In the Warehouse District and across town, the window displays are already going up. So are streetlamp hangings, string lights and Christmas trees.

By the end of the week, the Christmas shopping season will have its local kickoff, thanks to a partnership between the Alabama Retail Association, Warehouse District retailers and the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce.

Cullman Mayor Woody Jacobs and a sleigh full of business owners will officially open the retail association’s “Shop Alabama for the Holidays” shopping season this Friday (Nov. 10) at a 9:30 a.m. ceremony as part of the Warehouse District’s Christmas Open House.

The event is a Cullman-only affair, at least on Friday. Following the kickoff in Cullman, the Alabama Retail Association will take the “Shop Alabama for the Holidays” tour to rest of the state, with stops in Huntsville, Dothan, Montgomery and Mobile.

In addition to wooing shoppers into stores for the year’s most spend-happy season, the idea behind the promotion is to encourage Alabama residents “to spend their holiday shopping dollars with local retailers to support the vibrancy of our communities,” according to the retail association.

“Retail, including food and drink establishments, supports one in four jobs in Alabama and brings in $19 billion, or almost 10 percent, of Alabama’s gross domestic product, placing retail in the state’s top four highest-producing industries outside of government,” the association said in a release.

The “Shop Alabama” season is accompanied by — what else? — a hashtag campaign, #BabyItsSoldInside, to raise awareness of the local economic benefit of buying from local businesses.

The Warehouse District’s Christmas Open House runs from Friday, Nov. 10 through Sunday, Nov. 12. For more information, track the event on Facebook at @cullmanwarehousedistrict.

Benjamin Bullard can be reached by phone at 2560734-2131 ext. 145.