Shop local for your holiday season menu

“There’s no place like home for the holidays,” the classic song says, and as we cruise into the winter holiday season during an upsurge of COVID-19, experts across the country have insisted that staying home is the best and safest option.

COVID-19 related closures and restrictions have impacted many small businesses in challenging ways. We hear “shop local,” “support local,” and “eat local.” This holiday season it’s really time to follow through and support local and family-owned and operated businesses. These restaurants and shops employ our neighbors, the ownership/management/staff dine and shop locally themselves and they keep our town the great community that it is.

So, with the holiday season now in full swing, it’s more important than ever to keep local small businesses at the top of your mind when working on your holiday dinner shopping list. Shopping local means healthier and more tasty food options. It also means keeping safe from large chain-store crowds.

To show we care for these businesses, it’s important for us to shop local and eat local. Every local business and restaurant relies on us to continue operations, just as we rely on them to keep our community unique and to boost our local economy. Let’s do the best we can to support them this holiday season.

Consider a safe food-takeout experience at one of Sisters’ local restaurants to continue supporting them during these difficult times. The Nugget’s “Let’s Eat Close To Home” special insert in last week’s edition offers a wide variety of options for take-out service in Sisters.

Purchase a gift card from a local restaurant for a loved one or treat your kids to a grab-and-go art or painting project from a local craft store to work with on Christmas day.

Plan your traditional dinner by ordering a fresh turkey or ham from Newport Market and then picking up locally at Oliver Lemon’s Sisters. They are trying to make healthy foods as accessible to their customers as possible. You can pick up their premade deli dishes for delicious sides such as candied yams, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc., to go with your turkey or ham.

If you don’t feel like having traditional cuisine this year, call out for a delicious pizza.

How about a traditional holiday meal without all the fuss of cooking? Ray’s Food Place in Sisters has complete ready-to-go traditional holiday meals.

The Willamette Valley’s family-operated Hazelnut Hill offers online orders from the nut and candy business for hazelnut toffee, brittle, hazelnut pancake/waffle mix and more.

Another reason to shop local: Good customer service can be hard to find at the big chain stores during the holidays due to retail employees often being stretched too thin in their work schedules. Small business owners build their own business from scratch and they do it because they are passionate about keeping their products and services exclusive to their community.

Help grow our community by shopping local and give the hard-working small-business owners in Sisters the opportunity to thrive beyond the pandemic.