KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The holiday season is officially upon us and businesses are seeing an increase in store visits as we get closer and closer to Christmas.

Small businesses have a day of their own sandwiched between Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, where people are encouraged to shop small and shop local. Those business owners are thankful for the notoriety they receive.

“It means everything to our business,” Co-owner of Union Ave. Books Flossie McNabb said. “People supporting small businesses and locally owned businesses that are all over downtown Knoxville. We always look forward to this day.”

Businesses like Glitterville enjoy seeing new people during the holiday season and say that they are lucky to have their fan base.

“We have a very devout fan base,” Glitterville creator Stephen Brown said. “People come from all over the world to this little store in Knoxville, which is fun because so much of what we do is collected by people. It’s fun to see the excitement when people come walking in.”

These small businesses rely on the community to stay afloat for any extended period of time which is why it is so important for them that people shop local and small.

“We depend on you,” McNabb said. “We always have something unusual here that you don’t see maybe in the big stores.”