VIDALIA, La. – This holiday season will be an eventful one for the Miss-Lou, Natchez Director of Tourism Management Walter Tipton told Vidalia Chamber of Commerce members Tuesday.

Tipton said some events taking place during the Christmas and New Year’s season will include:

n Extended hours for downtown shops this Friday through Sunday.

n Presentations of the play &uot;A Tuna Christmas&uot; on Dec. 3, 4, 10 and 25 by the Natchez Little Theater.

n A Christmas parade starting at 10 a.m. Dec. 4.

n Presentations of &uot;Amahl and the Night Visitors&uot; Dec. 17, 18 and 23 by the Natchez Opera Festival.

n &uot;Room with a View,&uot; a tour of downtown apartments, on Dec. 19.

n A Millennium Celebration at the City Auditorium and &uot;Bonfires on the Bluff&uot;&160;on both sides of the river on New Year’s Eve.

Also, International Paper’s annual Christmas display will be moved from IP’s Natchez mill to the Natchez Visitors Reception Center this year. &uot;That way, people will be able to get to (the display) more easily,&uot;&160;Tipton said.

In addition, the bureau has been participating in other tourism projects.

Last week, the reception center installed a international visitors’ kiosk that makes announcements in a variety of languages and has access to the Internet and electronic mail.

Another project has been Natchez’s inclusion in a tour of plantations of the South. The Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce printed 20,000 tour brochures.

&uot;The morning after the brochures were in the Baton Rouge and L.A. papers, that chamber got 400 calls about the tour,&uot;&160;Tipton said.

Tipton added that Natchez hopes to partner with Vidalia on joint tourism projects in the future.

Chamber members also heard Bobby McCool, area manager for Cable One, speak on the history of the cable industry and his company’s future plans.

Cable One has spent $20,000 in the last one-and-a-half months to improve reception of distant stations. And the company hopes to offer digital service by 2001, which would allow them to offer up to 200 channels, McCool said.