STORY:
Deck the halls

Retailers have been working overtime to help you spruce up your home, delight your senses and refashion your festivities. Expect enough light, warmth and beauty to transform everyday, domestic interiors into hallowed halls of holiday cheer.

But be forewarned this is not your mother's Christmas. In fact, it's more like your great-grandmother's. Colors, styles and designs all hark back to a more traditional time. The look is warmer, more romantic. Modern is passe. Glitz is gone. Victorian is very in.

"The trend right now is towards a gardeny, floral, more natural kind of look for Christmas, somewhere in between Victorian and an English Garden," according to Rob DeBellis, owner of Allenhurst Floral Gallery and The New Colonial Flowers in Red Bank.

In his holiday flower arrangements, which include wreaths, swags, centerpieces and garlands, DeBellis expects to be using dark colors this year, such as burgundy, hunter green, purple and the rich jewel tones. The flowers of choice will be hydrangeas and garden varieties, as well as drieds and silks. Topiaries, those adorable bushes trimmed into recognizable shapes, are also popular this year, whether in small sizes for table tops or larger designs for hearths.

Both DeBellis and Stella Zeiser, floral design specialist at Michael's Arts & Crafts in Holmdel, emphasized the use of Victorian colors like mauve and ivory. Using the store's Victorian-themed ornaments as a jumping-off point, Zeiser has created an array of silk flower pieces to place on table tops or mantles or use as wall and picture accents.

Her Victorian swag, made of mauve silk roses and gold berries on green eucalyptus with a mauve floral print ribbon, is designed to be hung over a door or window. It can be complemented by a sleigh centerpiece that repeats the mauve and ivory theme and adds gold- tipped pine and a burlap-gilded bow. With sheer silk flowers expected to be popular this season, Zeiser has added sheer gold hydrangeas to the sleigh.

"People tend to look for something different that's also striking, dramatic, romantic and beautiful," Zeiser said.

Add "aromatic" to that list of adjectives and you've got a perfect description of another decorative item that your holiday home shouldn't be without - candles. At Pier One Imports in Dover Township, votives and tapered, floating and textured candles come in a dizzying array of colors and scents.

For a bright, festive look, Betsy Pechillo, a Pier One employee for 15 years and manager of the Dover Township store, suggests placing floating candles in the shape of Christmas trees and snowflakes in small, shallow, gold-trimmed bowls. Textured candles with names (and scents) like "Under the Mistletoe" and "Freshly Baked" come in this year's big colors - burgundy, hunter green and gold. (Velvet stockings are available in the same colors.) Three wicks may be better than one on an unusual, round candle placed on an antique gold, wrought iron stand; the burning wicks create a clover-leaf pattern.

For this holiday season, Pier One's design team prepared "a silver statement, a gold statement and a wrought iron statement," Pechillo said. Rustic wrought iron, often painted brown or black, is used in everything from reindeer candle holders to oversized fireplace screens with star cut-outs and yellow beads.

Beads are big this year and are used to best advantage with fire or candlelight shimmering through them. Hand-done beading, which Pechillo describes as "evening gown-like," can also be found on ornaments, including traditional balls and mini, wrapped packages.

Ornaments are the classic Christmas decoration, the beautiful baubles that turn a simple green tree into an enduring holiday symbol. And what better way to make a really special ornament than to use precious materials like hand-blown glass, crystal or silver-plate?

At Brielle China & Galleries, 10 full-sized theme trees show off dozens of ornaments from famous names, including Waterford and Lladro.

Donna Bouchard, the company's chief executive officer, said the most popular are the large Christopher Radko hand-painted, glass ornaments. The store also carries limited edition and dated ornaments designed for collectors. Although angels and cherubs always fly out of the store, Bouchard said, butterflies have taken off this year, too.

Once your home is filled with ornaments, flowers and candles, ensuring both beauty and light, the only element missing is sweetness.

The Chocolate Belles, a make-your-own candy store in Brick, can help fill that gap deliciously and creatively. The store carries 300 different holiday molds for making chocolate trees, nutcrackers, Santas, greeting cards and candy boxes, as well as colored chocolates, lollipop sticks, candy fillings and decorations to make your own sweet creations.

Because the candy-making process is simple, basically consisting of microwaving the chocolate and hardening it in the freezer, creating lollipop place settings or stand-up Santa Claus centerpieces is not the daunting task it might seem. The store also offers classes in candy making and cake decorating for those who would like a few pointers.

In addition to candy decorations, The Chocolate Belles also carries gingerbread house kits with prebaked gingerbread ready for assembly and little candy pieces.

A gingerbread village, which is a free-standing, flat piece with a three dimensional appearance, is completely edible.

Using one item to do double duty as decoration and dessert is a plus, said Ann Shortt, co-owner of The Chocolate Belles with her mother, Shirley Brautigan.

"It looks beautiful as a centerpiece, and after Christmas dinner, the children are happy to attack it!"

The store also has molds for making Hanukkah lollipops, chocolate dreidels, menorahs, Hanukkah greeting cards and an edible Jewish Star candy box.

At Torah Treasures in Lakewood, candy, especially "gelt" or coins, is sold along side Hanukkah cookie cutters, banners, window clings and crepe-paper dreidels. The store's array of dreidels, or spinning tops, include ones that light up and play a song; fillable, plastic versions; stuffed, plush tops and even a wooden Winnie-the-Pooh dreidel. But items like these are used less as holiday decorations and more as small gifts and favors at Hanukkah parties or on the eight nights of the holiday, according to Judy Werner, Torah Treasure's assistant manager and the daughter of store owner Aryeh Zak.

This sentiment is echoed by Helene Grodman, who, together with Dena Gelband, manages the gift shop at the Conservative Congregation B'nai Israel in Rumson.

"Some people like to put up stuff, and some people say, 'Well, you're turning Hanukkah into Christmas.' It's not about decorating; it's about tradition. You light the menorah, play the dreidel game and eat potato latkes (pancakes)," Grodman said.

Decorating for Kwanzaa, the African-American cultural holiday held from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, is a creative process. Since this non-religious holiday has only existed since 1966, manufactured decorations can be hard to come by. But families may hang African prints, streamers and balloons in the Kwanzaa colors - red, black and green. Renee Oler, a co-owner of Story Tellers Gallery in Asbury Park, is selling a set of four glass ornaments with decorative patterns using the three colors. On the back of the ornaments are messages about unity, one of the seven guiding principles of the holiday.

Oler's gallery also sells a kinara, or candleholder, for the candles lit on the seven nights of Kwanzaa. While the kinara is a traditional holiday item, some of the ones Oler has chosen are anything but. The base of one candle-holder, which is imported from the Ivory Coast, is similar to an African fertility figure with its big belly.

"Last year, we had only one kinara, and it went fast. So, I went out and got the best ones I could find. They are unusual, and nobody else is going to have them," Oler said.

Whether you are decorating your home for the holidays or prominently displaying the traditional symbols of a December festival, the goal is still the same to bring light and warmth and celebration into your home. So let the festivities begin as you choose a special ornament or make a chocolate dreidel or set out the kinara. Because the most important trend this year and every year is celebrating with joy and good cheer.

Tip: Be sure to refer to this Holiday Safety Check List.