Shop Local – Small Town Holiday Shopping
After the rush of Black Friday shopping, we spent some time the next day enjoying Small Business Saturday by shopping locally. Living in a suburb of Indianapolis, I am lucky to have multiple cute little towns full of unique boutiques. If you still have shopping to do, I highly encourage you to check out one of these towns or a small town near you. Shopping at local businesses keeps more of your money spent in that town and helps these entrepreneurs thrive.
We started the day in Carmel, Indiana. I’ve mentioned this town before as a fun place to shop, but today we just visited Silver in the City (and purchased some fun Christmas decorations), The Olive Mill and had lunch at the Pint Room.
Next, we headed to Zionsville, Indiana which was about a twenty-minute drive. Zionsville has a charming downtown complete with brick streets, multiple restaurants and a nice variety of shops. I especially loved the local butcher shop and local gourmet foods shop. Both were the perfect places to pick up consumable gifts which are a good choice for those people on your list who just don’t need more stuff.
Finally, we headed home to Noblesville, Indiana. I find it’s easy to take our downtown for granted which is a shame as it’s truly wonderful. With a historic square and at least a dozen interesting local shops, it’s a fabulous place to do holiday shopping. We enjoyed stopping at Alexander’s on the Square for a hot chocolate and then finished up the day strolling the streets and picking up unique gifts.
Shopping small towns and purchasing locally is my favorite way to shop, and a fun way to create an everyday adventure exploring new areas! If we don’t consistently support our local shops, they will disappear, and who wants our only option to be the big box stores? Not me!
Silver in the City, 111 W. Main St., Carmel, IN (317) 993-3669
The Olive Mill, 1o S. Rangeline Rd., Carmel, IN (317) 574-9200
Grapevine Cottage, 61 South Main Street, Zionsville, IN (317) 733-1010
Moody’s Market & Butcher Shop, 20 East Cedar Street, Zionsville, IN (317) 873-1800
Alexander’s on the Square, 864 Logan St., Noblesville, IN (317)-773-9177
Don’t want to leave the house to shop? Check out my holiday gift guide – you’ll find unique gifts for everyone on your list!
Where is your favorite place to shop? Do you have any cute little towns nearby? Please share!
I always love to support local small business, hoping they all grow! It always nice to see how happy and helpful the little guys are!
Loved this! We always support small businesses!
Yeah!
Hi! I love this post – small towns are such wonderful places to visit. We also neglect quite a few right near our hometown. We live in PA, but friends of ours recently moved to Indiana. Zionsville to be exact! It was literally the cutest town I’ve ever seen! I hope to return, and I’ll be sure to pass on your post to my friend who lives there :-).
Zionsville is adorable! Your friend is lucky to live there! She should definitely check out Westfield, Noblesville, and Carmel too – all very close to her.
I try to support small businesses whenever I can. It looks like you had a super fun day!
We did have a great time.
We have many small business shops that are wonderful to shop at.
Glad to hear that!
Super great post!!! And Carmel is so lovely to support local businesses!
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It is a lovely town!
So fun! My husband and I specifically went to a small, local nursery to buy our Christmas tree today. We love the idea of supporting them.
Love this!
Love to shop small and local. It feels good to support a local family with your purchases. I recently visited Indiana and was hoping to get to some of the places you have written about but the early snowstorms and messy roads made travel for this Arizona girl pretty scary. I tried to do as little driving as possible so I ended up not being able to visit as much of the areas that I hoped to see. I’ll be back though and will keep your suggestions in mind.
Thanks! It was pretty messy a few weeks ago – and super early in the season which is CRAZY! Hope you get back soon.
I love supporting small businesses, great post!
Thanks!
We have to support small businesses in our community! These little shops look wonderful!
So agree!
Great Post. These small shops are always so cute. The big boxes will never compare to that quaintness.
So true!