Local businesses say that their Christmas season was pretty steady versus last year’s. Next Chapter manager Annie Leonard tells KNIA/KRLS they went out on a limb and increased their inventory this year, responding to the wants and needs of customers. She says that they responded well and she’s happy and thankful for the community’s support. Rick Gibson at Gibson’s Jewelry says that sales were just a tick up over last year’s numbers. He adds watches and colored diamonds seemed to be particularly popular this year.

Karen Eischen at the Pella Chamber of Commerce says that the stores in Pella haven’t gathered up their holiday shopping totals, but in the week before Christmas stores were busy and they expect to have had a great shopping season. She says we had a lot of people from out of town shopping in Pella stores. She says that local shopping was high as well, and there were last minute shoppers through last week. Another source of holiday shopping for Pella businesses was relatives visiting family in town who shopped at local stores.