"It's a good day to come shopping," she said.
Some Masterton shops were offering between 30 and 60 per cent off. In Masterton's The Warehouse, queues of shoppers waited to pay for their cheaper priced items; all seemed content to wait in the air-conditioned store keeping cool from the sweltering heat outside.
Eketahuna's Lisa Bankwood said the bargains on offer were well worth waiting the extra day for. Her family is celebrating Christmas this weekend when everyone arrives from around the country.
"I was looking to buy some of these things before Christmas but I'm glad I waited because everything is so much cheaper at the sales. I've saved a mint," she said.
Business was booming at Hedleys Bookshop too.
Owner David Hedley said there had been a swing back towards books in recent years with the craze of electronic books slowly dying down. A steady flow of customers, young and old, were traipsing through the Queen St store.
"There has been a huge shift back to books as the novelty of electronic books has worn off ... it's a wonderful sensory experience reading a book. There is just something about words on a page."
It was a busy festive season as far as electronic transactions were concerned with Paymark recording record sales on Christmas Eve with $255 million spent.
At one stage, 156 transactions took place every second. This is up 8.8 per cent on last year's spending during the same period.
Wairarapa businesses were thriving in the last-minute rush to Christmas, Paymark figures showed as well.
Residents spent $34.3 million in the first 22 days of December through Eftpos payments - a 3.4 per cent increase on 2013.
