With the wrap-up of Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Shop Local Saturday, several downtown businesses are gearing up for the holiday shopping season with extended hours and expanded offerings.

One local business, Bloom Women’s Apparel, located at 100 West Main St., hosted a successful trunk show last week, said Leigh Gertz, owner of Bloom and member of the Washington Harbor District Alliance. The store also has plans to host more trunk shows throughout the holiday season and is participating in downtown’s Festive Fridays, where businesses host extended hours on Fridays in December. Bloom will also offer its patrons baked goods, made by Gertz, she said.

Gertz said the holiday events planned for the downtown area have sparked the attention of both locals and out-of-town guests, and the efforts made by local merchants in collaboration with the Washington Harbor District Alliance, the Chamber of Commerce and First South Bank made a big difference this year in regard to the success of small businesses.

“It is definitely the Holiday season in our lovely town,” Gertz said. “The energy is so high. It’s really nice to see shoppers excited for Christmas. We have just wrapped up (pun intended) one of the biggest weekends of the season — Black Friday and Shop Local Saturday. This is what sets our town apart from others — we all care about our community and the success of everyone. Our shoppers proved that, too, with the turnout for Shop Local Saturday. Washington is the quaint, safe town where families come to spend their valuable time dining, shopping and playing.”

Gertz said a new and exciting feature on Main Street this year is a Santa Hut, headed by the WHDA. The Hut will feature Santa Claus and opportunities for children to tell him what they want for Christmas, as well as for photo opportunities. The Hut comes complete with a snow machine, which will produce and blow real snow, and its scheduled events will be announced throughout the Holiday season leading up to Christmas, Gertz said.

Another downtown business, Cottage Junkies, located at 103 North Market St., will celebrate its two-year anniversary on Dec. 6 and will be offering refreshments and a 10-percent discount on total purchases, said owner Landis Woolard. The store offers unique gifts, furniture, jewelry antiques and much more. It will also participate in extended hours this holiday season, being open until 8 p.m. on Fridays, Woolard said.

Woolard said she thanks all customers for shopping local in downtown Washington and hopes the holiday season will bring a good turnout for local businesses.

“We feel that being both locally born and raised here in Washington that we hope to bring in a lot of new and returning customers to the area,” Woolard said. “We find that we have a lot of unique items that we have to offer, and people are definitely into finding unique gifts. Basically, we just want them to come in and say, ‘Oh, I’ve got to have it before I leave the shop,’ and we hope to get a lot more traffic in the shop and in the downtown area this holiday season.”

Glenn Wetherington, owner of Down on Main Street and Nauti Life, echoed Woolard’s comments and added the Washington Christmas parade this Saturday will hopefully bring in even more traffic to the downtown area’s small businesses. Down on Main Street, located at 107 West Main St., is celebrating its 10^th Christmas and Nauti Life, located at 112 West Main St., is celebrating its third Christmas, Wetherington said.

Wetherington said small businesses in the area depend on its local shoppers more so than in the summer months when tourists visit and shop locally. However, with the price of gas dropping and the economy experiencing change, Wetherington hopes people will come out and shop a bit more than in past years, he said.

Nauti Life will have more merchandise and products than in previous years, Wetherington said. The store has also extended its décor for the holiday season, illustrating its Christmas spirit, which Wetherington hopes will entice local and out-of-town shoppers, alike, he said.

“We’re just excited because we have more stuff in our store this year than any other year,” Wetherington said. “We just have a lot of new products and merchandise, and we are anticipating the fact that everybody would come out and shop more local than in the past and so far, it’s looking pretty good. We feed off the restaurant and vice versa. We’ve upped our decorations and one thing we have done this year is to be more festive than in the past. My wife (Gennia) has spent a ton of time decorating, and she’s been on it every day and reorganizing the store constantly, putting up decorations and enticing people to come in. One thing we focus on is being in the holiday spirit. If you look like you’re in the holiday spirit, a lot of people want to come in and check it out.”

Nauti Life will also be extending its store hours until 8 p.m. on Fridays like most of the other businesses in the downtown area, Wetherington said. It may also extend its hours on Thursdays, starting the next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas, Wetherington said. This tactic accommodates those shoppers who work later than 5 p.m.

“A lot of people work, and you have to be open when everybody else is off,” Wetherington said. “You’ve got to be open after 5 in the afternoon. We have to be open later to try to entice people to come in. The great thing about being a small business in a small town is everybody knows everybody so the local support, by far, is way better than in a larger town on a larger scale. People have really been supportive and trying to help us down here. So far, it’s looking pretty good. If it stays like this, projections for this holiday season are looking good.”