A Long Winter’s Night: A Small Business Christmas Story


In this episode of The Localist, Carrie shares the difficult parts of running a small business during the Christmas season. The holiday season can be financially good for local businesses, but it can also be difficult for the people who work there. After Carrie’s first Christmas in the shop, she was so drained and burned out that she ended up ruining Christmas (well, kind of).

This story is part of a series of short stories that will close out our 2024 season. This story originally ran on The Localist in 2020. Get physical copies of the stories by signing up for Carrie’s email list, or write your own stories by checking out her writing guide, “Words with Carrie.”

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About Carrie

Carrie Rollwagen is host of the Localist podcast and cofounder of Church Street Coffee & Books. Currently, she works as Vice President of Strategic Planning at Infomedia, a web development company in Birmingham, Alabama. Find the Localist at @thinklocalist on Instagram and follow Carrie at @crollwagen.

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