Shop Small, Shop Local, Shop Handmade

It’s the busiest shopping weekend of the year. Whether you’re out in your community, traveling to a large city or staying home and shopping online, we’re all inundated with sales, specials and giveaways. Happy day after Thanksgiving, right?

While you’re doing your shopping today, I would encourage you to keep one very special thing in mind. This is Small Business Saturday, a day that we point the spotlight on small, local and handmade shops. They are the businesses on our Main Streets, run by our friends and neighbors and relying on our support to make them successful. They may not have a nationwide following or billion-dollar backers, but they do have us - and this is where we step up.

Owning our own handmade business, Stuff From Trees, we know how important loyal customers are. We do all we can to spread our name, share our talents and sell our products, but it’s the people who love us and support us 365 days a year who keep us doing what we do. It’s their purchases that help us put money back into our communities, so that money stays right here and benefits all of us.

So look for ways this holiday season to shop small, shop local and shop handmade. Attend a craft and vendor show. Wander up and down your Main Street. Look for local events on social media where you can spend your dollars. Place special orders with your friends and family who create and make things for a living. Show the people closest to you - your loved ones and neighbors alike - that you are supportive and devoted to making them successful. You have no idea how important and motivating that can be to small, local and handmade entrepreneurs. Help them have a very merry Christmas this season.

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