Let’s put on a show

Who doesn’t love this season’s over-the-top residential makeovers, those California houses decorated with motorized blinking reindeer on the tile roof and glowing plastic snowmen chilling under a twinkling palm tree on the green grass?

If you are one of those homeowners with the time and energy to put it all up and pack it all away again, we are truly grateful. You light up our lives and our Christmas Eve drives.

If you’ve run short on ideas, there are two colorful new books, “Holiday Lights!” (Storey Publishing, $16.95), and a year-round guide, “Decorating With Mini-Lights,” (Lark Books, $12.95) as well as a wonderfully obsessive Web site, www.planetchristmas.com, that can switch on your creative juice.

For something different, we used new lighting products and classic design principles to create an intimate and inviting atmosphere that illuminates California’s diverse architectural styles.

Referencing both the lines and inspiration of homes from Craftsman to Mediterranean, these simple-yet-elegant holiday decorating schemes are suitable for year-round use and easily adaptable to any season, for any reason. To change the scenery, just remove the yuletide greenery and switch the color of the bulbs.