Chris Christel

It may not have quite the star power of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve," but the annual Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration is an even older tradition. Friday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, in fact, Henry Winkler and Elayne Boosler will be hosting its 45th edition -- a free six-hour party featuring more than a thousand singers and dancers from about 40 local performing groups. And they'll all be in good hands. Which way will the wind machines blow?

It may not have quite the star power of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve," but the annual Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration is an even older tradition. Friday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, in fact, Henry Winkler and Elayne Boosler will be hosting its 45th edition -- a free six-hour party featuring more than a thousand singers and dancers from about 40 local performing groups. And they'll all be in good hands. Which way will the wind machines blow?

If you still haven't managed to fit a viewing of "The Nutcracker" into your holiday schedule, you've got at least six more chances before the day is out. That's how many interpretations of the holiday classic will pirouette, gyrate and prance across the stage during a six-hour festival at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

The members of the Opera California Youth Choir -- older kids wearing black and white, little ones in traditional Korean dress -- stand solemn-faced and still in a Music Center rehearsal room, ready to begin their practice performance for the 50th Annual Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration. On cue, they break into a jaunty "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and then rock and rap their way through other songs of the season before ending with a reverent "Lord's Prayer." As they perform, every note and camera angle are analyzed by the production staff, which is preparing for the free Christmas Eve concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as well as a live broadcast on KCET-TV and a PBS special.

LONG before Skyy Vodka put the finishing touches on their new ultra-premium elixir, Chad Farmer was jotting notes and planning studies to figure out how exactly to market the stuff. "We look at culture," says Farmer, president and executive director of the Carlsbad-based ad agency, Lambesis. "We look at what's happening in industry, what consumers are doing, we look at the rational and emotional reasons for why people drink vodka."