That Xmas tree - it's just YOU.

Custom Christmas trees and decorations make the year for specialist florists

Considering a Christmas tree, maybe in a bright shade of turquoise, that hangs from your ceiling and spins? Having visions of a tinseled tree floating upright in your swimming pool? Or perhaps you were hankering for a tree decorated with bird cages containing live warblers?

Well, with one phone call and for a price tag ranging anywhere from $500 to $15,000, you can have someone trim your tree almost any way you'd like.

'Tis the busy season for Los Angeles' upscale florists and catering consultants who decorate both real and artificial trees for private homes, parties and corporations. These tree Santas, with about 20 shops in town, often pull in up to 65 percent of their annual revenues during December. They specialize in the elegant, the sumptuous and sometimes the very bizarre.

For example, "chandelier trees," colored everything from turquoise to hot pink, were all the rage in Los Angeles during years past but are now passe, florists say. The trees hung from ceilings and spun around, with ornaments wired to stay put.

One florist recalls Hollywood party throwers who wanted a tree decked with operational but miniature TV sets. Arriving guests were photographed by a video camera and their images simultaneously appeared on the ornaments' video screens.

"This is the best market for what we do," says Andrew Levine, a designer for Roco Co. Dezins, a Hollywood-based firm which specializes in upscale trees.

"In Hollywood, with its glamour and glitz, image is everything," he says. "That extends to Christmas. It seems to me that people would rather go hungry than let their neighbors know they can't keep up at Christmas."

During his 33 years in the business, Fred Gibbons, owner of Santa Monica-based Flower Fashions, has seen it all -- from solid white "Dr. Zhivago trees dripping with crystals" to slick black and silver trees in high-tech Hollywood homes. He still remembers the tree he wrapped in neon, all the while careful to follow fire laws.

"I've had 33 years of grief with this stuff. Santa and I are about the same age," joked Gibbons, who has trimmed trees for the likes of Jimmy Stewart, Marvin Davis, Barbra Streisand (traditional tastes and uses her own ornaments) and Elizabeth Montgomery.

"You sort of get a feel for what they want after a while," he says.

This holiday season, tradition and rich colors such as gold, copper and silver are in, say tree decorators. There's a French or English feeling about these trees. Also big this December is environmental correctness -- meaning decking the halls with pruned plants, such as branches and pine cones, rather than uprooting live foliage.

And while some say the Southland recession hasn't significantly hurt the upscale Christmas tree business, almost all agree that competition among firms is more fierce.

"There's a lot of people in the business now. You have to show customers something they haven't seen before, but very tasteful," says Phillip Colavito, owner of Roco Co. Dezins.

Colavito's biggest project this season is a 26-foot-tall black tree, complete with dangling Old World stars. When finished, it will stand in the living room of a La Habra family estate. Oversized ornaments, nearly three-feet-tall and dusted with gold, sit around the tree.

Some tree designers hesitate to reveal names of their rich and famous clients but, if pressed, will tell tales.

One florist remembers the 3:45 a.m. phone call he received from a frantic maid who said the recently erected 18-foot Christmas tree was "knocked over" during an argument between a media celebrity and her estranged husband. The maid wanted to know if the florist could come fix the tree immediately, free of charge.

Or the Jewish woman who wanted to surprise her Jewish husband with a Christmas tree topped with the Star of David. However, he found it offensive and ordered the tree replaced with a menorah.

For the most part, tree decorators say religion and religious symbols are not a big part of their tree trimming and decorating. In fact, most hotels and corporations steer away from religious symbols for fear of offending people.

"Religion has no place in Christmas in L.A.," says one florist. "Muslim, Jewish, Christian, whatever, it doesn't matter. The Hollywood crazy people, you have no idea how bizarre they are when it comes to Christmas."

However, the majority of trees are pretty tame and traditional. Most of the upscale florists in Los Angeles work with the customer or company, trying to integrate tree design with the architecture or decor of the building or home. Many florists will deck the trees with the customers' own ornaments if they wish.

Florists say tradition and cost-cutting are in high demand this season. Also topping the list are environmental concerns.

At Pasadena-based Silver Birches, Walter Hubert, owner for 18 years, says he is using a majority of materials that are "environmentally collectible." Hubert gathers goods from the outdoors, such as moss and eucalyptus pods, which he spray paints gold or silver for decorating. His company recently decorated a Christmas tree for a Santa Monica office with succulent plants tied to the branches as ornaments.

Laurels Custom Florist, located on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, usually does Capitol Records' company tree. This year. "Capitol is in an environmental mode" and does not want to kill a tree, says Robert Smith, Laurels co-owner.

So, the company will used pruned materials to create the correct festive look.

Laurels, with clients like Bette Midler and Bruce Jenner, is getting more requests for a "gilded and elegant formality" and less demands for the "folksy, craftsman look," Smith says.

Ditto for Mark Byrd, owner of Marc Fredericks in Culver City. His firm builds trees from the ground up, adding branches with a staple gun for clients such as Ed McMahon and Joan Rivers.

Byrd, who makes an estimated 40 percent of his yearly revenues during December, says his business has picked up this year from last year.

"I don't see anybody not wanting to do Christmas this year," he says.

This season, he is working on an $8,000 tree decorated entirely with fresh flowers, including ornaments made out of a collection of white rose buds. However, Byrd says the tree he has always wanted to do, but has never had the chance, is an Elizabeth Taylor theme tree, with bottles of Poison perfume and big bright jewels dangling from the branches. Cameos of Taylor's different screen roles could also hang as ornaments, he says.

David Yeh, owner of Beverly Hills-based Secret Gardens, says he is best known for trees decorated with wicker baskets filled with flowering cabbages and poinsettias. He also decorates trees with cages filled with live birds.

"I've always had a real elegant but natural look," says Yeh, who will not reveal the names of his "many wealthy clients."

Several florists say the newest trend for the upscale Christmas tree business is leasing. Some predict even more wealthy clients will buy artificial trees fully decorated and then pay off the price tag over a period of time, just as you pay off a car.

The way it works: A florist marks up the price, maybe double, then charges a client 25 percent when ordered, 25 percent on delivery and 25 percent the next two holiday seasons.

"Then they're ready for a new look and we start all over again," says one florist.