Time-Honored Songs Ring In Special Season : All across the county, performances will sparkle with music from traditional carols to classical works.

How can you tell when the holiday season is upon Ventura County? The weather isn’t normally a reliable indicator, but there are other telltale signs.

Decorations dangle in the periphery and Christmas carols are piped into the public hearing space. Kindly fat men in red outfits perch themselves in shopping malls.

And in the classical music scene here, the tunes turn decidedly seasonal. Concert-goers and other music observers know by now that, in this region, December is given over to holiday consciousness.

The holiday season means time-honored traditions on the musical scene, in Ventura County as much as anywhere else. For the 15th consecutive year, the Ventura County Symphony will be joining forces with the Channel Islands Ballet to bring “The Nutcracker,” that Yuletide perennial, to the county.

At the helm of the symphony will be conductor Paul Polivnick. Currently director of the New Hampshire Music Festival, Polivnick keeps up a busy schedule of guest conducting and is presently the guest conductor with the UC Santa Barbara Symphony.

Performances, all at the Oxnard Civic Auditorium, will take place at 7 p.m. Dec. 2, 2 and 7 p.m. Dec. 3 and 2 p.m. Dec. 4. Tickets are available through the symphony office or at the Oxnard Civic.

As it does every year, the Gold Coast Community Chorus, under Kurt Bernstein’s direction, will present its holiday program at the First Baptist Church in Ventura on Dec. 17 and 18. For information, call 649-3471.

For its part, the Ventura Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Burns Taft, will be at least partly celebrating the season at the second concert of its season. The orchestra’s Dec. 3 concert will feature Corelli’s Christmas Concerto, Op. 6, No. 8, and Vaughan-Williams’ “Fantasy on Greensleeves.” Guest guitarist Matthew Greif will perform Giuliani’s “Guitar Concerto in A.”

The concert, which starts at 8 p.m., is at the Ventura College Auditorium, 4667 Telegraph Road.

And what would any civilized Western city be without Handel’s “Messiah” this time of year? The choirs of Trinity Lutheran Church, under Minister of Music Ron Zell’s direction, will perform the oratorio at 4 p.m. Dec. 4 at the church, at Ashwood and Loma streets.

Over at the shiny new Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Handel will be having a field day. Los Robles Master Chorale, under James Stemen’s direction, along with the Amadeus Boys Choir, will perform a varied program at 8 p.m. Dec. 3. Included are segments of the “Messiah” as well as Conard Sousa’s “A Christmas Garland” and other treats.

The Conejo Symphony’s program, “Sounds of Christmas and the Holidays,” will be on the main stage at 8 p.m. Dec. 10. This sampler plate program includes excerpts from both the “Messiah” and “Judas Maccabaeus.” The evening will also feature music by Bach, Gabrielli and Rutter, and seasonal fare arranged by Carmen Dragon, with baritone Sylvester Blue as the guest of honor.

One of the more exciting seasonal concert prospects is the program entitled “A Christmas Odyssey” from the Ventura County Master Chorale. The program includes Vaughan-Williams’ “Carol Fantasy,” Britten’s “A Boy Was Born” and Santa Barbara-based composer Emma Lou Diemer’s “A Feast for Christmas.”

There will be three performances around the county. At 8 p.m. Dec. 10, it will be at Assumption Church, 3175 Telegraph Road, Ventura, and at Mt. Cross Lutheran Church, 102 Camino Esplendido, Camarillo, at 8 p.m. Dec. 17. But the most enticing venue will be at 4 p.m. Dec. 18, when the ensemble sings in the historically rich, reverberant San Buenaventura Mission, 211 E. Main St., in old town Ventura.

Looking toward New Year’s Eve, the Ventura County Master Chorale and Opera Assn. will be serving up another of its annual gala dinner-dances, this time at the Financial Plaza Hilton in Oxnard. Music Director Burns Taft will be leading the ensemble in a program of Irving Berlin songs, alongside dancers led by choreographer Eileen Daniels.

The event raises funds for the Master Chorale’s community outreach programs, which include Outreach to Schools, a children’s choir, a high school Choral Mentor program and Senior Outreach. For information, call 653-7282.

Out at California Lutheran University, the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany season is ushered in with the official CLU Christmas Concerts, a tradition dating back more than 30 years on campus. The combined CLU choirs, led by Wyant Morton, and the Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Geeting, will perform a varied program of carols, both beloved chestnuts, lesser-known songs and Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols.” The concerts take place at 8 p.m. Dec. 2 and 3 and 4 p.m. Dec. 4 at the university’s Samuelson Chapel.