This week, well before Halloween - much less Thanksgiving - holiday catalogs began landing in mailboxes in hopes of catching early-bird shoppers and getting an early read on what will sell this holiday season.

Crate & Barrel, a home and furnishings retailer, started its holiday pitch by sending out just under 2 million catalogs. Millions more landed from L.L. Bean, Miles Kimball, Pottery Barn and others.

All are after a slice of the $219.9 billion that the National Retail Federation forecasts consumers will spend on holiday shopping.

That's a modest 4.5 percent increase from last year's $210.4 billion, growth tempered by "higher energy costs, rising interest rates, geopolitical threats and slow income growth," says NRF chief economist Rosalind Wells.

While the holidays might seem far away, cataloguers want to get on consumers' radar early. They believe that shoppers have started thinking about gift giving, if they aren't buying yet.

"With so many catalogs in the marketplace during this season, it's important to be able to cut through the clutter as early as possible and become a 'top-of-mind' destination with consumers," says Pamela Rucker of Discovery Channel Store, which is set to drop more than 1.5 million catalogs in the mail next week.

Another reason for those early catalogs: inventory help.

Catalog retailers use early-season purchasing data to gauge which items they might need to reorder to have enough later in the season.

"You're more likely to see the apparel and home furnishings catalogs first, because it helps give the company an idea of demand," says Amy Blankenship, spokeswoman for the Direct Marketing Association.