Altoona resident Karen Helsley was a woman on a mission on Tuesday, bouncing between State College stores in search of the perfect Christmas present for her son.
The Penn State employee had already take care of most of her holiday shopping, but there was one very specific thing she still had to find to complete her efforts: “a Penn State ugly sweater.”
Helsley says her son, a 2013 graduate of Penn State, specifically asked for the gift in those exact words. It had to be a sweater, it had to be about Penn State, and it had to be ugly.
“He’s from around here, he loves Penn State, and he goes to those ugly sweater Christmas parties,” Helslely laughs.
She says downtown State College – even mere days before Christmas – still offers last-minute shoppers plenty of unique gift options, especially if someone is looking for Penn State-themed gifts.
In addition to the sweater that Helsley found at one of the many Penn State apparel stores, she says small stores like Reflections and the Old Main Frame Shop both offer distinctively creative Penn State gifts like glassware and artwork. She says stores like this offer selection she can’t get online, the impetus for her shopping mission on Tuesday.
Marie Librizzi, one of the owners of the Old Main Frame Shop, says that the holiday season can increase her business by up to 25 percent. Though her store stopped accepting custom framing Christmas orders back on Dec. 18, her store was still seeing a rush of last-minute shoppers.
“Up until Monday we were really jammed,” Librizzi says. “[Tuesday] will be our last busy day of the season.”
Much like Helsley, State College resident Derek Sim was on a mission on Tuesday – but he didn’t know what he was looking for.
He did most of his shopping online, but something was missing. Bouncing between stores, he says he was looking for “something small, something simple, something special” for his wife.
He agrees with Helslely, saying that the range of local businesses downtown offer a range of gifts with character that he can’t find by browsing the internet. He ultimately ended his search in Uncle Eli’s art supply store, which has been slammed with late-season Christmas shoppers.
Uncle Eli’s manager Chuck Mankey says that up to 95 percent of his business recently has been last minute Christmas shoppers. Even on Christmas Eve, Mankey expects to see a handful of shoppers looking for the perfect present.
“A lot of it is probably that people have so much going on that they haven’t had time to get out and go shopping,” Mankey says. “I work six days a week and that last thing I’d want to do on my day off is go Christmas shopping, but you got to get out there at some point.”
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