After the hustle and bustle of Black Friday shopping, we now start to settle in for the next few weeks of Christmas shopping.

After the big rush Thursday and Friday, it appears the pace of shopping levels off before the mad-rush of last minute shopping for those who, let’s just say, don’t plan as well.

But, of all the shopping days in the Christmas shopping calendar, this Saturday might be the most important.

Saturday has been coined as “Shop Local Saturday,” encouraging shoppers to support those businesses that are owned by local residents and those stores that might be not classified as big-box or national.

According to the website Sustainable Connections, there are a number of reasons why supporting local retailers is so important:

• Several studies have shown that when you buy from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned businesses, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms — continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community.

• Non-profit organizations receive an average 250 percent more support from smaller business owners than they do from large businesses.

•  Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally and in our community, provide the most jobs to residents.

•  Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.

• A growing body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.

In Vicksburg and Warren County, we are blessed to have a great mixture of national retailers and locally owned retailers. Each support and employee our friends, our neighbors and those we sit next to each Sunday at church.

As we navigate our way through our Christmas shopping list, while yes, it is important to shop small businesses, it is more important we shop local businesses.