SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On Friday evening, the Old Sacramento Waterfront hosted its final Theatre of Lights performance of the season – back this year after a pandemic hiatus in 2020.

Emily Hoffman with the Downtown Sacramento Partnership said events like this draw big crowds to the district and into the shops and restaurants. This is extra helpful to Old Sacramento business owners this year, after a SMUD power outage earlier this month that spanned four days and forced businesses to close during the busy holiday shopping season.

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Anwar Khan, who owns Old City Kites, said it takes out-of-town visitors and locals alike to support small businesses like his.

“Real thing is, come. Even if you buy a small-- you know, $1, $2, it helps,” he said. “Every drop counts.”

Khan said sales have been down this year and the SMUD power outage didn’t help.

SMUD is encouraging people who were financially impacted by the outage to file a claim online HERE. SMUD will review each claim and determine whether and how much money to reimburse someone. 

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Thamar Amad, owner of an Old Sacramento shop called American Legacy, said the power outage hurt him, too, but he saw customers return in full force the weekend after.

“People just came in to support these small businesses,” he said. “We were grateful and thankful for that.”

He said recent rainy weather has kept some customers away, and he’s worried about the ongoing pandemic.

“I'll hope just life goes back to normal,” he said. “I'm afraid from this new variant. And our biggest fear-- we may have another shutdown or something like what we had last year in March.”

He said his shop was closed for three months during the shutdown in the spring of 2020.

“Barely survived that,” he said.

He’s grateful for customers like Ray Biering, who was in American Legacy buying some last-minute Christmas gifts Friday morning.

“I think that supporting our local merchants is really critical to our own economy,” Biering said.

Across the country, the National Retail Federation has predicted holiday sales will exceed last year’s sales – even with inflation and shipping delays. Final revenue numbers won’t come in until January 2022.

Watch: Fire burns down family home in Sacramento ahead of Christmas

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