"Boo baskets," the needless trend ruining what's really great about fall

“Boo baskets,” the needless trend ruining what’s really great about fall
TikTok and brands turned our most natural, nostalgic season into another marketing moment

By Andi Zeisler
Senior Writer
Published October 27, 2025 6:30AM (EDT)




(Salon) The majority of Americans cite fall as their favorite season, and I was among them until several years ago, when I started realizing that each Labor Day weekend was bringing me ever closer to becoming Andy Rooney. I had questions, and they were cranky: Why are my algorithms clogged with identikit white women with barrel-curled hair flinging decorative gourds and strings of plastic leaves all over their kitchens? When did Halloween expand into two months of “spooky season,” and does spooky season overlap with “cozy season,” or is that a completely separate thing? Why are Target and Walmart and Michaels full of shabby-chic wall art announcing “OMG fall” and “#fallvibes” with the same energy as they might elsewhere proclaim “Live Laugh Love?” Why are otherwise normal people acting like they’ve just been sprung from some malign summer lockup in which they were physically prevented from wearing soft pants or drinking tea?

In a just world, fall influencers would have no impact on my ability to enjoy this time of year. But in a really just world, fall influencers wouldn’t exist at all. So far, only one place in the United States has managed to make this a reality: Pomfret, Vermont. Two years ago, the citizens of this postcard-perfect town, a favorite of New England leaf-peepers, closed the winding road that leads to a private residence called Sleepy Hollow Farm after years of disruptive annual infiltration by fall girlies, #autumninspo moms and tour buses hashtagging and TikTokking through their once-chill community. The story made international headlines because, well, examples of public shunning undertaken early enough for it to reduce harm measurably are depressingly rare, and this one had a David vs. Goliath quality to it.

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The Fall Aesthetic as profit generator can’t be contained. What arguably began in the early 2000s, when Starbucks decided that two limited-availability seasonal beverages were better than one and debuted its Pumpkin Spice Latte and intensified with the advent of visual social-media platforms, has now attained its final form. Fall is no longer the nostalgic, sweet-smelling transitional zone between the begrudging end of summer and the bombast of the holiday shopping season; it’s a shopping season in itself.

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Searching the term #boobasket on TikTok or Instagram results in a mosaic of thumbnails with titles like “Everything in my viral basket” and “A boo basket . . . but make it pink” and accompanying videos that range from the dreamy to the frantic. Boo baskets are a social-media phenomenon that involves shopping for, arranging and presenting a basket or bin full of seasonally appropriate gifts to a loved one. In a typical video, a generally young woman records a journey through Target or CVS or HomeGoods as she fills a container with a range of spooky-season/cozy-season products: Halloween socks, some kind of mug or drinking vessel, candy, slippers, a plush ghost or gourd, a few beauty or grooming products, etc. Sometimes they are assembling the basket for their bestie, sometimes for a boyfriend, and occasionally for a boo-basket exchange for which they are given a list of prompts. ......................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/10/27/boo-baskets-the-needless-trend-ruining-whats-really-great-about-fall/