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How to Take Advantage of Blue Monday, National Use Your Gift Card Day, and Other January Dates of Note

Thomas Crapper Day is an opportunity to update your washroom.

Published

1 month ago

December 2, 2025

INSTORE Staff Instore December 2025 Issue

How to Take Advantage of Blue Monday, National Use Your Gift Card Day, and Other January Dates of Note

PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO

3 Festival of Sleep Day is held on Jan. 3 to allow you to get the obligatory partying out of the way and then get serious about racking up some quality sleep. If you’re still drafting your New Year’s resolutions, add this one at the top of the list: Get seven to eight hours of sleep a day. Schedule your bedtime and start winding down at least 45 minutes earlier.

17 You’ve got the cash in hand, but often the real benefit of gift cards is that they get people (possibly new faces) back in the store. On National Use Your Gift Card Day, encourage card recipients to come in and splash that free money. Think of special one-day offers, in-store events, or even some community giving to really get them excited.

19 Having trudged less than willingly back to work following the New Year break, seen our resolutions fall by the wayside and started to fear that this is going to be just another year, we arrive at a date in the third week of January that has come to be known as Blue Monday, when — according to various media accounts — we are at our most miserable. Fight this annual nadir with a Blues Bash on social media or in-store featuring your sapphires and other blue jewelry.

27 On Thomas Crapper Day (held to honor the inventor of the flush toilet), give thought to your humble guest washroom. What can you do to make it gleam?

Honoring a Legacy: How Smith & Son Jewelers Exceeded Every Goal With Wilkerson

When Andrew Smith decided to close the Springfield, Massachusetts location of Smith & Son Jewelers, the decision came down to family. His father was retiring after 72 years in the business, and Andrew wanted to spend more time with his children and soon-to-arrive grandchildren. For this fourth-generation jeweler whose great-grandfather founded the company in 1918, closing the 107-year-old Springfield location required the right partner. Smith chose Wilkerson, and the experience exceeded expectations from start to finish. "Everything they told me was 100% true," Smith says. "The ease and use of all their tools was wonderful." The consultants' knowledge and expertise proved invaluable. Smith and his father set their own financial goal, but Wilkerson proposed three more ambitious targets. "We thought we would never make it," Smith explains. "We were dead wrong. We hit our first goal, second goal and third goal. It was amazing." Smith's recommendation is emphatic: "I would never be able to do what they did by myself."