Every year I try to do as much of my Christmas shopping locally as I can. I like having good businesses near me, and I want them to still be there when the Christmas decorations come down.
Somewhere to find a birthday present. A café to meet a friend. A nursery where you can describe a plant as “the purple one that keeps dying” and someone will actually try to help.
We get a lot out of having these businesses in our towns. Christmas gives us plenty of opportunities to put something back.
That doesn’t mean buying more, blowing the budget or finding a locally handmade version of every item on your teenager’s wish list. It means making a few decisions about where your money goes before the December panic makes them for you.
What happens after you spend locally
Let’s recap on why we do this. A purchase can help pay someone’s wages. Some of that income may then go to another local business. The business you bought from might use a local bookkeeper, buy ingredients from a nearby producer or call a local tradie when something breaks.
Those connections affect how much of the benefit stays in the area. The OECD’s 2026 tourism report highlights local sourcing and small-business participation as ways to strengthen the benefits communities receive from tourism.
There’s no single percentage that describes every business in every town. But there are some useful recent figures that show the scale of the opportunity.
East Gippsland Shire Council’s Buy Local spending tool, using 2025–26 data, reports that residents spent $275.1 million at businesses outside the region, excluding online purchases, which may be with local or non-local sellers.
Its modelling also estimates that if 1,000 households redirected $20 a week into local shopping and food retail, that would mean $1.04 million in purchases over a year, supporting approximately $1.75 million in total local economic activity, including flow-on effects.
That’s an estimate for East Gippsland, rather than a promise about every town. Still, it gives you an idea of what quite ordinary spending decisions can add up to.
At a national level, Westpac’s October 2025 modelling estimated that households redirecting $100 of their existing weekly budgets towards Australian products or businesses could increase GDP by $16 billion and support approximately 38,000 new jobs.
That’s about spending within Australia, rather than keeping money within one town. The useful point for Christmas is that the modelling starts with money people already intended to spend.
Give local businesses the first look
Before you start shopping, write down who you’re buying for and your budget. Then have a look at what’s available nearby or from towns in your region.
A book or voucher from an independent bookshop. A board game from a local toy shop. A plant or tree from a nursery. Something useful from the hardware store. Your gift can come from a local business even when the product itself was made somewhere else.
If you can’t see what you need, ask. A business may be able to order it, suggest an alternative or point you towards another shop.
You can also shop locally online. Ordering directly from a nearby business’s website can fit around work, kids and everything else happening in December. Check where the business is based, who you’re buying from and whether collection or delivery works for you.
Local ownership, local employment and locally made products offer different kinds of benefits. You can make a thoughtful choice without finding a gift that ticks every possible box.
Look beyond the presents
Quite a bit of our Christmas spending never goes under a tree.
There’s food for a gathering, flowers for the table, end-of-year catch-ups, thank-you gifts and whatever you’re taking to someone else’s house.
Could one of those purchases go to a nearby bakery, florist, berry farm, producer, independent grocer or farmers’ market? Could your work Christmas lunch happen at a local venue?
If you’re buying for a team, consider asking a local business to put together something within your budget. Give them enough notice to work out what they can offer.
You can also pool money for one useful gift. A voucher for a favourite restaurant, a class or a local experience might suit someone far better than another collection of small things they have to find room for.
Your Christmas visitors can support local too
If you have people staying over summer, you’ll probably hear “What should we do today?” at some point.
Have a few suggestions ready. Somewhere for breakfast, a local shop they’d enjoy, a paid experience or a place to stop on the way to the beach.
According to the Victorian Government’s July 2026 tourism fact sheet, tourism contributed an estimated $890 million to Gippsland’s gross regional product and supported 7,400 filled jobs in 2024–25, including direct and indirect contributions.
That gives some scale to the value of visitors across our region. At a very practical level, we can help them discover businesses they would otherwise drive past.
Be specific with your recommendations. Tell them what you like, who it would suit and how to find it. Check the opening hours before you send a carload of relatives there.
Ps. If you’re a small business owner reading this please make sure you keep your business hours updated on your website, your google business profile and social media.
Support that fits your budget
You don’t have to make a purchase to be useful to a local business.
Leave an honest review describing your experience. Send a link to someone who’s looking for what they offer. Share a Christmas ordering deadline or a gift idea with a friend who would appreciate it.
A specific recommendation gives someone information they can act on. “They helped me find a book for a reluctant reader” says much more than “Great shop”.
And when you do buy, a little planning helps. Pre-order where that’s an option, collect when you’ve agreed to and let the business know promptly if your plans change.
A Christmas plan you can manage
I’d love you to look at the spending you already have planned and choose a few purchases you could make locally.
It might be the presents for one side of the family, the food for a gathering or the thank-you gifts you were going to order anyway.
If you run a business yourself, help people make that choice. Put your gift ideas, prices and ordering deadlines somewhere easy to find. Tell people how to buy, and recommend another local business when they have something your customer needs.
We all benefit from a town with useful shops, good places to eat and people who know their stuff. Choosing to spend with them, when we can, helps give those businesses a reason to keep opening the door.
Which local business would you recommend for a Christmas gift, a meal or a summer lunch? Add their name and what you love about them in the comments here or head to my Instagram post and give them a plug. Let’s help people find them.
Hi I’m Erika, a marketing and customer experience strategist working with local businesses and community organisations in regional areas across Australia.
If you’d like to find out more about my services, head back to my homepage or get in touch if you have questions, comments or need some help.
