HOLIDAY OF LIGHTS TOUR EXTENDED AFTER '93 SELLOUT

This year's Holiday of Lights tour of Cape Girardeau's best Christmas decorations certainly will be bigger and it promises to be better.

The 1994 tour has been extended to a second weekend after last year's sellout. The tour will be held Dec. 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17. Reservations for seats on the buses already are being taken at the Chamber of Commerce.

In addition, the nomination process has been thrown out for the purpose of opening up the contest, said Kim Groves, group tour planner for the Cape Girardeau Convention & Visitors Bureau.

In past years, a house or business had to be nominated before it was included in the tour. It turned out, many people who decorate their houses didn't enter or weren't nominated.

"Some people don't do the decorating in hopes of being selected," Groves said. "They do it for the enjoyment of themselves and other people."

Those are the people the tour organizers hope to include this year.

Janet Esicar, co-chairwoman of the subcommittee overseeing the tour, said the nomination format was confining.

"What happened was we'd end up with a handful of nominees," she said. "It limited our selection process. Sometimes there were other yards that were more worthy."

For judging purposes, the city will be divided into seven sections. The Chamber of Commerce Beautification Committee will select three winners from each section on Dec. 5.

Winners will be notified of their selection. If they approve, a sign will be placed in their yard and they will receive a certificate.

The tour is jointly sponsored by the Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Beautification Committee.

Tickets to the guided tour are $1 each. They will be available at the Convention & Visitors Bureau, 1707 Mount Auburn Road, or at Schnucks, 19 S. Kingshighway, from Dec. 2-17. Tickets also will be available one hour before each tour as seating permits.

Buses will leave the Plaza Galleria at 7 p.m. for each one-hour tour, which will include a drive through the displays at the Cape Girardeau County Park.

Those who prefer to drive the tour themselves can pick up a map at the Convention & Visitors Bureau or at the Chamber of Commerce, 601 N. Kingshighway, beginning Dec. 9.

A map also will be published in the Southeast Missourian prior to the first night of the tour.

More information is available from the chamber at 335-3312 or the CVB at 335-1631.

Groves, who with her husband Kevin has been a winner in past tours, says the preparations begin early for all concerned.

"Kevin and I are laying out decorations already. If you don't it sneaks up on you," she said.