Boston was bustling with bundled-up shoppers Sunday from Newbury Street all the way to the Snowport Holiday Market as they hoped to finish their holiday shopping with just three days left until Christmas.
With temperatures in the teens, some people told NBC10 Boston that while they were out shopping for others, they had to stop and buy gloves for themselves.
“It’s so cold. My god. I’m from Phoenix and this is my first winter ever,” said flight attendant Ashley Piska.
“This is brutal,” said Kylie Whited, also a flight attendant.
Despite the cold, Newbury was packed with people looking to get last-minute gifts for their loved ones.
“My mom. I need to get her a last-minute gift. I kind of forgot. It’s a bad son of me,” said Worcester resident Willie Pridgen.
“I’m getting for my mom, looking for like jewelry items,” Whited said.
“My mom and my sister and my roommate,” Piska said.
People are spending a record $902 on average this holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation.
“I’m just a last-minute person you know this is what I do,” said Jhiron Lewis, of Springfield.
“We’re flight attendants so we don’t have a ton of off time so we kind of have to do it when we can,” Piska said.
“I mean I’m home on college break. I had like two weeks, three weeks to do this so I don’t know why but we’re doing it, that’s all that matters,” Pridgen said.
The holiday rush is a big help for small businesses like Crystal Rock Maple, making syrup on 75 acres in Livermore, Maine.
“We tap just under 2,000 trees. You’re looking at the whole staff right here. We do it in our own back yard,” founder Tom Gould said. “We have a lot of people come by and say well I’ll try it, and then you see their eyes light up and you see this is their first time tasting real maple syrup.”
Clarke’s Cakes and Cookies, a vegan wholesale bakery, sells hot cocoa. They’re one of more than 120 vendors in the winter village, and they don’t mind the snow.
“We freeze so they can warm up a little,” general manager Wendell Bonhomme said with a laugh. “If it’s too warm, people buy less hot cocoa.”
The shoppers out Sunday were looking forward to kicking back (and warming up) when all is said and done.
“I am off for the holidays so I’m enjoying resting and being with family,” Whited said.