Marketing professionals say holiday décor in stores is good business. Decorations create the right atmosphere for holiday shopping and set decorated businesses apart from others.

That may be true, but some of the Natchez stores that go all out with holiday decorations do so for different reasons — primarily to celebrate the season.

“My decorations went up before Thanksgiving,” said Jim Pippen of Pippen’s Limited Antiques and Interiors, 708 Franklin St.

“I won’t be able to be with my family during the holidays, and the decorations were really in a spirit of thanksgiving and wanting to share it with others.”

Pippen’s extensive collection of antiques and reproductions, including elaborate chandeliers, are adorned with fanciful, colorful decorations. People have noticed, he said.

“It’s really festive,” he said. And what are people saying when they come into the shop? “They say, ‘wow,’” Pippen said.

A different spirit is in the air in the downtown commercial district this year, he said. “People are more excited about the season. We’re over the grief and turmoil of last year (in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina).”

For Pippen, a good year personally and professionally has inspired him to spare no expense on his store decorations.

At Moreton’s Flowerland, 629 Franklin St., the windows are in holiday mode as they have been since 1973, said owner Brenda Zerby.

Charming mechanical toys and decorations that help stage Christmas scenes have been delighting young and old since that first year, she said.

“It’s a twofold idea,” Zerby said. “It’s very positive for the community to have nice windows. Windows are the face of what the community is, and you don’t want to have big holes where there could be some excitement.”

What’s more, Christmas scenes such as theirs are fun for children, she said.

“We came from an area where there were always mechanical displays at Christmas. The year we came, IP had to stop their display. So we decided to do it so there would be something for the children.”

At Natchez Needle Arts, Cindy Whittington said the challenge is part of the reason for their window decorations, eye-catching now with snowmen dressed in knitted caps and mufflers.

“Yarn is — what can you do? We try to do something seasonal that makes the passerby see something besides just yarn, something to attract the eye,” she said.

Indeed, there is marketing in the window adornments. There is knitting to be seen or to be inspired by the window scenes, she said.

“We try to do something that is fun that makes you feel the product through the season of the year,” she said.