Every winter, as K-pop's calendar becomes packed with award ceremonies and comeback announcements, another tradition quietly dominates fan communities worldwide: the release of special year-end merchandise known as "Season's Greetings." What started as simple holiday gifts has evolved into a distinctive K-pop tradition that blends pop culture with commerce, fundamentally shaping how fans celebrate the season while maintaining connections with their favorite idols.
The K-pop interpretation of Season's Greetings typically consists of annual merchandise bundles filled with calendars, diaries, postcards, and exclusive photo cards, each year reimagined around fresh concepts or themes that reflect a group's or individual idol's unique identity. These merchandise packages are usually released as early as October and continue through December, serving as a bridge for fans to reflect on the past year while stepping into the next one alongside their beloved artists. While they may appear to be simple desk accessories on the surface, these items function as powerful tokens of belonging within fan communities.
For entertainment companies, this winter merchandise tradition has become a crucial revenue pillar. Unlike album releases, which are directly tied to chart performance and promotional cycles, Season's Greetings have established themselves as reliable fixtures on the K-pop calendar. Their inherent scarcity—characterized by limited preorders, frequent early sellouts, and concept-specific packaging—creates urgency among fans and significantly increases their emotional value. As these carefully curated products blur the boundaries between genuine affection and commercial transactions, K-pop labels have become increasingly skilled at transforming fan sentiment into strategic business opportunities.
This commercial formula recently came under intense scrutiny when K-pop giant SM Entertainment unveiled its 2026 Season's Greetings lineup. While most of the company's artist merchandise sets were priced around 49,000 won (approximately $34), packages for aespa and RIIZE—currently two of the company's most active and commercially successful groups—carried price tags of 129,000 won. Both packages were marketed as "special editions" and contained more elaborate merchandise collections. Aespa's version features an impressive 18 items, including a necklace, denim tote bag, and large fabric poster, while RIIZE's package includes collectible paper dolls and exclusive video content.
The significant price increase immediately sparked widespread backlash from fans across social media platforms. Many supporters argued that the elevated costs undermined the inclusive spirit that the Season's Greetings tradition was originally built upon, with some fans directly accusing SM Entertainment of "testing how far fans will go" in their devotion. This pricing controversy highlighted growing tensions between fan loyalty and corporate profit-seeking within the K-pop industry.
Across the broader industry, last year's Season's Greetings merchandise maintained much more consistent pricing structures. Most standard bundles from major acts including TWICE, Seventeen, IVE, and Stray Kids were priced between 45,000 and 55,000 won, typically featuring desk calendars, diaries, photo cards, and stickers as core components. Even premium editions that included additional items such as DVDs or exclusive merchandise rarely exceeded the 100,000 won price point, making the recent price jumps particularly striking to longtime fans.
While K-pop agencies continue experimenting with tiered merchandise strategies and limited edition releases, industry observers emphasize that the recent winter merchandise debate reveals how delicate emotional value remains within K-pop culture. When companies push pricing too aggressively, what once felt like genuine shared celebrations between artists and fans can quickly transform into purely transactional relationships.
Culture critic Ha Jae-geun offered balanced perspective on this ongoing tension, noting that entertainment companies must exercise caution to avoid exploiting fan loyalty solely for profit maximization. He emphasized that fans themselves may also need to adopt more mindful consumption approaches when purchasing merchandise. "Both sides have important roles to play," the critic stated through local media outlets. "Only when such collaborative efforts align properly can the K-pop market mature in genuinely healthy ways."
Despite these commercial concerns, the lasting appeal of winter-exclusive merchandise lies not primarily in the physical contents of each package, but rather in the deeper symbolism these items represent for fans. For devoted supporters, simple actions like flipping through new calendars or writing notes in idol-branded planners each January transcend mere routine—they become meaningful rituals of carrying their favorite artists forward into another year of shared experiences and continued connection.
