Holiday

Shoppers scrambling to buy last-minute presents but avoid the malls spent $1.01 billion on this year's Free Shipping Day. The annual event is scheduled to take place on the last day that orders delivered by ground can be guaranteed to arrive by Christmas. This year, that was Monday, Dec. 17, when more than 1,000 retailers offered free shipping. Free Shipping Day was the beginning of a hectic workweek for online merchants, who raked in $3.69 billion during last week's five weekdays, up 53% from the same period last year, according to research firm ComScore.

Two lesbians, a man with Down's syndrome and a Jewish couple walk into a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Eve. Sounds like the setup to a joke, yes? Nope. This is my family, doing what we've done for a decade. Separated by differing philosophies, as well as locations, we have no other tradition. I don't know who got the idea to spend Dec. 24 eating egg rolls and mu shu pork at a Chinese restaurant in Ventura. Doesn't matter. Regardless of what political and social arguments have ensued during the year, we all drive or fly in to go to the restaurant and the big round table by the fish tank.

Architect Ana Henton is founder of MASS Architecture Design Build and has designed award-winning restaurants, cafes and shops such as Lukshon in Culver City, Intelligentsia Venice, C + M at LACMA, Breadbar in Century City and Silverlake Wine.  One of her next projects is the revival of the Helms Bakery by Sherry Yard and Sang Yoon in a 10,000-square-foot space in the Helms complex in Culver City.  We caught up with Henton about...

For a movie that is considered one of the worst ever made, 1964's "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" has had quite a wonderful life. Kino Lorber has put the musical holiday film on Blu-ray for the holidays. An 8-year-old Pia Zadora is one of the stars of this stuffed turkey about a group of Martians that decide to kidnap Santa because their children have become obsessed with St. Nick. Ineptly directed by Nicholas Webster with poor production values and wooden performances, "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" is a blissful camp feast.

A Christmas tree is a luxury if you're not working steadily, if you're stretching just to pay the rent and keep your children fed. Cayetano Hernandez, 50, works as a pool plasterer, which he can't do in the rain. It's rained so much and he's earned so little of late that without giveaways, his children - Wendy, 12, and Eric, 3 - wouldn't have opened any Christmas presents. An East Hollywood church gave his girl makeup, anti-acne cleanser, toothpaste and perfume, and gave his little boy toy cars and a big teddy bear.

UCLA receiver Shaquelle Evans said he got to San Diego on Friday and "walked around town to see some things. " This is where UCLA's season ends, with the Bruins staying in a swank hotel and preparing to play Baylor in the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl on Thursday. Where the season began, there was no walking around. "We were in lockdown," Evans said. TIMELINE: College football 2012-13 bowl schedule It has been more than four months since the Bruins were bused to Cal State San Bernardino for a training camp/survival test.

Stepping across grass-tufted sidewalks on her way to the bus, Meredith Kensington passes sparkling lights and Christmas cheer. But she can't feel the holiday warmth. She wants to spend the holidays with three siblings she cannot find. She lost contact with her sister and brother 15 years ago when they entered the byzantine bureaucracy of the Los Angeles County foster care system. She never had a chance to meet one of her half brothers before he followed them into the system, soon after his birth eight years ago. Each holiday season, Kensington renews her effort to find Marilyn and Aubrey Langston and Eddie Sanchez.

Dungeness crab is a Christmas tradition for seafood lovers across Southern California. But not this year. A combination of a difficult season and this week's stormy weather has left the area's life tanks empty - or even worse, filled with only Maine lobsters (the indignity!). The first blow from nature was the California Department of Fish and Game delaying the opening of the northern part of the Northern California Dungeness season. The department's quality tests in the northern fishery found too high a percentage of underweight crabs.

Happy holidays from everyone's favorite existentialist cat and YouTube star, Henri, Le Chat Noir. The melancholy feline has released " The Worst Noel ," a new video based loosely on Charles Dickens' novella "A Christmas Carol. "  The video opens with Henri philosophizing that the holidays are "just another excuse for the world to intrude on my solitude. " Annoyed by everything, he retreats to sleep, where he can truly be alone. Meeting Henri, Le Chat Noir (Kudos to filmmaker Will Braden for his artful effects work in this section.

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis are having a real-people Christmas this year in Iowa, Kutcher's home base. Glamorous celebrity activities have include trips to Bed Bath & Beyond and a sporting-goods store in Cedar Rapids, Celebuzz reported , as well as a stop for frozen yogurt Saturday night, according to People. The "Two and a Half Men" star and his newest squeeze "were picking out gifts for his family,” a BB&B employee told Celebuzz. "They bought robes, slippers and candles.