White Christmas

"WE get to help Grandpa make the Christmas pizzas!" Bianca said. "And after that we get to eat them," added Cathy. "Well then, I can't wait to have a slice too," Grandma said, helping them take off their sweaters. "Why doesn't it snow here?" complained Cathy. "Because it's California," sighed Bianca. "It never snows here." "Why not?" asked Cathy. "It has to be cold," Bianca explained. "Or high up." Cathy held out her sweater. "It's kinda cold here," she said.

Roll over Bing Crosby, and tell Perry Como the news: Christmas variety specials on TV are getting a lump of coal from viewers. Once a holiday staple — the same week in 1973, easy-listening stars Como and Andy Williams each drew more than 40% of the TV audience with their respective Christmas shows — the format has lately proved about as popular as sour eggnog. That's true even when a huge star is on the marquee. ABC's "A Very Gaga Thanksgiving," a vehicle for pop diva Lady Gaga, last month produced very un-Gaga-like ratings.

What would Christmas be without snow? About 20 children from Nickerson Gardens, a South-Central Los Angeles housing development, discovered the joy of playing in the white stuff when they were treated Thursday to an afternoon of snowball fights and sledding at Loyola Marymount University in Westchester. Members of Sigma Pi fraternity brought in 20 tons of snow, which was spread over hay bales to create hills and slopes.

A Toluca Lake home still referred to as the Bing Crosby Estate despite a succession of other entertainment industry owners has sold for $4.02 million. The singer and actor lived on the property from 1936 until early January 1943, when the 20-room house there was gutted in a Christmas tree fire, according to Times archives. Crosby was out at the time of the fire. His wife, Dixie Lee , and their four sons escaped injury. The damage to the structure and its contents was estimated at $200,000, and the family's cocker spaniel, a complete collection of Crosby's recordings, his golf trophies and his pipe collection were lost.

As the holidays draw closer this year, the crush of catalogues in my mailbox grows ever larger. No need to check the calendar, just weigh the mail. I'm a law student with little spare time in the midst of finals, so I appreciate these glossy samplers as a quick and convenient way to do my gift shopping. But several catalogues left a bad taste in my mouth when I saw their version of a white Christmas. Lily-white, to be exact.

It's beginning to look a lot like skiers will have a white Christmas, after all--at least where they've been able to fool Mother Nature. No natural snow has fallen in California since late on Thanksgiving weekend, but persistent cold temperatures have enabled those resorts with snowmaking capability to expand lift operations and enter the big holiday week in relatively good shape.

So you think you'd feel better about this joyous holiday season if it felt Christmasier --if you were thigh high in snow and Jack Frost nipped at your nose? Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! According to a poll by ABC News and Money magazine, Americans don't want a white Christmas. By a 2-1 margin, they want sun and unseasonably mild temperatures. In the national poll, 63% of respondents said they would rather surf than shovel compared with 35% who like it cold.

People near the Great Lakes settled in Monday for a white Christmas, but much of the country was in for nothing but cloudy skies and rain. Snow was scattered across the Great Lakes and upper Ohio Valley, and a few snow showers fell over northern New England. The heaviest snow fell along the south shores of Lake Superior, east of Lake Michigan and east of Lake Erie; parts of Michigan got up to 15 inches. There were snow showers around Minnesota and Iowa.

Like many families on Friday, President and Nancy Reagan sat down to a traditional turkey dinner, but others celebrated in unusual ways, including an Illinois man who shoveled nearly 800 pounds of snow into his pickup and drove it to Florida to give his niece and nephews their first white Christmas.

It was nearly 80 degrees last week when Irene Davis went out searching for a White Christmas. She found one--in a 13-ounce aerosol spray can. The 30-year-old Pasadena resident plunked down $1.19 for a can of Santa Snow, whose chemical contents simulate the powdery white stuff when sprayed on trees, wreathes and windows. "I have a son who wanted a snow-flocked tree," said Davis, who concedes she left her love for snow behind in her native Massachusetts.

Irving Berlin wrote "White Christmas," one of the biggest-selling songs of all time, with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Although the wistful tune soothed homesick soldiers in such God-awful places as Guadalcanal more than half a century ago, and no doubt it still plays in Kandahar today, Berlin most likely wrote what he called "the best song that anybody's ever written" somewhere in the sunny Southwest, probably while sitting by a swanky hotel swimming...

"Shine, Give, Share" is the theme for Christmas at the White House, whose doors were flung open Wednesday to the first wave of guests given the chance to ogle its fragrant, fanciful holiday finery, including no fewer than 37 trees. Before the fun stuff, somber notes. A tree dedicated to fallen troops and decorated by "Gold Star Families" rises near the entryway through which 85,000 holiday visitors are expected. PHOTOS: White House Christmas Decorations The tree is aglow with gold-rimmed white stars honoring individual dead, and next to it a large monitor flashes their pictures, short biographies and messages from the families left behind.

A horse-drawn wagon presented First Lady Michelle Obama with the 19-foot balsam fir tree that will be the official White House Christmas tree. The 18-year-old tree arrived Friday from a farm near Neshkoro, Wisc. Growers Tom and Sue Schroeder were at the White House for the arrival of the tree, which was harvested last week and shipped to Washington. The tree was hand-picked by the White House superintendent of grounds and an official with the National Park Service after the Schroeders won the National Christmas Tree Assn.'s National Christmas Tree contest in August.

Since he introduced Irving Berlin's Oscar-winning tune "'White Christmas" in 1942's "Holiday Inn," Bing Crosby and the yuletide have become synonymous. Crosby, who died in 1977, performed the song again in the 1954 holiday movie perennial "White Christmas. " But even holiday traditions change. Though "White Christmas" may be the bestselling single of all time, the recording is no longer the most popular Christmas song this season, according to Billboard. That honor belongs to Mariah Carey's 1994 "All I Want For Christmas Is You. " Der Bingle and "White Christmas" have dropped to No. 7 "For a certain generation that would be totally astounding," says Ron Simon, a curator for the Paley Center for Media.

The best Christmas films ever It's Christmas Day, an important occasion to those who celebrate it. And to those who don't, it's the best moviegoing day of the year. -- Rob Manker 1. "A Christmas Story" (1983) 2. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" (TV-1966) 3. "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) 4. "The Santa Clause" (1994) 5. "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947) 6. "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (TV-1964)

SPECIALS A Christmas Story: A dog and a mouse team up to deliver a misplaced letter to Santa in this animated special (6:30 a.m. Toon). Blackadder's Christmas Carol: A kindly merchant is taught the error of his generosity by a group of mean-spirited spirits in this holiday comedy import (3 p.m. BBC America). Disney Prep & Landing: In this charming animated special, Dave Foley gives voice to a member of the elite elf team that prepares for and oversees Santa's arrival at children's houses (8 p.m. ABC)

For those dreaming of a white Christmas, a visit to Yosemite National Park is guaranteed to turn spirits high for the holidays. For us it began last year as we drove through the Sierra foothills from the San Joaquin Valley. Rain that spattered our windshield in Merced had turned to snowflakes by the time we neared the park's entrance. We put chains on our tires and did not remove them until we left snow-covered Yosemite a week later. It was two days before Christmas.

Pop music pulsed through Bob Bieber's clothing store for the expected stampede of Christmas shoppers. Crisp dress shirts were stacked floor to ceiling along the walls. Mannequins were smartly turned out in windbreakers and white summer hats. But Bieber's five salespeople stood awkwardly in the empty aisles, hands clasped behind their backs, without a single customer to wait on. The telephone rang. It was a supplier. "You going to the funeral?" Bieber said into the phone.

Bob Dylan's decision to put out a Christmas album this year caught a lot of people by surprise. It wasn't just that the preeminent songwriter of the rock era had chosen to record secular seasonal staples such as "Winter Wonderland" and "Here Comes Santa Claus" for his "Christmas in the Heart" collection. Equally intriguing was that the musician born Robert Zimmerman and raised in a Jewish household also included exceptionally sincere versions of such quintessentially Christian carols as "Hark!

The American Cinematheque's Egyptian and Aero theaters are getting in the yuletide spirit this week with some venerable holiday movies and TV specials. Kicking off the festivities at the Egyptian this evening are the 1955 comedy "We're No Angels," starring Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov, and John Ford's sentimental 1948 western , "3 Godfathers," starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey Jr. Two treasured musicals, 1954's "White Christmas" and 1944's "Meet Me in St. Louis " screen Friday at the theater.