SOON IT WILL BE CHRISTMAS DAY : . . . And With So Much to Do Before the Holiday, Why Not Start Celebrating Now?

Holiday traditions.

There are good ones (trimming the tree, exchanging gifts, office parties, watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas”) and not-so-good ones (fitting the tree into that cheapo stand, waiting until Christmas Eve to buy the gifts, waking up the day after office parties, suffering through those Christmas commercials).

Then there are community traditions. It is not so long since our illustrious forefathers carved Orange County out of a wilderness of orange groves, but some holiday traditions have sprouted and flourished, while new ones continue to take root.

Even though Christmas is less than a week away ( gasp! ) there is still a chance, with a bit of planning, to take in some of the county’s traditional and not-so-traditional holiday offerings--from the season’s Big Three (“The Nutcracker,” Handel’s “Messiah” and “A Christmas Carol”) to Newport Beach’s annual boat parade.

We’ve put together a suggested itinerary, with built-in options, for the six days leading to Christmas. Specific dates, it should be noted, are simply suggestions; many of the events below are in multiperformance runs. Also, ticket availability for some events is changing rapidly.

Thursday, Dec. 19: Lights on the Water.

This may be a good night to catch a glimpse of how the nautical set celebrates the holidays, before the weekend crowds converge. There’s a difference in how the county’s two biggest coastal cities mark the season: In Newport Harbor, the spectators watch from shore as the decorated boats parade by; in Huntington Harbour, you get on a boat and drift past the decorated waterfront houses.

In a staggeringly long tradition by local standards, the 83rd annual Newport Beach Boat Parade includes about 200 elaborately festooned craft ranging from the basic (canoes) to the ostentatious (luxury yachts), and leaves at 6:30 p.m. from just off Collins Island in Newport Harbor.

There is a grandstand viewing area with paid admission, but the parade is visible from the many points in the harbor, including the waterfront restaurants and along the perimeter of Balboa Island. Crossing on the Balboa Ferry during the parade can be a memorable experience.

In Huntington Harbour, the Cruise of Lights departs four times nightly through Saturday for a tour of the decorated homes that line the harbor. Some of the tours will probably sell out.

* The Newport Beach Boat Parade continues through Monday. For information call the Chamber of Commerce at (714) 729-4400.

* The Cruise of Lights continues through Saturday, departing nightly at 5:30, 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $8.50 for adults and $5 for children 2 through 12. For ticket information call (714) 840-7542.

Friday, Dec. 20: “A Christmas Carol.”

You’ll have to move quickly on this one, if you don’t already have tickets. South Coast Repertory’s “A Christmas Carol” is the most popular and enduring holiday tradition on the Orange County arts scene, and ticket availability for remaining performances (it ends Christmas Eve, appropriately enough) was reported as “limited” at press time.

The Dickens tale, often rather freely adapted, is followed closely here: The old skinflint Scrooge, his curmudgeonly “bah-humbug” self on the eve of one seemingly average Christmas, changes his ways after visits from the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future.

For regular SCR patrons, some of the faces on stage will be as familiar as the story. Taking his 12th star turn as Scrooge is company stalwart Hal Landon Jr., making his annual transformation from misanthrope to Mr. Nice Guy. The mildly scary moments are mixed with laughs and some nifty stage effects.

Meanwhile, theatergoers looking for a different take on the season can wander to Way Off Broadway’s production of “Times Square Angel,” a Charles Busch spoof that takes on the air of a 1940s melodrama in skewering the sentiment of more familiar Yuletime fare--”A Christmas Carol,” for instance.

“They’re two sides of the same coin,” says “Times Square Angel” director Tony Reverditto of the two productions.

* “A Christmas Carol” will be presented today, Friday and Monday at 7:30 p.m. at South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Other show times: Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m., Sunday and Tuesday at noon and 4 p.m. Ends Tuesday. Tickets are $22-$25. Information: (714) 957-4033.

* “Times Square Angel” will be performed Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Way Off Broadway Playhouse, 1058 E. 1st St., Santa Ana. Continues Jan. 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18 at 8 p.m. Tickets: $13 ($1 off with the donation of a canned good). Information: (714) 547-8997.

Saturday, Dec. 21: Christmas with the Pacific.

The Pacific Symphony Orchestra will be busy this day, offering two children’s concerts in the morning, an afternoon “Messiah” with the Pacific Chorale and an evening pops performance with the Gatlin Brothers, all at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

“A Holiday Peace” is the title for the morning program, which will be performed at 10 and 11:30 a.m. as part of the Mervyn’s Musical Mornings series for children and their families. The holiday-themed program, led by Pacific Symphony assistant conductor Daniel Hege, includes selections from Tchaikovsky’s suite for “The Nutcracker.”

Handel’s “Messiah,” a ubiquitous part of the holiday season, gets its biggest local airing that afternoon, as the Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale collaborate for the 11th straight year. The performance will be conducted by Michael Palmer, music director of the New Haven Symphony, and will feature soprano Evelyn de la Rosa, mezzo-soprano Mimi Lerner, tenor Carl Halvorson and baritone Douglas Lawrence.

Finally, the orchestra joins country’s Gatlin Brothers in a holiday program in the evening, the second of two performances (the first is Friday).

Tickets for all the Saturday concerts remained available at press time. Good seats remain for the “Messiah,” the rest are limited.

* The Pacific Symphony will offer family concerts Saturday at 10 and 11:30 a.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. Tickets: $7 to $9. Information: (714) 556-2787.

* The Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale will perform Handel’s “Messiah” Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Tickets: $15 to $30. Information: (714) 556-2787.

* Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers will join the Pacific Symphony Friday and Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Tickets: $16 to $47. Information: (714) 556-2787.

Sunday, Dec. 22: Young musical talents.

The weekend’s holiday sounds continue with offerings from two local youth ensembles.

The All-American Boys Chorus moves its 12th annual “A Little Christmas Magic” concert from the Orange County Performing Arts Center, where it was performed last year, to the cozier confines of Fullerton’s Plummer Auditorium for two shows, 3 and 7:30 p.m.

In addition to such traditional favorites as “Silent Night,” “O Holy Night,” “White Christmas” and “Jingle Bells,” the program this year includes a new composition, “The Best Gift of All,” by Les Baxter. The audience will be invited to sing along on several of the numbers.

The Orange County chorus was founded in 1970 by Richard Coughlin as a parish youth project. Since then, under Coughlin’s continuing direction, the chorus has grown into a 100-voice ensemble and has recorded three albums, including a Christmas release with the London Symphony Orchestra. The chorus has performed all over the world.

In Costa Mesa, meanwhile, the South Coast Symphony Youth Orchestra will perform a holiday pops concert of its own. The program includes several holiday-themed pieces, including selections from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” suite, along with excerpts of works by Mozart, Sibelius and Rossini.

The concert will be conducted by orchestra music director Daniel Hege, who is also assistant conductor of the Pacific Symphony. The orchestra is based at the Orange County High School of the Arts in Los Alamitos.

* The All-American Boys Chorus will perform Sunday at 3 and 7:30 p.m. in Plummer Auditorium, 201 E. Chapman Ave. in Fullerton. Tickets: $14 to $18. Information: (714) 533-7600.

* The South Coast Symphony Youth Orchestra will perform Sunday at 8 p.m. in the Robert B. Moore Theatre at Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road in Costa Mesa. Tickets: $5 to $10. Information: (714) 662-7220.

Monday, Dec. 23: Ballet Pacifica’s “Nutcracker.”

The San Francisco Ballet has come and gone at the Performing Arts Center, where it staged its fully orchestrated version of holiday perennial “The Nutcracker.”

Folks still in need of a “Nutcracker” fix can turn to Orange County’s oldest ballet company, Ballet Pacifica, as it presents the “Nutcracker” for the 25th straight season. A seven-day run concludes this day with performances at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m.

Choreographed by company founder Lila Zali, the production sticks close to tradition in telling the story of Clara’s Christmas Eve, complete with life-size mice, dancing toy soldiers and a visit to the Kingdom of Candy with the requisite dancing Sugar Plum Fairy. Note, however, that Tchaikovsky’s score isn’t live, it’s Memorex.

At press time, tickets remained available for all performances, although availability is better before the weekend.

* Ballet Pacifica performs “The Nutcracker” at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. through Monday at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Tickets: $12 to $15. Information: (714) 642-9275.

Tuesday, Dec. 24: Literary Childhoods.

Christmas remembrances from two colorful figures of the not-too-distant literary past highlight a pair of local stage productions.

Back for its sixth go-round is the Grove Shakespeare Festival production of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” a musical based on the prose work of the same title by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. The work recalls holidays at the Thomas family’s Swansea home in the 1920s.

This year, the production has been thoroughly revamped by director Bud Leslie, who has pared down the set and injected some a capella Welsh music. Also for the first time this year, the Grove is offering a Christmas Eve performance.

Meanwhile, a staged reading of Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory,” about the relationship of a young boy and his elderly cousin, is offered for the third year by Santa Ana’s Alternative Repertory Theatre. “A Christmas Memory” will be preceded each night by readings of other holiday literature, such as Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Bells”; Orange County playwright Jerry Gordon’s hipster poem, “Wear’n a Tomato-Colored Santa Claus Headband”; an excerpt from Betty Smith’s “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” and George Bernard Shaw’s pithy diatribe, “An Atrocious Institution.”

* “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” continues through Dec. 29 at the Gem Theatre, 12852 Main St., Garden Grove. Show times: Wednesday through Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 3 and 7:30 p.m. The Christmas Eve performance is at 7 p.m. Tickets: $18 to $22. Information: (714) 636-7213.

* “A Christmas Memory” has performances through Saturday at 8 p.m. at Alternative Repertory Theatre, 1636 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana. Other show times: Sunday and Tuesday at 5 p.m., Monday at 8 p.m. Admission is free with the donation of non-perishable food or new unwrapped toys. Information: (714) 836-7929.