Forget about Black Friday (please)! It’s all about Small Business Saturday. What is Small Business Saturday? It’s a brilliant marketing campaign by American Express encouraging people to shop local.

And while it is a marketing campaign, I really do like and agree with the message of it – let’s spend our money in our own town and with the small businesses that support it. Instead of heading off to Target or Walmart or Macy’s, why not look around your city at the little shops owned by locals and see what wonderful and unique things they have to offer?

Another great way to support small businesses is to shop online. It’s not quite the same thing as shopping local, but it is a great way to support a small-sized business with unique products and not pour even more money into mass merchandisers.

Here are a couple of small businesses I love that offer their products online:

Tomboy Vintage

I’ve already written about my friend Jeanne’s awesome new tee shirt company Tomboy Vintage. Her shirts are adorable and perfect for the tomboy in your life. She has six different styles for women and two styles for little girls. The only problem is picking out just one. (So go ahead and buy two or three!)

Here I am (as requested by Kim) in Jeanne’s latest design. (Is it me or is this picture really big?)

Please note if you do buy a Tomboy Vintage tee shirt that they are sized for juniors and run a bit small – you may want to order a size up. (I usually wear a medium and am wearing a size large.)

Betty Belts

Betty Belts is another great company owned by a really cool woman named Donna von Hoesslin. I met Donna when I wrote this article about her for skirt.com. Talk about an incredibly interesting person – Donna went surfing for the first time at age 31 and it literally changed her life. So much so that the California native, who was living in Berlin, ended up moving back to California so she could surf all the time.

Donna is not only passionate about the environment, but about the people on our planet and treating them fairly. Donna creates environmentally friendly jewelry – her sea glass jewelry is her most popular- and has her jewelry made in Bali by artisans who are paid a fair, living wage.

Donna’s store, Betty Belts, is located in the Main Street area of Ventura, CA, but you can also buy her products online. In addition to the sea glass jewelry Donna also sells really cute earrings made from the leftover resin from making surfboards, silver jewelry, and super-cute belts.

Why buy costume jewelry made in China when you can buy something truly unique designed by a cool chick and made by a Balinese artisan who was paid a fair, living wage?

So that’s my Small Business Saturday plug. This holiday season why not shop small? (It’s so good for the soul!)

BTW – I was not compensated in any way for this post. These are just two really great companies (that happened to be owned by two amazing women) with fantastic products.

What small businesses do you plan on shopping at this holiday season?