An official kickoff to the holiday shopping season, Christmas Open House will feature 36 businesses that will swing open their doors at 9 a.m. and host sales, make deals and run specials throughout the day until 5 p.m. The businesses participating, all members of the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce, are clustered in downtown, scattered along Brookway Boulevard and running the length of Highway 51.

"Our local retail members are rolling out the red buying carpet," said chamber executive vice president Cliff Brumfield. "Many of the area's better-known retailers are going all-out in their decorating, as well as the tremendous discounts they offer."

A detailed city map showing the locations of the participating businesses can be found online at www.brookhavenchamber.com.

Brumfield said Christmas Open House historically is one of the city's biggest shopping days of the year, bringing in hundreds of deal-seekers from as far away as Hattiesburg and Baton Rouge, La.

"It not only increases the sales opportunities for our local retailers, but increases the local tax base," he said. "In turn, this markets our community to people that otherwise may not have shopped here."