NATCHEZ — It’s the New Year, so it’s time to plan for Christmas.

Christmas in Natchez: City of Lights, an effort to give downtown Natchez a cohesive Christmas look and draw people into the area during the Christmas season, just wrapped up its first year, and City of Lights committee co-chair Ginger Hyland said she thinks the first year went “spectacularly well.”

“I am pleased with the response of the downtown, and I am pleased with the way the parade went,” Hyland said. “I think a lot of homes — a lot more than last year — lit up their yards, and we had a great deal of enthusiasm.”

Co-chair Regina Charboneau agreed.

“I think it went great for the first year, and we have a great base to build upon,” she said.

“I think that we really have so much room to grow, and I think the restaurants were incredibly cooperative with extended hours and being open when they might not regularly be open.”

As the season progressed, the cause seemed to be catching, Charboneau said.

“The other thing that really warmed my heart was every night when I went out I would see another house with lights in it, like it was contagious,” she said.

St. Mary Basilica owns the building the Main Street Marketplace was housed in, and the church placed a nativity scene and lights inside the vacant building, a move Charboneau said she hopes catches on next year.

“I think if we can light up the empty buildings, I don’t think people will see the empty buildings,” Charboneau said.

“I think they will only see the filled shops.”

The success of the effort can be attributed to the fact that planning started early in 2009, Charboneau said.

And planning for this year has already begun.

“We have had weekly meetings for the last six weeks, and last Wednesday we were just before New Year’s, and I thought, ‘Oh, it is raining, and probably nobody will show up at the meeting,’ and when I got there everybody showed up,” Hyland said. “So when will we get started? We already have.”

At the last meeting, everyone was excited about what happened in 2009 and was looking forward to this Christmas.

“It was really wonderful, and I really enjoyed all of it and am looking forward to next year,” Charboneau said.

“That’s when you know something is working, when you go into the meetings talking about next year.”