 15 percent more — on comparable merchandise for the new year.

The big difference was that these price increases were baked into the actual wholesale cost of the goods, often disguised by new products that theoretically didn’t exist in 2025…even if the changes to them were subtle at best. These new wholesale price tags replaced the ubiquitous surcharges that had become a fact of life during the back half of 2025. A rose by any other name…you might say.

Once conversations got beyond price tags — or perhaps before — they centered on a number of broad-based trends permeating the showrooms and aisles of the Dallas Market Center.

Yes, the cowboy theme, which has been such a big part of the design story this past year — especially in Texas — did not subside, although you could make the argument it had perhaps peaked. The look was all over the market — but not quite everywhere as it might have been at shows last year.

Color was another trend clearly on display. You could always find color in new products, but this market that shopping excursion seemed to be a little easier by the appearance of all kinds of bright shades of reds, greens and blues, not to mention oranges and yellows. It was surprisingly apparent in candle packaging, which is apparently moving on to what’s next after what seems like eons of neutrals and pale shades of gray.

And who would have expected ribbons to be a thing this year? Always an element of holiday, ribbons showed up on non-seasonal merchandise, too. The trend was especially personified by social influencer John Marks‘ jam-packed sessions at market where the baby-faced retailer dazzled the audience with his ribbon-tying magic.

And if you wanted one more oldie-but-goodie that turned up in multiple showrooms and booths, how about mahjong? We saw game sets, accessories and assorted paraphernalia from several companies, particularly in the temps. The ancient Chinese game seems to have taken on a new life with next-gen types who savor the colorful tiles and social interaction. Who knew?

Finally, you couldn’t buy one at market, but the hottest product of the week could have been the oversized, colorful Hulken rolling tote bags that so many retailers tugged around the aisles of the market center. We don’t know how long this trend will last, only to be replaced by whatever’s hot next, but for this season, at least, it was ubiquity personified.

And now, onto Atlanta.