Magic Pudding owner Sarah Winston-Smith said their Christmas season has had its strongest start in years, with sales up 20 per cent on 2019.

"We're like farmers and the harvest is ready," she said.

But they are concerned people are getting in early for fear of missing out due to disrupted international trade routes, she said.

"Things aren't getting made in China and coming to Australia very quickly at the moment.

"There was a time when there was wharfies off the job, and there were containers off the coast and coronavirus lockdowns. We've got orders we put in, in June that still haven't arrived.

"Basically what you have in the shop is what you're going to have for the Christmas period. Some things we can get last minute, but a majority of things are pre-ordered."

Like many retail businesses, the Magic Pudding depends on Christmas sales for a disproportionate amount of turnover.

Selling predominantly gourmet food and hampers plus giftware accessories, the store sells about 40 per cent of its annual trade in Christmas gifts, Ms Winston-Smith estimates.

She vowed "there's no such thing as an empty shelf in the Magic Pudding. I don't think anyone's going to run out of stock. I just think that if you want something you got to get it now, rather than later - it might be gone."

The owners of Tamworth's Collins bookstore say they have had the same experience there - a busy present-buying season.

Owner Jan McManus said the store was too busy to check sales figures, but it "feels" like Tamworth is buying more books for Christmas, despite the recession.

"I don't know that you'd exactly say [we're] recession-proof. But we're certainly seeing a lot of people buying books this year, a lot of people are coming back to buying books. And I think a lot of people, too, are buying locally as opposed to online."

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The store found that people turned to board games and books during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Tamworth tends to prefer books written by Australians, Mrs McManus said.

In her experience, the most popular include Eddie Jaku's holocaust autobiography Happiest Man on Earth, Phosphorescence, Trent Dalton's fictional Second World War drama All Our Shimmering Skies and Julia Baird's Phosphorescence: On Awe, Wonder and Things that Sustain You when the World Goes Dark.

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