It’s nearing the end of October, and we all know what that means: it’s time to gear up for the holiday season. There’s shopping to do, parties to arrange, family gatherings and meals to plan.

No. 1 on the list of things to do is shop. Shop for children and parents, siblings and friends. This year, consider doing some small-business shopping rather than relying on the chain stores out of town. One of the reasons to do so is because some small businesses are making the effort to make it easy for you to shop locally.

From now until Christmas, many of the stores in downtown Washington are reopening after regular business hours. While they normally may shut down for the night at 5 p.m. or 5:30 p.m., on Thursday nights the owners will open their doors again from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. to accommodate those who can’t get their Christmas lists knocked out during the day.

Small businesses are what built America. There were no big chain stores for pretty much the first two centuries of the country’s existence. In many ways, there is nothing more American than the independence represented by small businesses.

In the lead-up to this holiday season, consider shopping locally and help support the people of our community. It’s the patriotic thing to do.