The holidays will be brighter now that the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce has purchased new decorations for downtown.

"Everyone has been complaining about the old decorations," said Shelly Garrett, executive director of the chamber.

The chamber, with help from the city of Lebanon and Partners for Progress, spent about $12,000 on 40 decorations and 20 banners.

The new decorations are about a quarter of the size of the old ones, Garrett said.

"We wanted to make sure they were different enough you could see there was a new decoration in town," she said. "We wanted it to be very visual and beautiful and bright, and fit in with our other ones; we can't afford to use all new ones."

Considering the old decorations are more than 40 years old, they still look pretty good, Garrett said.

In the spirit of recycling, Garrett said 20 old decorations are up for sale, enough to cover five to six city blocks.

Garrett said she hopes a small town will buy them, and then she could arrange a bulk discount. She's asking $75 to $100 each for the old decorations. The proceeds will go toward expanding the new décor for Lebanon.

Each new decoration costs $250 to $280.

"We can't replace any more than we've already gotten," Garrett said.

Although she considered taking the old decorations to be restored, Garrett said it would have cost just as much as buying new ones.

The decorations were purchased from Crystal Valley Decorations, Inc., in Albany.

"We want the money to stay in Linn County," Garrett said.

The ornaments will light up downtown from the Pill Box to the "Y" in Main and Park streets, with banners stretching south.

"We'll just buy a few each year and as we move south, we'll have new ones," Garrett said.

Decorations will begin adorning the town right before Thanksgiving if the weather holds, Garrett said.

"We want to have them up before the tree lighting" on Dec. 5, she said.

Each year Dave Robinson, from City & Suburban Electric, Inc., and his crew put up the decorations around town.

To prevent damage to them, Robinson built a special trailer for the decorations and stores them in a warehouse, Garrett said.

To contribute to 2011 Christmas decorations, send a check to the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce with a memo for Christmas decorations. The chamber is located at 1040 S. Park St.

For more information about purchasing the old decorations, contact Garrett at 258-7164.

CORRECTION: The Christmas tree lighting is on Dec. 5, not Dec. 4.