Watch out Santa Claus, you’re not the only one coming to town this week.

Monday, close to 200 gallons of Blue Bell ice cream will be delivered to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, and they’re celebrating by giving it away.

“We are having free ice cream with any purchase,” she said. “It could be whatever you want; we’re giving it out to let people know we have it back and letting people know it’s in Mississippi.”

The shop is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., but the promotion will begin at an undetermined time, Ellis said. It all depends on when the shipment arrives.

The initial restock will include many of the traditional flavors, including Dutch Chocolate, Homemade Vanilla, Cookies ‘n Cream, Buttered Pecan and The Great Divide, a half vanilla, half chocolate mixture.

“It’s a good little treat,” she said. “You can come in and purchase something and treat yourself through the busy times this season.”

The chocolate factory has been without Blue Bell ice cream since March when listeria contamination halted sales and prompted cleanup of Blue Bell production plants earlier this year.

“It’s been a very rough year for us,” she said, adding ice cream accounts for one-third of the total sales at the chocolate factory. “Die hard Blue Bell fans, that’s who we have coming in here,” she said. “There would be people who would walk in — they would see our signage — but they would say, ‘Oh, you don’t have Blue Bell?’ and walk out.”

During the dairy drought, Ellis said the staff has made do with ice cream from her Sysco provider.

“It’s pretty good ice cream, but it’s not the premium ice cream like Blue Bell,” she said. “There’s nothing that compares to Blue Bell.”

Even with the replacement ice cream, Ellis said many customers were still yearning for Blue Bell.

“We couldn’t even discount our ice cream to sell it to them because they would not try anything else besides Blue Bell,” she said. “We definitely live in Blue Bell country.”

Monday also marks the date for Blue Bell to return to supermarkets in Louisiana and central Mississippi. For now Blue Bell is producing the following flavors of ice cream: Buttered Pecan, Cookies ’n Cream, Dutch Chocolate, Homemade Vanilla, Peppermint, Pistachio Almond and The Great Divide. Twelve-pak Homemade Vanilla Cups and 12-pak Homemade Vanilla and Dutch Chocolate Cups are also available in stores.

For more information and to find out where Blue Bell is available visit bluebell.com.