NATCHEZ — As the holiday shopping season reaches full-tilt many Natchez business owners are cognizant of one thing in their stores almost as important as the inventory itself.

The storefront, more specifically the display window in the storefront is critical at holiday time, they said.

Several downtown business owners agreed that a well-decorated store window shows pride of ownership and means more shoppers.

In fact to some downtown business owners not decorating their store window seems like a ridiculous idea.

“Never considered not decorating the window,” said Sarah Roberts, co-owner of Seasons Home Décor and Gifts.

While Seasons has only been open for a couple of months, Roberts said she believes, that decorating the store window will help business this holiday season.

“It shows people that you care,” she said.

And so far Roberts’ window has yielded positive results.

Roberts said that a decorative mesh used in her display window sold-out almost as soon as the display was up.

Roberts said that she is glad to know all of her hard work was able to generate some profit for the store.

And Roberts and her co-workers definitely put some hard work into decorating the shop’s window.

“We spent about nine hours on it,” she said. “But I think it came out pretty good.”

But to say that Roberts’ window came out good would be an understatement.

The window is borderline decadent.

With bows, lights, ornaments and trees Roberts and her crew are proud of what they have created.

“First impressions are everything,” she said.

And just a few blocks away Blair and Brenda Zerby owners of Moreton’s Flowerland have been creating first impressions for 35 years.

Zerby said that she and her husband decorate their shop’s window in an effort to recreate the windows they remember from their days as youngsters in Ohio.

And while Natchez likely has little in common with Ohio, the Zerbys are still creating memories right downtown.

Zerby said their shop has had the same Santa doing flips in the window for nearly 25 years.

“The few times the Santa was not in the window people came in to ask about him,” she said. “For some people that Santa is a big part of their Christmas memory.”

And while Zerby said she certainly loves to be part of a Christmas tradition the window does have an impact on the actual store.

Zerby said having the window appeals to customers and gives them a welcomed feeling.

“When they see how much work we put into windows, they know they’re going to get good service.”