OH CHRISTMAS TREE, OH CHRISTMAS TREE ...; FAMOUS NAMES ADD INSPIRATION TO SPECIALLY DECORATED ARBORS.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer

First, you take 40 naked Christmas trees. And you add the usual stuff - tinsel, balls, angels. Then comes the really good stuff - lengths of tulle, ribbons, handmade figures, china plates, porcelain dolls, race cars, sailboats - and just about anything else you can think of.

You add the final ingredient: star power. And then you sell the designer creations to the highest bidders.

That recipe, officials of the nonprofit Young Musicians Foundation hopes, will yield a year's worth of scholarships and cash for young conductors' programs, musical instrument loans to public schools and free concerts.

``It's a wonderful program, especially now that music is really not included in the public schools anymore,'' said Susan Chalek, chairwoman of the board of the foundation. ``And the trees are wonderful, too.''

The stars' trees, being lovingly decorated in the Rodeo and Santa Monica rooms of the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard, will be auctioned off, with proceeds going to the musicians' foundation. Hotel owner Merv Griffin picked the stars the trees would represent in the annual Christmas tree auction, which each year benefits a different charity. Last year's auction raised $30,000.

Ten of the trees - hand-selected by Griffin - will be auctioned off at 6:30 p.m. Monday by Sotheby's of Beverly Hills. The remaining 30 trees will go on display in the Beverly Hilton lobby, with silent-auction bidding books open until noon Dec. 11, when the successful bidders will be announced.

Even as works in progress, the trees are seemingly the work of elves, fairies and Santa Claus all rolled into one. They glitter. They glow. They twinkle. They dazzle.

Connie Stevens, the only one of the celebrities to decorate her own tree, used dainty, flower-painted ornaments and gold garland, then swathed the entire tree in airy pink tulle.

Brooke Shields' tree is being decorated on the set by the cast of her show, ``Suddenly Susan,'' and will be delivered this weekend. Bloomingdale's florist will decorate Calista Flockhart's tree, starting with pingpong ball-sized blue lights. Randy and Tori Spelling's tree is covered with a shower of dried flowers, with a raffia garland spiraling top to bottom.

Gelson's florist manager Jim Rodacher and crew are working on a tree for Burt Bachrach containing 500 twinkling lights, musical notes and clefs, trumpets, balls covered with sheet music and Bachrach's newest CDs, all in white, black and silver.

A decorating firm called Dr. Christmas - owned by partners Bob Pranga and Debi Staron - is decorating trees for Paul Newman, Angie Dickenson (co-chair of the auction with Griffin) and the husband-and-wife team of Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows.

Newman's tree, which was just beginning to take form on Thursday, featured a miniature ``Hollywood'' sign.

``Paul is Hollywood,'' Staron said.

``And we decided to make the tree about all the things in his life - his race car driving, the products he sells, his philanthropy,'' said Pranga.

``Angie's is going to be about her life as a glamour girl,'' he said. ``And for Jayne and Steve, we're doing a reversible tree - one half for her, one half for him.''

``Jayne's is going to reflect her personal life,'' Staron said. ``She told me a story about Garry Moore teasing her about her chandelier earrings, so we'll have some of those.''

``And Steve's will reflect his studio work, early TV, music and comedy,'' Pranga said. ``He's basically a New Yorker, so it's going to be a very Friar-esque tree.''

Designer Brent Ries, hired by Griffin to decorate a dozen of the celebrity trees, rooted through boxes of decorations to find something to reflect each of the personalities.

Mariette Hartley's tree is covered with dainty porcelain doll angels, purple and gold ribbon and tulle. Burt Reynolds' tree sports jesters and marionettesB and giant tassels, all in black and white. Christine Lahti's tree includes red and green lights, golden angels and harps. Bruce Boxleitner and Melissa Gilbert's tree is covered with golden lights and dried flowers. And Sara Gilbert's is a jungle theme, complete with miniature frogs, elephants, giraffes and other exotic creatures.

Nell Carter's tree - ``a Hanukkah bush,'' explained Ries - will reflect a Hanukkah theme, with tiny bears and dreidels with a blue-and-white color scheme. Denzel Washington's tree will reflect modes of transportation: boats, trains, cars and even a hot-air balloon - ``a very masculine theme,'' Ries said.

``Alec Baldwin's tree will have a toddler theme because he has a 2-year-old,'' said Reis. ``There'll be Mr. Potato Heads, blocks, Legos, alphabet letters.''

And home-run hitter Mark McGwire's tree will pay homage to the St. Louis Cardinal's hitting record with red and white lights, tiny cardinals and baseball-shaped ornaments. ``I'm actually going to put a real ball, glove and bat on the tree,'' Reis said.

Cheryl Harmon, commercial relocator for Gaebel Los Angeles Movers - the firm that will deliver all the trees once they're auctioned off - plotted delivery strategy as she and her sister, Jodi Oniedo, decorated Robert Loggia's tree with china plates representing countries around the world.

``We stretch-wrap the trees, bend the branches up gently so we don't disturb the ornaments. We really secure 'em to hold everything in place,'' she said. ``And we suspend them in the truck so nothing breaks.''

Last year, some decorators and stars chose very tall trees that proved very difficult to move.

``We had a tree last year that was 12 feet high,'' Harmon said. ``We couldn't stand it up in the truck, so after we shrink-wrapped it, we made a cradle for it and suspended it, like in a hammock. We decided this year that 6 feet was tall enough.''

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4 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) On the cover: Debi Staron and Bob Pranga - the Dr. Christmas duo - decorate Paul BNewman's tree for the celebrity Christmas tree auction.

(2--Color) Robert Loggia's tree for the Young Musicians Foundation benefit auction features china plates representing countries around the world.

(3--Color) Celebrity trees being designed at Merv Griffin's Beverly Hilton include those for Mariette Hartley, left, Connie Stevens (the only star to decorate her own), and Tori and Randy Spelling.

(4--Color) Hartley's tree features redheaded porcelain dolls and tulle.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Special to the Daily News