Holidays in the Valley : Giving the House Some Holiday Cheer : Home: Don’t let decking the halls deck you. Pick a theme and plan, professionals suggest.

Never before have there been so many wonderful ways to deck the halls, windows, doors--and really every corner of your house.

Santa’s little elves have worked overtime this year to bring you more choices in holiday decor than ever before.

As a result, you now can decorate everywhere you go--where you eat, sleep, work and play. There even are dozens of ways to festoon passageways and window treatments.

Sounds a little claustrophobic? Although the trend in holiday decorating may lean toward spreading Christmas all around the house, it doesn’t mean that a bow or sprig of greenery must fill every nook and cranny.

A better way, say professional Christmas decorators, is to choose a theme, then plan a tasteful scheme around it.

Some of the hottest looks going include Old World themes: tree ornaments and trimmings with Dickensian, Baroque, Victorian and Renaissance flavor complete with gilded fruits and leaves, Father Christmases and charming motifs.

There’s also a lot of gold to be found in the most fashionable holiday homes, thanks to the proliferation of glitzy, sophisticated trims, such as metallic ropes, silver-and-gold mesh streamers and plenty of glitter.

Does going with a new theme mean in with the new, out with the old every single year--a plan that could bully even the most bountiful of holiday budgets?

Bah humbug, say many professional Christmas decorators. Instead, they advise the use of a theme to freshen and unify your already existing eclectic collection of decorations.

New bows, for instance, can bring your garlands, centerpieces and wreaths into the new theme, while a few dozen new ornaments in accent colors and motifs will merrily mix with those you already have.

Another idea: Two trees can be better than one. Use a “theme” tree in your living room and put a family tree adorned with all the heirloom ornaments in the living area of your home.

Don’t have the time to fiddle with the tinsel? Call a holiday decorating professional, who can conduct an in-home consultation to help you mesh Christmas Past with Christmas Present, or who will even decorate your house from roof to basement.

Another no-hassle way to decorate is to simply exchange some of the things you normally use in your home with their Christmas counterparts.

Replace everyday dinnerware with Christmas china and glassware, for example, or use holiday towels and Christmas soaps in the bathroom. Retire the bedspread for a few months, replacing it with a Christmas quilt, and toss a festive floor cloth in the entryway.

The wreath doesn’t begin and end with the evergreen circle and red-satin bow anymore--although it will always be one of the most popular and fragrant choices.

In fact, just about anything can be a wreath today: pine cones, stitched or quilted fabric, willow boughs, holly, fresh or dried flowers, wheat, gilded leaves, prickly pear leaves, cookies and seashells. And that’s just for starters.

There also are dozens of ways to spruce up a simple wreath. Wire on lights, ornaments, Christmas candies, tin cookie cutters or some glittering faux fruit, for instance, or attach a tiny gingerbread house or homemade Christmas doll into the center.

A sleighful of shapes has illuminated the Christmas light industry and made these glowing strings as interesting as the ornaments on the tree.

Consider, for instance, lights shaped like seashells or roses. There are lights that look like a glowing garden of vegetables, lights that take the forms of fruits, hearts and fish and even theme lights, such as a set that has Dalmatian dog shapes alternating with--you guessed it--fire hydrants.

There are some new light looks outside the house as well. Synchronized lights, for instance, trace twinkling patterns in trees and houses, and a set of electronically lit luminaria eliminates the need to fuss with paper bags, sand and candles.

And, for your lawn, there are life-sized forms of reindeer, snowmen and sleighs that are lined with lights.

Move over, colored Christmas ball. In the 1990s, there’s truly a treeful of ornaments available for every theme and passion imaginable.

You can find ornaments with country charm, Southwestern savvy, foreign flair, doll delight or animal ambition. There are one-of-a-kind ornaments, antique ornaments, ornament collections that revolve around a central theme, color scheme or story, ornaments that flash and move, ornaments designed for the treetop, glass-blown ornaments and edible ornaments made of chocolate.

In fact, there are so many ornaments out there that it’s probably a safe bet to say that if you can dream, you can decorate with it.

And that’s not even counting the ornaments you can make: cross-stitched ornaments, hand-painted ceramic and wooden ornaments, ornaments crafted from leaves, flowers, fruits and foliage, paper ornaments and home-baked cookie ornaments.

After ornaments, other tree trimmings out there include ropes, ribbons, streamers and garlands galore, plus tinsel, icicles and gold bullion strands.

Learn how to tie the perfect bow--a few dozen are a must to unify your tree and fill in the bare spots--at your favorite crafts emporium or have your local florist do the job.

And don’t forget to decorate under the tree. Buy or make a tree skirt that fits in with your theme, and consider coordinating gift wraps for a unified look. For a whimsical touch, you could even encircle your tree with tracks and a tooting toy train.

This ia a time to undecorate--and then decorate again. So, take down your regular pictures and wall hangings, say decorators, swapping them for the season with holiday wreaths and such.

Wreaths, of course, are the most popular ways to decorate doors and walls. But you also can liven up your home by draping fresh or faux evergreen garlands decorated with paper twist bows, ribbons, lights, bells and ornaments--really anything you use on your tree--all around the house.