ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – The Orange Beach Business Advisory Committee wants to bring Christmas in July to the resort city.

And the hope is to plant the idea in visitors’ minds that Orange Beach would be a great place to spend the holidays as well.

“The chamber is moving forward in producing Orange Beach and Gulf Shores as a product to market as a destination for Christmas,” committee member Yolanda Johnson told the Orange Beach City Council on June 19. “It will be called Coastal Christmas.”

Several local businesses are already gearing up.

“We do have participation from several restaurants already in Orange Beach,” Johnson said. "The Flora-Bama has committed to parachuting Santa in and having the Polar Bear Dip. The Polar Bear Dip will be at both the Flora-Bama and the Hangout so that will end the Coastal Christmas time.

“It will be Nov. 29 through Jan. 1 and during that time we will have a series of events that will make up this one destination product.”

Johnson says Gulf Shores and Orange Beach tourism will be encouraging members to promote the holiday event during the month of July.

“The CVB has committed to marketing us as a destination and we’re encouraging our businesses as far as our accommodations to have Christmas in July and invite their July visitors to come back for Christmas and potentially give them some type of discount if they go ahead and sign up by July 31,” Johnson said.

“Anything that you can do toward that or any event that you may have going on in your organizations, churches, businesses please get it on the chamber calendar so we can include it in this product.”

Johnson also encouraged businesses to start thinking of ideas for the sleigh ride on the Backcountry Trail.

“We would like businesses to include in their planning a site for them to put their business on the trail,” she said.

Johnson also reminded businesses that the deadline for getting published in a statewide tourism book is Friday.

“This is critical to our accommodations and our residents,” she said. “The first deadline is for all restaurants that wanted to be in the printed brochure that they produce free of charge. These are non-chain restaurants.

“They need to go online to the Alabama Department of Tourism submit their information so that they can be included in that. If they miss the deadline, they will be included in the online version for restaurants in Alabama.”

A statewide calendar of events for 2013 is also about to be produced, Johnson said, and the deadline for submissions is also Friday. Forms to sign up for both can be found at http://www.alabama.travel/ .