NATCHEZ — If you light it, they will come.

That’s the message Ginger Hyland is trying to get out to the downtown business community.

Hyland, along with René Adams, Regina Charboneau and the Natchez-Adams Chamber of Commerce, have formed a Christmas committee to drape Natchez in lights this holiday season and in turn, promote tourism.

On Monday night, Hyland and others shared their ideas on how to make Natchez a winter wonderland.

“Lights for me have always been something special,” Hyland said.

The idea she wants to bring to fruition is to have all building owners on Main and Franklin streets between Martin Luther King Jr. and Broadway streets to string lights on their rooftops.

To show how that can be done, she invited Tyler Temple, owner of Temple Display, of Illinois, a company that has helped municipalities deck the halls for 30 years.

Temple said downtown businesses and building owners could buy strings of LED lights, which use 90 percent less energy than regular lights.

“It’s the green thing to do,” he said.

He said for a 60-foot string of lights — the average needed to string a rooftop — to burn for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it would use the same amount of energy as a 40-watt light bulb.

“The energy consumption of them is just nothing,” Temple said.

The cost of the size of bulbs the Christmas committee recommends is $1.70 each.

However, if the orders are put in by April 1, buyers will get a discounted price of $1.14.

Sally Durkin, media liaison for the Natchez Convention and Visitors Bureau, was worried that there would be gaps along the rooftops.

Hyland said, however, that this Christmas will be a trial run, and that this will be a work in progress.

“It’s a start,” she said.

Temple explained how the lights would be strung by placing hooks on the rooftops by way of caulk or cement, depending on the building type.

The strands of lights can be snapped in.

Temple said he’s seen the hooks last six to seven years, even in hot or very cold climates.

Additionally, he said the strands of lights have a six-year warranty with his company, but tend to last between eight and 10 years.

Hyland explained that it may be difficult for some building owners to string the lights, but that the Christmas committee is working on compiling a list of handymen that could string the lights.

But lights aren’t all the committee wants.

Hyland said the chamber is going to order light pole decorations and skyline wreaths.

The light pole decorations will be lighted wreaths that wrap around 22 poles divided between Main and Franklin streets.

Each cost $410, but are $300 at the discounted price.

The skyline wreaths are also lighted and are 40-feet long.

Hyland said she would like five per street, and need to be connected by the buildings.

Getting permission from the building owners that have buildings tall enough to string the lights is key, Hyland said.

And what’s also key is the $1,407 it costs to get the skyline wreaths — or the $1,050 discounted price.

That’s why the skyline wreaths and the pole light wreaths are up for sponsorship.

Entergy was the first sponsor, and Customer Service Manager Stephen Caruthers explained why he was set on becoming a sponsor.

“I think this is going to touch a lot of people from the kids to the grandfolks,” Caruthers said.

“They’re energy efficient lights, so I’m not doing this to promote your electric bill going up,” he said with a laugh.

Hyland said there has also been other sponsors so far.

But, you can’t just light up Natchez and provide no entertainment, Charboneau said.

So she’s charged herself with the responsibility of lining up events for the visitors she hopes will come.

She said she wanted something family- friendly, so she found a puppeteer in Jackson to come down and do a “Peter the Wolf” puppet show.

She said there will be two performances at Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center, and she has gotten a mini-grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission of $1,000 to put it on.

Other events include live music, karaoke Christmas carols, candlelight tours and progressive dinners.

Hyland said she wants the Main Street tree and the downtown lights lit on the same day — the day after Thanksgiving.

On that day, Charboneau said she would also like to have a turkey gumbo cook-off and a street dance.

Hyland said she plans to have the lights turned on until Jan. 3.

She said they want to start of slow with just Main and Franklin streets, but they hope to add on the cross streets in the future.

Sponsorship forms for the light pole and skyline wreaths will be at the Natchez-Adams Chamber of Commerce.