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Two Canadian women looking at a store window, with shopping bags in arms, wondering if it's a better deal to shop on Black Friday or wait until Boxing Day.

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Black Friday vs Boxing Day—which sales day in Canada is better for deals?

For this week’s top story, we’re comparing Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Travel Tuesday and Boxing Day.

By Carli Whitwell

The holiday season is the Superbowl for sales shoppers. From Black Friday and Cyber Monday to the lesser-known Travel Tuesday and ol’ faithful Boxing Day, this time of the year has more deals for Canadians than Santa has elves working in his workshop. So many, in fact, it can be hard to know which sales day offers the best discounts and when we should be clicking “Add to Cart.”

When to shop depends on what you’re shopping for. “There is a method to the madness,” says Jennifer LaForge, general manager of Rakuten Canada, which operates a popular online cashback and rewards program. “If you’re really savvy, you’re going to create your list, and you’re shopping all of those days.”

Is Black Friday better than Boxing Day? Canadians think so

Historically a U.S. shopping phenomenon, Black Friday and Cyber Monday (together known as BFCM) have expanded beyond their original timing after American Thanksgiving. Although they officially fall on Nov. 28 this year, they’ve become a month-long affair and are now the biggest sale period of the year for Canadians. Yes, even bigger than Boxing Day. According to the Retail Council of Canada, a whopping 84% of us say Black Friday is the most important shopping day.

Add in the current trade tension with the U.S., inflation and general economic uncertainty to the mix, and even more of us are expected to shop for pre-holiday deals—with stores also stepping it up with discounts.

According to the 2025 Deloitte Holiday Retail Survey, most people are planning to spend about 10% less this year than last year. Money is tight for a lot of us, so “you’re going to see deeper discounts,” says Toronto-based retail analyst Bruce Winder. “It’s all about value, and retailers have to offer better value this year to get consumers to spend.”

Will Black Friday and Boxing Day deals be good this year?

Some retailers soft-launch sale season with an October Black Friday sale, after Canadian Thanksgiving, but the crème de la crème of BFCM deals typically pop off come November. Prior to the peak sale weekend, keep an eye on deals from smaller retailers or direct-to-consumer brands, says LaForge. It comes down to the cost of marketing. “They’ll have very rich offers over a longer period of time because they just don’t have the purchasing power to get some of those premium placements in a very competitive Black Friday Cyber Monday market.” This is great advice for the increasing number of Canadians looking to shop local: according to that same Retail Council of Canada study, 84% are looking for Canadian-made products this holiday season. Elbows up!

What Canadians should shop for on Black Friday, Boxing Day—and Travel Tuesday

Black Friday: When Black Friday officially rolls around, it’s time to get really strategic. This is when we’ll see the door crashers, those big-ticket items like televisions, gaming consoles, laptops, appliances, mobile phone plans, furniture and mattresses.

Cyber Monday: If you’re looking for smaller electronics, try to hold off until Cyber Monday, recommends LaForge, noting you’ll find the biggest deals on smaller electronics and accessories—things like smart-home devices or boring-but-necessary software subscriptions.

Travel Tuesday: For those saving up for a March Break vacation, Dec. 2 (Travel Tuesday this year) often offers the best travel deals on everything from flights to hotels to vacation packages.

Boxing Day: If you find gift cards in your stocking, don’t sleep on Boxing Day. It’s when retailers are trying to offload inventory before the new year. (Even better to shop if the government reinstates the GST/HST break from last year—fingers crossed.) LaForge says the best discounts are on fitness equipment, jewellery and accessories, which “tend to have the most turnover in terms of trends. If you’re holding on to a lot of fashion and jewelry from 2025, you can’t be selling that in 2026. You want all the new inventory coming in.”

As these sales days balloon out into full-on weeks and months (Boxing Week, Black November), know that the best door-crasher deals happen usually on the actual days. They’re buzzy items with limited stock and deep discounts that are only available for one day, or even part of the day, until stock runs out.

Are Boxing Day and Black Friday sales always worth it?

Businesses spend a lot of money on marketing, trying to make us spend our money. As a general rule of thumb, says Winder, “wherever there are high margins, you’re going to see greater discounts because brands can afford to do it.” (Margin means the marked up price tag for profit.) That means deep discounts on beauty or fragrance but lower discounts on tech.

While those steep discounts are especially enticing (“I’m practically saving money by buying on sale,” we can hear you saying), if an item’s not on your list, take a beat. Stick to your budget and do your homework. “We tend to give ourselves that permission to buy more when there’s a sale,” says LaForge. “That’s the biggest trap.”

Carli Whitwell is an award-winning Toronto-based lifestyle journalist. She's written for EE72, Refinery29, ELLE Canada, The Toronto Star and others. Her hobbies include going out for dinner and sleeping in.