Gingerbread Toys noted there were many challenges local business faced, but at the same time the push to buy local did help out.

By Tommy Osborne

Holiday Shopping

How did local business fare in the 2025 holiday season?

Jan 5, 2026 | 5:14 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – As the Christmas break ends and many of us prepare for 2026, local Prince George businesses reflect on a 2025 holiday shopping season that saw no shortage of curveballs thrown its way.

“Anecdotally, just talking to some of our members over the Christmas season, it was much like 2025 itself: a bit of a rollercoaster ride, up and down. Some business, I think, did better than others,” said the Prince George Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Director Neil Godbout.

“This year we didn’t get a bunch of our corporate orders that we usually get, that’s ones where companies come to us and we pick the toys based on the age and sex of the child and then we wrap them, and we didn’t get several of those this years so I think there’s a lot of cutting back among businesses,” said Gingerbread Toys Owner Nancy Condon.

Condon notes 2025’s December saw a drop in sales compared to 2024, although Condon says this is because 2024 was an exceptional year for sales due to the GST holiday at the time, so even though sales dropped in 2025’s December Condon says it was still a relatively good year. However, notable challenges hit businesses and consumers both, creating many unprecedented situations.

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“It’s the tariffs, and the prices of everything have gone up, and I think that’s all a result of the election in the U.S. last year. It’s kind of amazing that it affects someone in a little business in Northern B.C.,” Condon said.

“We’ve had the announcement of the temporary shutdown at Brink (Forest Products), we’ve had more issues around forestry that happened during the year, and of course the economic uncertainty around tariffs and particularly softwood lumber tariffs. That hung over the local economy, and definitely over local spending,” Godbout added.

However, even with these challenges, Condon says 2025 as a whole actually saw a 5% increase in sales compared to 2024, and she believes the “Buy Canadian” movement amid strained relations with the U.S. played a significant role in driving community members to choose local options.

“People do want to buy local, we do hear that a lot. We had quite a few customers come in and say ‘I’m not shopping on Amazon,’ so they came to us, which is really good, we appreciate it,” Condon said.

“People were looking for ways to support local and I would say ‘support local’ also transitioned into ‘Buy Canadian.’ People had that Maple Leaf app on their phones where they could go shopping and were looking for that ‘Made in Canada,’ and any opportunity to support local,” Godbout said.

Even though consumers and business both faced challenges, Godbout called people in Prince George an optimistic group, and he believes Prince George as a whole has optimism for a better 2026, which he says was reflected in consumer habits during 2025’s holiday season.