Halloween superfans see the culture catching up to them. (A 12-foot skeleton helped)

Home Depot was about to launch something big — really big — when the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020: a 12-foot skeleton.

“There were a lot of internal discussions. It was like, is there going to be Halloween this year?” said Lance Allen, senior merchant of decorative holiday at Home Depot. “Are customers going to think this is in poor taste? Should we go forward with it?’”

Home Depot did. And the towering skeleton arrived at the perfect time.

“Nobody could possibly need a 12-foot skeleton, but everybody wanted a 12-foot skeleton,” Allen said.

The retailer’s gamble upped the game for decorations. A population stuck at home and wanting some semblance of community entertainment created a Halloween phenomenon that’s now bigger than any one store. (Others carry various versions of the larger-than-life skeleton.)

And as stores race to get the latest and greatest Halloween score out as soon as possible, superfans say it’s about time.

Home Depot’s 12-foot skeleton is affectionately known by fans across the internet and globe as “Skelly.” When Skelly was launched, the thinking was that he’d be out for a week or two leading up to Halloween night, Allen said, the usual consumer behavior observed at the time.

But the pandemic changed that timeline.

“Everybody started decorating in early October for something to do,” Allen said. “And we’ve really seen a shift in the market where now people are decorating for Halloween how we’ve seen with Christmas historically, planning out decorations five to six weeks, two months ahead of time.”

Mak Ralston, a Halloween fanatic known as Haunt Former on YouTube, who posts Halloween videos year-round, has noticed the shift.

“There used to be a kind of a calendar as to when I would expect things to come out in stores,” Ralston said, noting that orange and black and witches and skeletons used to roll in at the start of September, maybe mid-August.

“This year, I saw some stuff in stores for Halloween in June, early July,” he said. “It’s never been earlier.”

“Some average people who aren’t as invested don’t realize that for people who are really committed to both Halloween and the horror culture, they’re in it to win it like all year,” Ralston said.

“I can post a video about a horror movie or about a Halloween mask that’s coming out in October in February, and people eat it up,” he said.

Nate Rambaud, known as That Guy Nate on Youtube, started his channel by posting videos…