Deck the Halls with Main Place Mall in Santa Ana, California

When shopping in Orange County, out-of-towners don't usually think of Santa Ana. So that means locals of one of the county's key cities can avoid the crowds. Everything they need to decorate their homes for the holidays is available at their local mall, Main Place.

Main Place's key tenants - Penny's, Macy's and Nordstrom's - all have some decorations to trim the tree and deck the halls. Four other stores in the mall also are worth checking out for their inventory of Christmas decorations - two of them before you hit the department stores.

Your first stop should be Bombay Company, a store specializing in home accessories. From now until Christmas, most of these accessories will likely be Christmas decorations. These include aisle after aisle of Christmas ornaments, and a good selection of ornately decorated, but definitely not "evergreen" trees. You will also find holiday plates and mugs, bottle stoppers and picture frames.

Get there fast though, because the store is going out of business. It should be open through January, 2008, according to one sales associate. Still, new merchandise isn't coming in, so the store may close earlier than planned if holiday sales are brisk. The Christmas items will be sold at 20 percent off the listed price. Everything else in the store is 20 to 40 percent off, except some Halloween and fall decorations that would sell at up to a 60 percent discount if still available.

Next door to the Bombay Company is Yankee Candle, a candle lover's paradise. Those whose favorite scents run towards spices, pine trees and other Christmas-like aromas will especially enjoy Yankee Candle at this time of year. The entire front half of the store is devoted to candles emitting a dozen or so smells of the season.

The scents include Gingerbread, which one associate described as "just like gingerbread cookies baking in the oven." There is also a candle that is supposed to smell like an angel, and no less than three smelling like wreaths. Christmas Wreath smells heavily of pine, Frosted Cedar Wreath gives off a more delicate cedar scent and Red Apple Wreath reminds one of spiced apple cider. But you can also buy other varieties of pine-scented, vanilla-scented and spice-scented candles.

Three of these candles - Sparkling Pine, Sparkling Vanilla and Sparkling Cinnamon - have been around for a season. They're offered at a special rate of buy one, get one 50 percent off. The rest of the Christmas candles were introduced in the last few months - some just in time for the holiday season - and sell at Yankee Candle's regular prices, which start at less than $2 for the small potpourri and votive candles and increase in price with the size of the candles.

After visiting these two specialty stores, your third stop should be J.C. Penny's, which appears to have the best selection of holiday decorations among the three department stores. It also has the best sale, as all of these decorations will be 50 percent off the regular prices until the store closes on Christmas Eve. The selection includes plush holiday animals and snowmen, ornaments for as low as $2.99, candles, lights and small decorative Christmas trees, mostly bearing red or silver needles and baubles rather than the traditional pine tree colors.

J.C. Penny's draperies are also 50 percent off during the holiday season, and some of these come in red and gold color schemes that would be an attractive change of scenery for the holidays. Besides the discount on the drapes, one can also purchase a coordinating sheer window panel at regular prices, and take a second panel of equal or lesser value for $1.

Like Penny's, the third floor at Macy's welcomes guests off the escalators with a display of holiday decorations. In Macy's these are mostly on several well-decorated Christmas trees. Shoppers can help Macy's take the trim off its trees by purchasing the ornaments and the tree skirts at 30 percent off the regular price. Christmas stockings are also available at the 30 percent off price.

Before heading to Nordstrom's we recommend you make a stop at the Carlton Cards store on the second floor of Main Place. There you will find a collection of keepsake Christmas ornaments. Buy one, and get a second for 50 percent off.

Nordstrom's and Main Place's other card store, Amy's Hallmark, have a limited selection of Christmas decorations for sale. At Nordstrom's, the selection includes some unique ornaments like Nordstrom's shopping bags, and University of Southern California footballs. The Hallmark store had not yet begun merchandising its Christmas keepsakes at press time, but was expected to set up a display the first weekend in November.

The stores reviewed here are among 234 stores in the Westfield Main Place Mall, 2200 North Main Street Santa Ana. These stores are all open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays. The J.C. Penny store has slightly longer hours on weekends.

Main Place Mall is at the juncture of Interstate 5 and Freeway 22. Take the Main Street off ramp from either of these freeways, then travel a short distance south of Freeway 22 on Main to the mall's entrance.

Bombay Company

Specializing in home accessories

Everything in store on sale, including 20 percent off Christmas decorations

(714) 835-5133

2. Yankee Candle

Specializing in candles

Sparkling cinnamon, sparkling pine and sparkling vanilla candles offered at buy one, get one for 50 percent

(714) 560-0455

3. J.C. Penny

Department store

All Christmas decorations 50 percent off through holiday season

(714) 953-9640

4. Macy's

Department store

Selected Christmas ornaments, tree skirts, stockings 30 percent off through holiday season

(714) 547-7211

5. Carlton Cards

Cards and stationery

Keepsake Christmas ornaments sold at buy one, get one 50 percent off