It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and, of course, the Palaeozoic Era.

The lack of anticipation is palpable on the Third Street Promenade this week as the Bayside District assembles its 5-year-old installation of 22-foot tall plastic Christmas trees, candy canes and iceberg chips (global warming be damned) in the center courtyard. Coupled with the Winterlit gingerbread house, the dated “Dinosaurs of Santa Monica” sculptures and the dated Santa Monica Place mall, the whole holiday scene looks like architect Frank Gehry got nauseous from too much egg nog.

The dichotomous decor must leave visitors scratching their heads, wondering how far of a drive it is to The Grove in Los Angeles.

While the installations are eclectic, even whimsical for the kids, they are more than likely too dizzying and out of touch for those shoppers the district covets — those looking to lay down some serious Christmas gift cash along the three-block stretch of designer chain stores. In recent years, whenever talk of redeveloping the adjacent mall site into an open-air shopping Mecca surfaced, it was The Grove held up as the example to emulate. With Third Street’s dramatic shift to predominantly national chain outlets — rather than the comely homegrown merchants of yore — it resembles a Grove-like shopping experience a bit more each season.

That is, except the holiday season.

Here in Santa Monica, we wink at the whimsical dinosaurs and bloated plastic trees in that aren’t-we-a-quirky-little-beachtown manner, except that the ever-changing face of the promenade no longer reflects that simpler times mindset. Meanwhile, over at The Grove at Farmers Market, during the holiday shopping push there is a town square with more than 200,000 lights adorning a 100-foot Christmas tree ... a real 100-foot Christmas tree! Holiday decorations are everywhere, from store windows to a trolley. Real snow falls twice a day through New Year’s. It’s a veritable winter wonderland in Southern California. Santa resides in a two-story cottage in the center of it all, with his elves fanning out to give candy to shoppers.

Back in Santa Monica, our tired production doesn’t quite have that running-down-the-stairs-on-Christmas-morning-to-see-what-you-got-from-Santa excitement. Rather than serving as a communal draw, the hulking “trees” and spouting dinosaurs on the promenade only serve to divide the marketplace in two.

It’s not for a lack of spirit, but maybe a little homegrown vision or inspiration is what’s required here, in a city with no dearth of creative types.

According to Bayside District marketers, a real tree is cost prohibitive because of the added safety and security measures it would entail. Well, one thing seems certain, no one is going to steal our plastic fire-retardant Tannenbaums ... nor gather around them.