VENTURA COUNTY WEEKEND : Street Fest Is a Winter Wonderland, California Style : Fresh air, fresh food, live music and a pervasive holiday spirit make Ventura’s annual festival a delightful Christmastime tradition.

Has your gift list gone up and the humbugs got you down? Are you tired of look-alike shops, canned music and air so stale you think you’re on a DC-10 to Brussels? Then join the fresh air crowd at the 19th annual Holiday Street Festival scattered over nine city blocks in downtown Ventura on Sunday. Palm trees and ocean breezes mingle with the aroma of espresso wafting from sidewalk cafes with live bands in the background. It’s an authentic California winter street scene guaranteed to lift your spirits.

Whether you’re a first-timer or a veteran, you may need a guided tour. You can have a good time without spending a dime. The music and schmoozing are free, as is the children’s play area across from the mission, where you can catch “The Freddie Prez Show.” But with 500 artisans plying their wares, you may not be able to resist.

“Shopping is really the highlight, and the bands at key intersections are a sort of backdrop,” said Faye Campbell, special events coordinator for the city of Ventura.

Others may tell you they come for the music, or the atmosphere. With the First Sunday at the Park, an arts and crafts show, at Plaza Park running concurrently, there’s no doubt it’s a shopper’s mecca. You’ll find everything from trinkets to fine arts, affordable to expensive.

Chris Worsinger of Studio City shows off his stained-glass sun catchers and candleholders in a gypsy wagon he wheels off his truck and onto his site.

“It looks like an Irish gypsy wagon out of the ‘Wind in the Willows’ fairy tale. I built it myself, my lazy man’s solution to avoid loading and unloading,” Worsinger said. His unique process combines traditional etching with techniques he developed after studying the way computer circuit boards were etched.

Debbie Davidson makes hair twists out of chopsticks. “We drill a hole in the center of wooden chopsticks, shape them and put beaded tips for decoration as hairpins.” she said.

She also sells Hawaiian-style women’s apparel and bags. Her print bag ties around the waist, “My alternative to the fanny pack,” she said.

Karen Gilliam’s booth features traditional holiday decorations, with the entire family pitching in. Her father cuts out wooden birdhouses; her mother and husband may do the painting. “We’ve been doing this for 18 years now,” Gilliam said. “And my son helps when he’s home from college for the holidays.”

If you’re not at the festival to shop, there’s always the food booths to tempt you--a melting pot of flavors ranging from Thai, Mexican, German and Chinese to traditional American fare. Nonprofit organizations and volunteers run them, so you can indulge without guilt. Jeff and Susan Rayner do--they show up every year mostly to pig out.

“I do enjoy buying one-of-a kind gifts for people, but the foods are wonderful,” Susan Rayner said.

A doughnut-dough confection served by Buena High School band boosters is a treat, says Dan Price, a booster dad with a clarinet player in the family.

“It looks like a Frisbee with fruit, topped with whipped cream in the center,” Price said. The band played the Calgary Stampede in August. So go ahead and toss down another Frisbee.

Brian Brennan, president of the Ventura County chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, hopes to entice the public with Caesar salad and sauteed mushrooms. The organization shares profits with the C Street Surfing Museum at the end of California Street.

“The street festival is a great way for people to know about the nonprofit groups,” Brennan said. “The money goes right back into the community.” His group does beach cleanup and water testing, functions the government used to do in prehistoric days. Eat a salad and clean up the sand, could be their motto.

If shopping eating or altruism doesn’t stir your juices, you can wander from street to street taking in the music without straining your belt or credit card.

For Dixieland, try Hux Reid and his High Society band at the Oak Street stage, or the Sweetest Dixieland Band at Main and Fir streets. Blue Stew plays the blues at the mini-park between Oak and Palm streets when Henry Franklin’s Jazz Band isn’t performing. Bluegrass is covered by the Osmansons Brothers at Santa Clara and Chestnut streets, and for an eclectic bag, Michael J. Smith’s Rhythm Rangers hit it at Main and Fir streets.

“These are a great bunch of musicians,” said Ron Sexton, who used to be the business rep for the local musicians’ union and is himself a one-man band. He sings, too.

“I make it sound like big band with a guitar, bass pedals, a drum machine and a guitar synthesizer,” he said of his act on Main and California streets.

For those interested in music that feeds the soul, church choirs may have the edge.

“I come mainly to hear the choirs,” said Ron Harrington, a Ventura attorney. Sundays find him robed and singing in the First Methodist Church choir. On the steps of the mission he can hear the choir from St John’s Lutheran Church, the Sunspirations, belt out contemporary praise songs. And the choir from the Assembly of God performs a capella, duets and solos.

Over at Main and Palm there’s an assortment of singers with interesting names like the Fresh Chances for America and Measure for Measure. Barbershop groups such as the Channelaire Chorus and Channel Island Clippers harmonize. But the Merry Chutzpatt Yule Plus Singers? Go figure.

So you’ve had enough of the music, your feet hurt, and someone’s whining at you to rest. This would be just the time for to head over to Mission Park and catch Freddie Prez and his Animatronic Band of animated characters.

“The whole show is a tongue-in-cheek rock concert,” says Prez, a Palmdale resident who travels the Rocky Mountain states with his act. “The kids will be my guest rock stars, and I put them in costumes playing bones like they’re guitars.”

Prez worked his way through college playing bass guitar in rock ‘n’ roll bands before becoming a straight man to his animated life-sized puppets, Frankie and Eddie.

Much of his comedy is based on mishaps. A character’s foot falls off or the head starts spinning in circles. The fake props and special effects turn on the kids, big and little. Between the four scheduled shows on stage, Prez races around in his mini-monster truck the size of a golf cart. It pulls a sailboat with a character up in the crow’s nest who banters with the audience while squirt guns shoot and exhaust pipes produce bubbles.

When Prez is in his truck, juggler David Cousin is on stage. There’s also a clown, bead makers, a rope bridge to climb and a space ball that you can go upside down in.

While all of these activities are going on, Santa Claus may be walking around, with that sly grin of his. I mean, forget the Enquirer. Here’s a guy who really knows who’s naughty or nice.

Meanwhile, you’ll probably find another tree ornament you don’t need, a tie-dyed shirt for cool Uncle Waldo, or a solid oak toilet seat with painted angels.

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DETAILS

* WHAT: Holiday Street Festival ’95 with gift boutiques, food booths, artisans, bands, choral groups, dance troupes, “The Freddie Prez Show” and a children’s play area.

* WHEN: Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

* WHERE: Downtown Ventura--seven blocks along Main Street from California Street north to the San Buenaventura Mission, plus Chestnut, Oak, and Santa Clara streets.

* HOW MUCH: Free admission and entertainment.

* ETC: The First Sunday at the Park arts and crafts show runs concurrently, beginning at 10 a.m. to run at Plaza Park, corner of Chestnut and Thompson Streets.

* FYI: Faye Campbell, office of special events, city of Ventura, 654-7830; fax 648-1030.