TL;DR
- In Jefferson County, holiday shopping searches peak in November, not December. Last November, Google searches for Walmart, Target and Best Buy ran about 40% to 50% above their winter and spring levels. December only matched November; it didn't top it.
- "Black friday deals" went from almost nothing to 1,300 searches in one month. Searches for "christmas tree" and "christmas decorations" peaked in November too.
- The searches small shops depend on went the other way. "Gift shop near me" fell from 170 a month in summer to 40 in November. Most holiday shoppers here search for a store by name, and the names they type are big chains.
- What it means for a local business: get found before Thanksgiving. Update your Google listing, holiday hours and gift ideas now. By December, most people have already decided where to shop.
What we measured
Google publishes, for advertisers, how often people in a given place search for a given phrase each month. We pulled those figures for Jefferson County for 46 holiday-shopping phrases, covering October 2025 through September 2026, so "November" below means November 2025, the most recent holiday season.
Google rounds these numbers into bands (1,000, 1,300, 1,900 and so on), so read them as sizes and shapes, not exact counts.
November is the month
The big stores show it most clearly:
| Monthly Google searches in Jefferson County | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Typical month, Jan to Apr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walmart | 22,200 | 27,100 | 27,100 | 18,100 | 18,100 |
| Target | 9,900 | 12,100 | 12,100 | 8,100 | about 8,500 |
| Best Buy | 4,400 | 6,600 | 6,600 | 4,400 | 4,400 |
| Salmon Run Mall | 5,400 | 6,600 | 6,600 | 4,400 | about 5,800 |
The jump comes in November. December holds steady, and January falls back. The only big name that peaks in December is Amazon (60,500 searches in November, 74,000 in December), which fits last-minute online orders before the shipping cutoffs.
The seasonal searches tell the same story:
| Search | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|
| "black friday deals" | 40 | 1,300 | 30 |
| "black friday" | 110 | 720 | 40 |
| "thanksgiving" | 260 | 1,900 | 40 |
| "christmas tree" | 210 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| "christmas decorations" | 90 | 320 | 210 |
| "christmas lights" | 40 | 260 | 260 |
| "cyber monday" | 10 | 110 | 90 |
People in Jefferson County start planning Christmas in the same weeks they plan Thanksgiving. Decorations and trees are on the list before December begins.
The searches that help small shops go the other way
Here is the part that matters for local businesses. The "near me" searches a small shop would hope to show up in don't rise for the holidays here. Some fall.
| Search | Jul | Aug | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "gift shop near me" | 170 | 170 | 90 | 40 | 50 |
| "boutique near me" | 70 | 50 | 50 | 10 | 30 |
| "restaurants near me" | 49,500 | 40,500 | 27,100 | 14,800 | 14,800 |
| "stores open near me" | 260 | 260 | 140 | 320 | 480 |
"Gift shop near me" is a summer search here: it follows visitors heading to the Thousand Islands, not Christmas shoppers. "Restaurants near me" drops by almost half from October to November. And the phrases that sound made for local shops barely register: "small business saturday" peaked at 50 searches last November, and "shop local" at 10.
One local search does grow through the season: "stores open near me" more than tripled from October to December (140 to 480). People are checking who's open on a given evening or holiday weekend, and Google answers from the hours on each business's listing.
What this means if you run a local business
Holiday shoppers here mostly search for places they already know by name. A small business wins in two ways: be one of the names people already know, or be what shows up when someone checks what's open nearby. Both depend on things you can do in November:
- Update your Google Business Profile this week. Add holiday hours (Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Christmas Eve) now, before the "stores open near me" searches climb. If your hours are wrong or missing, Google may leave you out or show you as closed.
- Post your gift ideas and gift cards before Thanksgiving. Searches for trees, decorations and Black Friday all peaked in November last year. A December post reaches people who have already bought most of their gifts.
- Make your name easy to find. Use the same name on your sign, your Facebook page and your Google listing, so someone who heard about you can find you on the first try.
- Don't count on "shop local" to bring people in. People here like local businesses, but they rarely search for them that way. Give them a specific reason to choose you, like a product, a gift idea or an event, in the places they already look.
Data and method
- Source: Google Ads Keyword Planner, historical monthly search volumes for Jefferson County, New York (Google's county geo target), English, Google Search, October 2025 to September 2026. Pulled Nov. 3, 2026.
- Phrases: 46 holiday shopping phrases, including store names, seasonal terms ("black friday", "christmas tree"), gift searches and "near me" searches. Phrases with almost no searches all year are left out of the tables.
- Limits: Google rounds volumes into bands, and counts searches from devices located in the county, including Fort Drum. Store-name searches include people looking for hours, jobs or returns, not only shoppers. One season of data shows a pattern, not a guarantee.