7 Walmart Christmas Clearance Sale Secrets to Save Tons of Money

From a pure percentage-off discount perspective, the Walmart Christmas clearance sales keep up with the best of them.

But their timing isn’t the greatest, and we know that timing is everything when it comes to these clearance sales. At any given moment, Walmart’s biggest competitor is running a better Christmas clearance sale than you’ll find in the aisles of Wally World.

That doesn’t mean the Walmart Christmas clearance sale is total garbage, though. The markdowns aren’t nothing, and different stores tend to carry different brands — especially when it comes to home decor. Here’s what to know about the Walmart Christmas clearance sale.

Download the KCL app to keep on top of new holiday clearance in real-time.

 

1. Walmart Christmas clearance trickled out early in 2022.

Right after Target launched their clearance sale on home decor items in mid-December, we started seeing a handful of early sales at Walmart, too.

Now that we’re officially in the after-Christmas sale time frame, you can get 50% – 75% off select holiday decor at Walmart, but many deals are in-store only (and while supplies last).

 

After Christmas Clearance deals we found online:

• Holiday Time 26-Piece Shatterproof Ornaments – $2.00
• Holiday Time Beaded Blue Glass Tree Tabletop Decoration – $3.99
• Snif-Snax Holiday Cat Advent Calendar – $4.99
• Holiday Time 75-Piece Shatterproof Ornaments – $7.00
• The Pioneer Woman Advent Calendar – $7.00
• The Elf on the Shelf Sweet Spinners Advent Calendar – $8.23
• The Pioneer Woman 48-Inch Christmas Tree Skirt – $10.00
• Mystery Tackle Box 12-Days of Fishmas Advent Calendar – $19.97
• LEGO Harry Potter Advent Calendar – $25.00

 

In-store deals from after Christmas at Walmart:

• Holiday Time Clear Mini Christmas Lights – $0.81
• Holiday Time Gold Star Tree Topper – $1.22
• Holiday Time 2-Pack Wrapping Paper – $1.37
• Holiday Time Cozy Christmas 4-Pack Ornaments – $1.99
• Holiday Time 2-Piece Santa Tree Hugger – $7.49

 

2. Walmart’s Christmas clearance progressively climbs to 90% off.

Walmart’s pricing on ALL the holiday items like toys and wrapping paper and everything else first dropped on Dec. 27. As we expected, this first wave of the sale was 50% off.

Then starting on Jan. 2, prices dropped even further to 75% off. The lowest prices don’t come until somewhere around Jan. 9, when Walmart starts marking these items down to 90% off.

 

3. Lower prices also mean fewer choices.

It’s easy to intuitively think that the best time to shop is during the biggest sales in mid-January when everything’s 90% off.

But these are items the store is trying to get rid of. Once they’re gone, Walmart won’t be restocking more. So if there’s one particular home decor item you have your eye on, waiting until it’s 90% off means it could be gone.

It would be better to buy it now. Or at least close to Dec. 26 when it’s likely to be 50% off — and hopefully still in stock.

 

4. Don’t trust the prices on clearance tags.

Walmart has a myriad of clearance items, running in the hundreds to thousands each day. Sometimes Walmart employees fall behind or miss an item when placing updated pricing stickers on these clearance items.

That means when you’re shopping clearance, the item may actually be cheaper than the number on the price tag shows. To find these secret Walmart clearance items, download the Walmart app (iOS / Android) and turn on your location.

Then use the “Check a Price” feature to scan your clearance item. The price that shows up in the app will be the price you pay at checkout — not the price you see on the physical sticker.

TIP: This tends to only work one way. If an item is already on clearance, the price isn’t going to go back up. So you can generally trust that whatever the price is on the sticker, you won’t pay more.

 

 

5. Clearance pricing can vary by location.

Walmart stores sometimes have clearance pricing unique to their location. The store manager has a lot of discretion about which products they want to move, so you may find lower pricing at your local store than what you see on Walmart.com, depending on your location settings.

If you’ve seen someone else at another store score a better deal, this manager discretion means you can ask the store manager if they can match the other location’s pricing. They’re not obligated to do it, but asking politely never hurts.

 

6. You have 90 days to make returns — even on holiday items.

Generally speaking, you have 90 days to make returns, even on clearance items like the ones you might find in the holiday section. Ideally you’d make the return with a receipt, but if you lost yours, the Walmart return policy does have a couple of workarounds.

TIP: Walmart does have a holiday return policy. But if you’re purchasing items at the end of December, you’re better off claiming the 90 days. The holiday return window closes at the end of January, and it’s only really a great deal if you make purchases way earlier in the holiday season.

 

7. Target’s Christmas clearance tends to be better.

When it comes to Christmas clearance sales, it’s all about timing. The more time goes on, the more limited inventory will be.

Target’s Christmas clearance sales run much earlier than Walmart’s. In 2022, they broke the mold and started marking down holiday home decor items to 30% off even before Christmas — starting on Dec. 14. That means until Dec. 26, Target had better sales than Walmart on most (though not all) holiday home decor items.

On Dec. 26, the sales always catch up a little bit, with both stores offering 50% off. But Target bumped prices down even further on Dec. 29 to 70% off. Once again, they’ll have better sales than Walmart.

On Jan. 2, Walmart finally bumped prices down to 75% off. But at the same time, Target will be just about to move pricing down to 90% off. Walmart isn’t likely to catch up again until mid-January, when holiday clearance items will finally reach 90% off.

By this time, there won’t be much inventory left to pick through at Walmart.