SHOPTALK : A Mall-Free Search for Stocking Stuffers : Charming items ranging from chocolate wreaths to musical spoons and Chilean flutes are purchased at neighborhood stores.

You haven’t yet completed your Christmas shopping? It’s all those stocking stuffers, right? You got the biggies out of the way, but empty socks on the mantel just won’t do.

We don’t mean to scold--you’re really not alone. Which is part of the problem. Have you seen the malls lately? It’s like rush hour on the L.A. freeways.

Here’s what we suggest for those last-minute stocking purchases:

First of all, avoid the malls. That is, unless you just adore crowds and don’t suffer from claustrophobia.

Second, keep your spending to a minimum. There’s plenty of inexpensive, quality trinkets out there. Remember, it’s the thought that counts--as long as you remember to remove the price tag.

Third, we suggest keeping your shopping contained and calm. By that, we mean shop in an area where there are several stores to choose from, in a location that probably won’t be any more crowded than midday on California 126.

Last week we visited Ventura’s downtown Main Street district, the Ojai Arcade and Carmen Plaza in Camarillo. These are three areas we believe will be busy, but not overwhelmingly so, this last day or two leading up to Christmas. There are areas similar to these in every town, it’s just a matter of choice.

Here’s the list of stocking stuffers we came up with. It’s by no means comprehensive, just a sampling of items we think would help fill up a stocking.

MAIN STREET, DOWNTOWN VENTURA

The Ventura Bookstore has a nice selection of mini hardcover books including “Bible Stories” for $4.95 and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” for $5.95. We also saw some attractive bird and fish letter openers for $2.98.

At Beads & Gallery, there is a huge selection of inexpensive items. The store had cute sterling silver charms for $4.99, beaded bracelets for $2.75 (small) and $3.75 (large), earrings for $2.99 and rings for $1.99.

The Busy Bee Cafe (yes, the restaurant), has nice T-shirts for $11 and $17 and a sweat shirt for $16. Gift certificates of just about any value are also available.

At Fantasia we found mini trolls in the form of erasers ($2.25) and earrings ($3.50 and $3.75) and just plain old trolls ($1.25). And at Hearts Delight, we found a wonderful eight-piece ceramic dollhouse tea set for $9.95.

Finally, at Atelier de Chocolat, there are assorted chocolates and gift items for affordable prices. We particularly liked the chocolate wreaths with ribbons for $3.

OJAI’S ARCADE

We again went for the chocolate, this time at Pink Moment Sweets. The store had chocolate pops in Christmas shapes for $2.50. If they are out of those, you can always give the leftover Thanksgiving pops. Hey, chocolate is chocolate.

From there we went to Treasures of Ojai, a wonderful consignment shop with just about anything for anybody. We found a hand-knit hanger, just like mother used to make, marked down from $4.50 to $2.50.

At the Earthworks store, where the stock is made up of handcrafted gifts from around the world, we grabbed a Rainforest Frog for $2.50. They come in fluorescent yellow, red, green, orange and pink. We also had a hard time passing up the wooden musical spoons, straight from Arkansas, for $8.50 a pair.

Moving on down Ojai Avenue, The Red Poppy folk art store had a twisted metal nail puzzle (for the nervous or Mensa folks on your stocking list) for $1.50 and an attractive Chilean flute for $2.25.

And as we began the trip along the arcade, so we ended it, with our sweet tooth. At Ojai Ice Cream, they’ve got gold-wrapped chocolate coins for 25 cents each and Christmas coins (like Valentine’s sugar wafers, only with Christmas themes) at 85 cents for a quarter of a pound.

CARMEN PLAZA, CAMARILLO

This place is a potential stocking stuffer gold mine, with a Sav-On drug store and a Pic-N-Save open 24 hours a day tonight and Friday and until 7 p.m. Christmas Eve. There’s any number of cheap stocking stuffers at Pic-N-Save.

But there are a couple of other places that hold some hope for the hard-to-shop-for recipient on your list.

For that special cat or dog, The Pet Company has mini-Christmas squeeze toys for $2.49 and big Christmas squeeze toys for $3.99.

And for the car owner and/or mechanic, there’s the Trak Auto store. It’s got racks and racks of little gadgets and gizmos. There was an auto compass for $2.99, a single cup or can holder for $1.99, a pen holder for 99 cents, a tire-tread depth gauge for $2.99 and an oil pressure switch for $2.99.

Now, go to it. Right now. Go.