In the Spirit of Yesterday : Many are turning away from overly commercialized Christmases to celebrate the Yuletide season in a traditional, old-fashioned way.

Imagine the Christmas holidays without lights on the tree, without whiz-bang, high-tech toys, without rollicking office parties where employees hoist mugs of spiked eggnog to each other’s health.

Who’s in charge around here, anyway? Ebenezer Scrooge?

Hardly.

‘Tis still a season to be jolly, all right--except that some prefer to ring out the holidays the pre-20th-Century way--with bells and thistles and refrains of “O Tannenbaum,” with hallowed traditions that compel them to don their Dickens apparel, to trim the tree on Christmas Eve, to deck the halls with Victorian dolls.

To these celebrants who yearn for the way it was, old-fashioned is chic--whether it’s the pudding and curry to be dished up by British expatriates at the Mayflower Club’s Christmas potluck supper Dec. 4 in North Hollywood, or scrapping the office party, as employees of Health Net in Woodland Hills have done for the first time, by inviting 250 disadvantaged children to a get-together filled with games and gifts Dec. 18 at the Warner Center Marriott.

“We felt we all have so much--that it’s time to give something back,” says Erika Greaves, who is co-chairing the event. “There’s nothing more gratifying than to see a child smile.”

In a society that crass-commercializes the holidays--from robotic Santa Clauses to a film titled “The Nightmare Before Christmas”--many hark back to Christmases past, to sugar plums and hot cinnamon and chestnuts roasting over a crackling fire.

Some even say a trend is emerging.

“I think we all have a bit of nostalgia in us,” says Dee Linderman, proprietor of The Finishing Touch by Dee, a Northridge interior design firm. “When you trim the banister with garlands, when you trim the tree with greeting cards or colored popcorn balls, you simply enjoy it all so much more.”

At Zender’s Christmas Oaks store in Thousand Oaks, whose stock-in-trade includes hand-blown, designer-glass ornaments and miniature Dickens village houses, manager Jeanine DeGuardi agrees.

“We do traditional things because they take us back to when we were young,” she says. “It’s comfortable. It’s like snuggling up with--well, whatever.”

At Ted Garcia’s house in Burbank, for example, the Colonial Williamsburg facade will be gussied up with a massive wreath atop the front door and garlands that sit on the windowsills and spiral around towering twin white columns.

But there’ll be no decorative lights. “They aren’t appropriate for the house,” Garcia says.

The rest of us, too, can indulge in snippets of the holiday spirit that thrived before Thomas Edison lit up our nights, before Rudolph all but poked his shiny nose down our chimneys, before we wondered if “Jingle Bells” had been inspired by the ring of cash registers.

Listen to the Caroling Company of Los Angeles, who will sing at the Glendale Galleria from 9 to 11 a.m. today, Saturday and Sunday, then from 6 to 8 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays until Christmas. And the Antelope Valley Mall, too, will resound with carolers--from Palmdale’s Westview Church (7 to 8 p.m., Dec. 9, and 8 to 9 p.m., Dec. 14) and from a local group called His Image Singers (7 to 8 p.m., Dec. 13 and 20).

Hear the Campanile Bell Choir of Reseda (1 to 3 p.m. today and Christmas Eve) and the American Lutheran Church of Burbank’s bell choir (1 to 3 p.m. Dec. 4) resound through Burbank’s Media City Center.

Or, thrill to “Greensleeves,” sung by students in Canyon High School’s medieval play, “The Silver Chair,” at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Dec. 4 in the school’s multipurpose room in Canyon Country, or visit what officials at The Promenade shopping mall in Woodland Hills call “not your typical Santa,” clad in a longer, more traditional crimson coat.

“We just want to make our Santa a little more elegant, to give our mall personality--so it doesn’t look like all the others,” says Elizabeth Pedersen-Knapp, The Promenade’s marketing director.

Or, take the candlelight tour (7 to 9 p.m. Dec. 4) of Glendale’s historic, turn-of-the-century Doctors’ House, its Victorian decor enhanced for the holidays by handmade wooden toys and vintage tree ornaments such as handmade boxes and crocheted snowflakes.

“It’s all simple and family oriented--and it reminds us what a reasonable holiday it used to be,” says Terry Richman, a Glendale Historical Society docent who helps give weekly tours of the house (2 to 4 p.m. Sundays), next to the Brand Library and Art Center.

“I frankly don’t like today’s commercialism of Christmas and all the pressure that goes with it,” she adds.

And if you’re dreaming of cold-fashioned holidays, you can go ice skating outdoors at Universal Studios’ CityWalk, now through Jan. 2. Or, try blanketing your lawn or rooftop with man-made snow. Ice makers such as the North Hollywood Ice Co., which has made granules of ice look like snow for first-run films and TV spots, also offer homeowners one foot deep of snow that company officials say can last up to a day, for fees ranging from $400 to $3,000, depending on square footage and special effects such as wind drifts, moguls and slides.

“We can make it look as if the trees, the roof, everything, got hit by a blizzard,” says Pete DeGrandis, the firm’s general manager, who adds that ever since residents heard about all that made-for-the-movies snow, business has--well, “snowballed,” with 150 to 200 orders each December.

Old-time holiday celebrating in the San Fernando Valley also comes in international flavors aside from the hot tea, crackers and sausage rolls of Dickens-era England.

At Glendale’s landmark Casa Adobe de San Rafael, a dwelling restored to recall the days of some of the community’s early settlers, visitors will be admitted free of charge to observe an old Mexican custom called luminarias, lighted candles inside paper bags that sit on rooftops and walkways at three open houses: 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 10 and 11, and 2 to 4 p.m. on Dec. 12, with a pinata party from 2 to 4 p.m. on Dec. 11.

“The light from the luminarias was supposed to lead the Christ child to people’s homes,” says Meri Sotomayor, a Glendale resident who enjoys the Casa Adobe’s traditions with her family. In Woodland Hills, meanwhile, Health Net’s employees are frantically wrapping gifts for youngsters who’ll be guests of honor at the company’s new kind of holiday party. They expect to bring cheer not just to themselves but to dozens of small children and adolescents, many from broken families and foster homes, many whose lives need a Santa Claus the year ‘round.

“Some of our children who’ll be there have never had any home to go to--and for some, it will be the first time they’ve ever been to any celebration of any kind,” says Laura Fuhrman, director of development for Vista del Mar, a Los Angeles child and family services agency.

“By inviting our youngsters to this party,” she adds, “these people show that they do care--without strings attached.”

To hear some Health Net employees tell it, it’s shaping up as the kind of party that wouldn’t really need strings of multicolored lights to brighten the room. After all, they hope, the children’s faces will take care of that.

Where and When Bell Choirs: Campanile Bell Choir of Reseda, at Media City Center, 201 E. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank (1 to 3 p.m. today and Dec. 24); American Lutheran Church of Burbank (1 to 3 p.m., Dec. 4), at Media City Center. Call: (818) 566-8617. Candlelight Tour: Doctors’ House, at Brand Library and Art Center, 1601 W. Mountain St., Glendale (7 to 9 p.m., Dec. 4). The Doctors’ House also offers a Victorian Christmas tour (2 to 4 p.m. Dec. 12). Admission free to all events. Call: (213) 242-4290. Carolers: The Caroling Company of Los Angeles, at Glendale Galleria, Broadway and Central Avenue, Glendale (9 and 11 a.m. today, Saturday and Sunday, then 6 to 8 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays until Christmas). Call: (818) 240-9481. Westview Church of Palmdale, at Antelope Valley Mall, 1233 W. Avenue P, Palmdale (7 to 8 p.m., Dec. 9, and 8 to 9 p.m., Dec. 14); His Image Singers, at Antelope Valley Mall (7 to 8 p.m., Dec. 13 and 20). Call: (805) 266-9150. Ice Skating (outdoors): CityWalk, at Universal Studios, Hollywood Freeway at Lankershim Boulevard, Universal City. (Now through Jan. 2: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays; longer hours Fridays through Sundays). Price: $5 admission (subject to change), $2 skate rental. Call: (818) 622-4155, for recorded information, or (818) 622-9539. Luminarias: Mexican Christmas open house, at Casa Adobe de San Rafael, 1330 Dorothy Drive, Glendale (6 to 9 p.m., Dec. 10 and 11, and 2 to 4 p.m., Dec. 12). (Casa Adobe de San Rafael also has a pinata party, 2 to 4 p.m., Dec. 11). Call: (818) 956-2000 or (818) 548-3799. Admission free. Musical Theater: “Greensleeves,” sung by students in the play, “The Silver Chair,” at Canyon High School’s multipurpose room, 19300 W. Nadal St., Canyon Country (10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Dec. 4). Admission: $2 adults, $1 children. Call: (805) 252-6110.