Sometimes the smaller-sized presents under the Christmas tree or deep down in a stocking can prove to be even more fulfilling than the larger ones.

That’s the case with two new area businesses: Providence Agriculture LLC and the Southampton Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Center. As announced in our Christmas edition, the first company is a full-service distributor of crop protection chemicals, seed, fertilizer and the like. The company is leasing office and warehouse space at the Southampton Business Park, and will employ 10 people for its first phase. The second business, which will be featured soon in the newspaper, is the recent expansion of an existing health service already owned by Dr. Manish Patel and located within walking distance of Southampton Memorial Hospital.

Neither are obviously huge companies, but that’s for the better in both the short and long run. Their relatively smaller sizes make them approachable by customers and patients alike. And, heaven forbid either should leave, there would not be a huge drop in local employment and thus severe damage to the area economy.

We’re encouraged that the first business has found what it needed by coming to Southampton County, and no less pleased that the second not only wanted to grow, but to also remain in Franklin.

There’s still a ways to go before saying Western Tidewater is striding on solid ground, but these two new additions give added strength.