VIDALIA — It began to look like Christmas at the end of October, but this weekend it will begin to look a lot more like Christmas

Vidalia city workers began putting up the city’s Christmas decorations even before Halloween, but the seasonal lights along the streets have thus far remained unlit.

“You start early and you do a lot of dusting and replacing, because when you store the lights, some of the bulbs get busted, or you might have to do a little rewiring,” Vidalia Utilities Director Mark Morace said.

This year, the rewiring effort extended to the city’s electric Christmas tree, which had to have all new lights and new wiring.

“That tree is probably 40 years old,” Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland said. “People drive to see it and the people of Vidalia are proud (of the tree).”

After two months of work, though, the lights will glow after the municipal Christmas parade Sunday.

But if you can’t wait until then to get a luminous Christmas decoration fix, you can head down to the Vidalia riverfront and view the mechanized holiday vignettes, which range in theme from somber to silly and have been in place and operational for a couple of weeks.

Though there have been admission fees to see the riverfront displays in the past, that is no longer the case.

“We will have a donation box at the front,” Morace said.

This year, the riverfront drive-through will feature a few new displays, Copeland said.

“We hope that by turning on the lights, having the parade and having the displays we can help people start getting into the Christmas spirit,” he said.