‘Tis the Season for These Sometimes-Seasonal Stores

In the snowless cities of Southern California, Christmastime often seems a bit like springtime, and as a result, it can be hard to get in the proper holiday frame of mind.

If you’re one of those who longs for a white Christmas amid the palms, here’s a little toddy to cure your yuletide blues. As far as we know, it won’t turn Southern California into a Currier & Ives New England, but it’s guaranteed to get your Christmas juices flowing.

Step 1: Take the family to visit Santa’s Village, one mile east of Skyforest on California 18, south of Lake Arrowhead.

Step 2: Browse among the holiday floral and craft supplies at establishments like Stats, which has five stores in the Los Angeles area, or Moskatel’s, which has 15.

Step 3: Go to downtown L.A.’s Olvera Street during its Christmastime Las Posadas celebration.

Step 4: Visit at least one of the Southland’s Christmas stores, those specialists in holiday fantasy. To help you with this part of the cure, here’s a sampler of shops that offer the gift of Christmas excitement. Some of the stores below are open year-round, others only for the holidays.

The Treasure Chest Christmas Store, 540 Myrtlewood Drive, Calimesa, (714) 795-1220. Between Redlands and Beaumont on the way to Palm Springs. Open seven days a week, year-round. Christmas hours 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays.

The regular Palm Springs/Palm Desert clientele at Donna Seaton’s 4,000-square-foot store often compares the trees to those seen in Europe. Seaton’s son, Tim Summerhays, designed the displays of 25 trees, including one 8 feet high with 84 strands and 4,400 lights.

You will find custom-made wreaths, ornaments and tree trimmings.

The Christmas Cat Gift Shop, 520 Bartlett Road, Big Bear Lake, (714) 866-7397. Open year-round. From mid-June through December, hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

Inside the cottage of Roy and Carol Arnold, Christmas tree lights shine on cat dolls, cat cards, cat cushions, cat jewelry, cat music boxes, cat shirts and cat toys.

The Arnolds believe they carry the largest group of cat items in Southern California. “Our specialty is pictures,” Carol adds.

Non-cat items include “I Believe in Santa” sweat shirts, handmade quilts and gifts from the Ozarks.

The Christmas Shoppe, 815 Naomi Ave., West Arcadia Hub Shopping Center, Units J and K and Annex A, Arcadia, (818) 574-8199. Open seven days a week; Christmas hours 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Outlets also open through Christmas at the Eastland Shopping Center in West Covina, (818) 915-8489, and Puente Hills Mall in the City of Industry, (818) 964-1139.

Marilyn Palfrey’s Arcadia shop displays colorful theme trees, barrels of unique ornaments and artistic wreaths. She will custom-design arrangements on the premises or at your home to match your decor.

The gift items in the annex include silk flower arrangements, antiques, pictures and prints.

“My customers find almost anything they need here to decorate the house for Christmas,” Palfrey says.

The Christmas Guild. Permanent locations: 1575 N. Placentia Ave., Placentia, (714) 961-0402; Tustin Plaza, 13681 Newport Ave., Tustin, (714) 730-1141, and 21301 Hawthorne Blvd., Torrance, (213) 316-5564. Also 11 seasonal locations, including Brea Mall, (714) 990-4796; Del Amo Fashion Center, (213) 214-3772; Orange Mall, (714) 637-2029; South Coast Plaza in both Crystal Court, (714) 546-9331, and the Nordstrom Wing, (714) 546-2520; Beverly Center, (213) 652-6212; Sherman Oaks Fashion Center, (818) 907-9268; Santa Monica Place, (213) 458-6541; Century City Shopping Mall, (213) 277-3989; Topanga Plaza Mall, (818) 883-8121, and Horton Plaza in San Diego, (619) 696-9988. Open seven days a week; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays noon to 5 p.m. (Hours may vary slightly at mall locations.)

Owners Cathy and John MacDonald say all their stores feature settings, as they might appear in your home, of trees and other items.

There are 29 theme trees bearing names like “On the Wings of a Dove,” “Shimmer and Shine,” “Baubles, Bangles and Beads” with handblown ornaments, a moose-laden “Mooseltoe and Kisses,” and nautical-themed “Neptune’s Treasure.”

More than 25,000 ornaments can be found in each Christmas Guild store, the MacDonalds say, along with collectibles from many countries and one-of-a-kind gifts.

Nancy Kramer, manager of the the Topanga Plaza store (6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park, (818) 883-8121), says she will show customers how to shape a tree, light it, hang ornaments and develop their own themes.

Christmas International Ltd., 7th Marketplace, Citicorp Plaza, Suites 313 and 315 on the lower level, 735 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, (213) 624-4707. Christmas hours 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays. Galleria, South Bay Mall, No. 380, 1815 Hawthorne Blvd., Redondo Beach, (213) 542-9809; Courtyard Mall, No. J-23, 550 Deep Valley Drive, Rolling Hills Estates, (213) 544-6361; City Shopping Center, No. 57, 9 City Blvd. West, Orange, (714) 978-7166; Santa Anita Fashion Park, No. 143, 400 S. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia, (818) 446-0288. The latter four stores keep mall hours, usually 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sundays during the Christmas season.

Frank Cannava, manager of the 7th Street Marketplace store, says the Christmas International chain offers many thousands of specialty gifts with an international flavor. More than 60 foreign lands are represented.

General manager and partner Bill Lyon adds that each store has at least 200,000 ornaments, including Italian handblown pieces and other exotic products.

If you long for an animated, mechanical Santa in your window or a reindeer outside your door, these are the places for you. Popular items also include collectibles such as nutcrackers, smokers, porcelain figurines and Italian hand-crafted Nativity scenes, plus handmade angels, fairies, tree skirts, music boxes, stockings and a forest of trees.

Tudor Cottage, 4542 Rinetti Lane, La Canada, (818) 790-4542. Christmas hours 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.

“I think customers come for the atmosphere,” says manager Judith Condron. “We dress in red-and-green plaid Christmas clothes, there’s hot cider and Christmas music and the owner, Daina Johnson, works hard to find unique items and brings them back from abroad.”

Each of the several small rooms specializes in a type of merchandise such as candy, books or stuffed animals; one is a year-round Christmas room.

On Dec. 18, 19 and 20, ornaments will be personalized at no additional cost by an expert in hand painting. No charge for gift wrapping.

Chez Monche, 925 Boston Court, Pasadena, (818) 793-4760. Hours 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday; open on Sundays in December only, noon to 5:30 p.m.

This 2,000-square-foot Victorian house, according to owner Diane Manchee, has “almost everything you can cram under one roof, a mixture of old things and new things.” Known for her fine collection of antiques, she also offers plants, Santas, angels, baskets, dolls, toys and collectibles from across the world.

Manchee and staff will help customers select a gift and will custom-design a free gift wrap.

Paper Goose, 4397-D Tujunga Ave., Studio City, (818) 760-1738. Christmas hours, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays.

This intimate store offers gifts, trees and hand-carved items at a moderate cost. Also, you can buy cards and stationery that are personalized by computer calligraphy.

Owners Chuck Walker and Craig Rotman specialize in packaging hand-made gift baskets; they suggest filling a basket with small items you can select from their stock, which includes 15 gourmet food lines, 100 teas and more than 60 gourmet coffees.

Paper Goose will deliver gift baskets free anywhere in the United States.

Lindsay’s, South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa, (714) 662-5801. Park in the I. Magnin area and enter the lower level. Christmas hours 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.

You’ll find a fairyland of trees in Lindsay’s, which is situated in a huge mall. A life-size Father Winter greets you in an animated window display that includes panda bears. Porcelain dolls and Russian boxes vie with gift wrap and cards. There are custom-made wreaths, decorative floral arrangements, Victorian silver and other gifts.

Owner Chris Lindsay says, “Whether you spend 75 cents or $500, it’s all hand-picked.”

Roger’s Gardens, 2301 San Joaquin Hills Road, Corona del Mar, (714) 640-5800. Christmas hours, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. Also, Main Place Mall, Space 196, 2800 N. Main, Santa Ana, (714) 835-3737. Christmas hours 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.

A “Christmas Fantasy” theme is presented at both stores.

The company’s galleries and flower shops are filled with imported ornaments, lights and gifts. Centerpieces, wreaths and decorations of all kinds are made on the premises by Roger’s designers.

At the 7 1/2 acres of the Corona del Mar location, you can view more than 30 theme trees.

Enjoy an “enchanted candlelight walk” through the gardens to the Disneyland Gazebo where Santa Claus reigns from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily during the holiday season. Five hundred candles light the walk, and 60,000 lights shine on trees and shrubs. Another well-known holiday green spot is Kensington Garden, 9355 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (213) 205-0090. Christmas hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.

A single tree holds 5,000 lights at the flower and gift shop. There are gourmet baskets with fresh fruit, wine and cheese, and a holiday boutique with distinctive American and imported gifts.

The Kensington Garden staff creates custom color arrangements and provides a decorating service for homes and offices.