Fall is a great time of year for pumpkins, sweet treats, and colored leaves. It is also the time of year where commercial retail stores go big for the season with everything from fall baking mixes to spooky Halloween animatronics. Have you ever wondered which retail store has the best collection of fall décor? A place where you can hit a one-stop shop for all your fall needs? That is what I sought to find out this weekend. I went to the major retailers in Stephenville and in Weatherford in order to find my answer.

First up is Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby probably is the winner as far as volume goes, but they had no Halloween decorations whatsoever.  I was really curious as to why this was, but overall it does not really matter if you are looking purely for simple fall decorations. The decorations at Hobby Lobby were mostly things like kitchenware such as napkins, paper plates, and some desert packaging things. They also carried several fall figurines like trucks and farm animals. Unfortunately, the lack of Halloween decorations was a little bit of a buzzkill.

T.J. Maxx probably had some of the best fall décor, with equal parts creepy and cute. The Halloween mugs and tumblers were Rae Dunn inspired which gave them a fun fall twist. They also had a lot of decorative pillows with both Halloween and fall depictions on them. They also had several fun decorations like gnome mugs and gnome candles. They also carried some discounted children’s costumes which was impressive as Hobby Lobby did not have any. Overall, T.J. Maxx had really good variety and catered to many different audiences. 

Walmart was to say the least…disappointing. Now I would not expect anything more than slightly subpar, but I held out hope for Walmart which was shortly crushed. The Halloween section was a rampant mess. The costumes and candy were strewn about the aisle in a tornado like fashion, and the “fall décor section” was a single half aisle picked over with broken statues and some cheesy door hangers. Overall, not impressed. 

The one store I did go to outside of Stephenville was Target in Weatherford. Weatherford is 45 minutes away from Stephenville on I-20, and I was pretty excited to take a trip to see their Halloween and fall decorations. Imagine my surprise when I walk into the Target and the first thing I see is: Christmas decorations. Yep, Halloween has not even had its chance to make an appearance and there were Christmas decorations out. The fall and Halloween decorations that were out included “crystal balls,” gothic style candles, and some ready-to-paint activities for kids. I headed to the famed ‘Hearth and Hand Magnolia Home’ section and what do you know, all I see is holly wreaths and red and green throw blankets. I wish I could rate Target on a scale of spooky to fall cutie, but it seems they have completely skipped over the fall holidays and straight to the most wonderful time of the year.

The clear winner here is definitely T.J. Maxx With something for everybody, T.J. Maxx hit this fall like a hammer to a nail head. So, if you are in the market for some fun and fresh fall décor, make sure to visit T.J. Maxx on Washington next to Walmart.