Bridget and Bill Malinowski are on the hunt for the perfect gift for their 6-year-old son. But it’s not just him – the Malinowskis have a lot of family to shop for.
“We have one son. He’s six, so we shop for him, and then I think we have 11 nieces and nephews that we have to buy for,” Bridget said.
And they are not the only ones around with a lot to buy.
According to a recent WalletHub study of more than 500 cities, Naperville has the highest Christmas spending budget of the country.
The study shows that Naperville residents’ budgets top the charts at $2,381.
Increased holiday budgets don’t just affect customers. It’s also good for downtown businesses.
“There’s no measurement of the actual tax revenue for the sales in downtown, but we poll all the businesses and all the businesses are having a great year this year, and every year it gets better and better,” said Chris Fink, Chairman of the Downtown Naperville Alliance.
The Walinowskis are certainly contributing to downtown. The couple takes one day off work every year to do as much of their Christmas shopping as possible.
“And we probably go to 10, 15 or 20 stores, and because there aren’t any crowds you can just zip in and out all the time,” said Bridget.
“There’s no traffic, no crowds, no lines. You just get it all done in one shot,” said Bill.
But they say budget or not, it’s not the money that’s most important.
“The whole Christmas spirit, you know? Giving people gifts and getting all excited and especially the kids, just watching their faces light up,” Bill said.
Naperville News 17’s Beth Bria reports.