Yes, the holidays are here, and with them come the survival of the fittest style shopping, the parking wars, painfully long lines, and the feeling of desperation which can accompany the Christmas-Kwanzaa-Hanukkah-Eid gift giving season at the malls.

But this year can be different, say local retailers.

For the first time, the businesses of MidCity have launched a campaign dubbed the  “MidCity Holiday Shopping Challenge” encouraging residents to “skip the malls” and do all their holiday shopping at the eclectic array of locally owned businesses within the 14th Street corridor from Florida Avenue to Thomas Circle and U Street from Ninth Street to 17th Street.

“We are trying to make it as festive as possible of a place for people to come and feel a sense of connection with their community but also be able to go shopping places where there’s a different kind of customer service because it’s their neighbors owning these stores and investing in the neighborhood and choosing cool stuff to sell and knowing their clients – who are also their neighbors – well,” explains Natalie Avery, executive director of the MidCity Business Association (MidCity BA) the organizer of the MidCity Holiday Shopping Challenge.

The campaign officially kicked off Nov. 28 on “Black Friday” and is sponsored by local businesses including Logan Hardware, Solly’s U Street Tavern, the Washington City Paper, Café Saint Ex, the African Civil War Museum and Local First DC.

The MidCity BA, a 100+ member business and arts coalition, is comprised of both historic businesses like Ben’s Chili Bowl or the 9:30 Club, and newer businesses like Pulp or Cake Love, all with the collective goal of drawing people to the area not just for its rich nightlife but for its vibrant daytime retail as well.

“Our business community is working to preserve the character of MidCity as a truly mixed-use, well-managed, 18-hour destination zone,” says John Solomon, a MidCity BA board member and owner of Solly’s U Street Tavern. “I co-sponsored the event and plan to shop this season in one of MidCity’s many great independent shops because I want our area to thrive in the daytime hours as it does in the night.”

MidCity BA is known to many area residents for their signature promotion “Dog Days of August,” a summer retail festival and a community building event that boosts neighborhood retail during a traditionally slower business month in the city. Similarly, the MidCity Holiday Shopping Challenge is meant to celebrate the neighborhood during a festive time of year and encourage residents to support local retailers who have traditionally faced competition from suburban malls, and who this year, will also be facing competition from the DC USA retail complex a few blocks away on 14th Street. The competition, in conjunction with a severe economic downturn, has many local business owners worried.

“…[T]he Target and Bed Bath and Beyond have drawn our customers up the street a bit, and the economy has also dampened peoples’ moods,” says Greg Link, co-owner of Home Rule, a home-wares store at 1807 14th St. NW. “And since we are in the home business, when there are less home sales, we are going to feel that also,” he adds.

According to Avery of MidCity BA, the commercial property tax rate for small businesses in the District is also an ongoing struggle for many independent retailers. “Our small businesses in DC are paying 50 percent more than businesses in neighboring jurisdictions,” she says, noting that the District’s tax rate is $1.64 per $100 of assessed value versus in Montgomery County where it is 85 cents per $100 of assessed value. This is problematic for businesses trying to make it in a tough economy with the competition of big box stores a few blocks up the street in Columbia Heights, says Avery.

“We need the city to say small independent businesses are really important to us, and we are going to figure out a way that small independent businesses can really flourish in our city,” says Avery.

So businesses are working extra hard to market local retail this holiday season. As Link of Home Rule describes, MidCity businesses are waging a variety of great promotions, offering discounts and arranging special events such as bringing choruses and a Santa Claus to the neighborhood. There are events taking place every weekend in December, and many individual businesses are even providing complimentary holiday treats and ciders to make the neighborhood as inviting and festive as possible.

“We will also be having a holiday decorating contest for the very first time,” says Link, encouraging residents to support the retailers’ efforts and affirm their holiday by voting for their favorite store decorations online at www.midcitylife.org.

But in addition to the local flair and holiday cheer shoppers will experience shopping MidCity businesses this holiday season, there are also wide ranging economic impacts to supporting small businesses instead of chain stores, say local retail activists.

“Not only do [local businesses] keep our neighborhoods a unique place to live and visit, but they also create more jobs than non-local stores and reinvest in our communities,” says Trisha Clauson of Local First DC, a coalition of nonprofit and community leaders working to build a sustainable local economy. “In fact studies have shown that three times more money stays in our community when purchases are made at local businesses versus national chains."

Many MidCity area residents have also pledged their support of MidCity BA’s holiday shopping campaign and say that they are committed to seeing the businesses succeed.

“Unlike other parts of the city, the residents and the businesses really work well together,” says Lynn Coffman, president of the Cardozo Shaw Neighborhood Association (CSNA). “We see the businesses as being vital to the whole success of the neighborhood.”

To show their support, the slogan of CSNA’s annual holiday party and silent auction this year is dedicated to the holiday shopping campaign: “Dine, shop, experience your neighborhood. It’s all here.” A number of the local businesses, who as Coffman points out are also CSNA neighbors, are contributing to the auction – the proceeds of which go towards neighborhood improvements – and in turn, CSNA is working hard to promote the MidCity Holiday Shopping Challenge.

“Our whole focus this year for the holiday party and the auction is to get people to recognize that there is a lot of great stuff in the neighborhood that they should be taking advantage of,” says Coffman. “Our neighborhood is as vibrant and wonderful and special as it is because we have places like Home Rule and places like Go Mama Go and places like the Garden District and all the other small businesses, and they are only going to be as viable as the folks turning out to support them.”

It’s a win-win situation according to Avery. She threw a big anniversary party for her parents in November and said that prepping for the party was as enjoyable as the party itself. “It was so fun to go down to 14th Street and do the shopping for party supplies and decorations and visiting with shop-owners at all the different stores,” she recounts excitedly.

“It’s a different experience shopping at Home Rule than it is shopping at Target.”