Making your store inviting is never more important than in the fourth quarter of the year. Packed chock full of holidays, a retailer’s challenge is to tap into shoppers’ jolly moods--or to turn grumpy moods festive. During the fourth quarter that means embracing practically all the celebrations listed on the calendar.

Gourmet specialty stores are exceptionally nimble at distilling holiday spirit: holding parties, making cookies, and arranging decorations are among the ways retailers are standing out with consumers this season. Many retailers consider a good fourth quarter a payback for building a relationship with the customer all year. For example, retailers with cooking schools, or those who hold wine tastings year-round say that those events help customers view their store as a destination for good times during the busy holidays as well.

In fact, for some stores--and their communities-- holiday events have become local traditions. In Wasilla, Alaska, where the snow starts falling on Halloween, David Nyberg is sponsoring the annual town-wide gingerbread house contest. This year marks the 20th year Nyberg’s store, All I Saw Cookware, will sponsor the contest, he says.

Holidays are also the time to roll out special merchandise. Fans of Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s A Southern Season know that Halloween is the time they can start buying special products like flavored coffees. “We start carrying holiday coffee and teas around Halloween because they are great additions to gift baskets,” said the store’s coffee and tea buyer Caroline Cahan.

And its not just the brick-and-mortar retailers who tap into the holiday spirit. For 125 West Inc., the fourth quarter is a time for a more seasonal look. 125 West president Thomas Finch says that the company, which sells kitchenware via a web site and catalog, highlights products for gift giving. “We pull out products by price point to give people gift ideas, sorting them as ‘Gifts Under $25’ and ‘Gifts Under $50’, which is also good for attracting internet search engines to our site,” Finch said.

At The Silo, a kitchenware store in New Milford, Connecticut, a sure sign the holiday season has arrived is when an enormous Christmas tree is hoisted up in the former barn’s hayloft-turned-art gallery. The space gives the store a chance to highlight local artists and their wares, as well as set a dramatic seasonal portrait. “Holiday promotions are getting earlier and earlier each year, says Susan York, executive director of the Silo’s parent company, the Hunt Hill Farm Trust. The Silo kicked off this year’s festivities just after Halloween with a fundraiser, and is sending invitations out to the store’s 34th birthday party this month, for yet another gala.

Judy Potrzeba says she doesn’t win contests, so she was thrilled when she won a free trip to the upcoming Gourmet Housewares Show in Orlando, May 8-10.

Potrzeba, owner of Someone’s In The Kitchen, in Libertyville, Illinois, garnered round-trip air fare and a hotel room for two nights, simply by confirming her show registration. However as new store owner, she said she would have gone to the show even without the free airfare.

“We went shopping at the Gourmet Housewares Show last year, even before closing on the deal to buy this store,” she said. “When you are a new business owner you really need to get out there and meet people and see products.”

A former caterer, Potrzeba says her 1,000-square foot store, which is housed in a century old building, specializes in high-end cookware and also boasts a cooking school.

“My market is for serious cooks,” she says, adding while she teaches classes she also invites chefs in the Chicago area to teach as well. Those classes help her merchandise the cookware, she says. “For instance I’m doing a risotto pressure cooker class this winter and I’ll give anyone who buys a pressure cooker a ten dollar gift card for a cooking class.”