TABLES A-GROANING WITH SPECIAL HOLIDAY DINNERS

It might not be snowing out, but there’s been a blizzard in my mailbox lately--of holiday dinner and party announcements from restaurants and hotels. And since the holidays in question are hard upon us, let’s get right to the point:

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Laguna Niguel offers “Christmas Around the World” dinner menus, alternating daily from Mexico to Sweden and points in-between, in its Cafe through year’s end, and a Christmas concert by the Orchestra California on Tuesday in the Ballroom (for $25 a ticket). . . . Chanteclair in Irvine cooks up a four-course $29.95 holiday menu nightly through Christmas Eve. . . . Lalo and Brothers in Encino celebrates Christmas Southwestern style with a “Christmas in Santa Fe” art exhibit, red chili garlands and a special menu daily until Christmas (with a Christmas Eve party planned, too)--then, on New Year’s Eve, serves a $40, four-course dinner from 6 to 8:30 p.m. and a $75 four-course one from 9:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. . . . The Pacific Dining Car, downtown, does a roast goose feast ($21 for four courses) on Christmas Day and remains open with the regular menu New Year’s Eve. . . . Angeli on Melrose Avenue plans special dinners on Christmas Eve, Hanukkah (Friday and Saturday) and New Year’s Eve and will close Christmas and New Year’s days and from Jan. 4-8. . . . Cafe Parisien in Marina del Rey serves Christmas goose on the day itself ($14.95 for a complete dinner) and a New Year’s Eve menu from 8 p.m. . . . Jax in Glendale features entertainment by the L.A. Brass Quartet from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Christmas Eve, and will offer customers that night a gift certificate for future use in the total amount of their food purchases for the evening. . . . Lew’s in the Burbank Airport Hilton launches a Christmas Day buffet at 10 a.m., lasting until 7 p.m. ($14.95, or $11.95 for seniors and $8.95 for children under 10).

More New Year’s Eve festivities (in order of price): A multi-choice menu from $15.95 at Cafe Pierre in Manhattan Beach. . . . Full dinner and free-flowing champagne for $18.95 at Caffe Napoli in Van Nuys. . . . A “Farewell to 1986” early-bird dinner for $19.86 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Bistro Patissier in Glendale (with a more serious repast later in the evening for $75 per couple, including dancing). . . . A three-course dinner with music from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Bel-Air Sands Hotel for $29.95 per person. . . . Four courses from $30 at Panache in Santa Monica, with free champagne to couples dining after 10:30 p.m. . . . A seven-course Italian feast for $33.95 each at Pontevecchio in Santa Monica. . . . Nine, count ‘em, nine courses at $35 per head at Sushi Garden in North Hollywood, with seatings at 6 and 8 p.m. only. . . . Five courses plus entertainment and dancing at Gilliland’s in Santa Monica, $50 per person from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. and $60 after that. . . . A four-course Menu Gourmand at $50 per diner, or a seven-course Menu Gastronomique at $75 (with $15 a head entertainment charge tacked on in their case for dancing to the music of the George Michael Orchestra) at Colette in the Beverly Pavilion Hotel in Beverly Hills, with seatings at 6 and 9:30 p.m. . . . A “ Cenone di Capo d’Anno “ (“Year’s End Pig-Out” would be an inelegant but not totally inaccurate translation) at Madeo in Hollywood from 10 p.m. to midnight--five courses plus an aperitif and music for $60 a head. . . . A gala Indian banquet at Gaylord’s in Beverly Hills from 9 p.m. for $60 apiece (champagne and live music included). . . . A $60 five-course dinner without wine or the same meal at $100 with wine at the Seventh Street Bistro, downtown, at 8:30 p.m. only (live music will be performed, and a $30 per person deposit, non-refundable, is required). . . . Six courses, accompanied by three different wines, from 9:30 p.m. at $75 per person at La Bruschetta in Westwood. . . . A seven-course dinner from 7:30 p.m. at Stones in the Marina Beach Hotel, Marina del Rey, followed by dancing in the upstairs Skyfan Lounge, for $200 per couple, or a six-course meal and dancing in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom at $150 for two. . . . Four courses at $85 a head at Trumps in West Hollywood (with caviar offered at special prices for those who wish to augment the menu), including dancing to recorded music (deposit required). . . . And, also at $85, a multicourse Lebanese feast at Byblos in West L.A. (with live music and a midnight champagne toast). . . .

And Now the Non-Seasonal News: 1000 Wilshire, a new Italian restaurant at that address in Santa Monica, has opened and (I like this idea!) offers “special preview” prices through Dec. 30. . . . Violet’s is new in Eagle Rock, serving Russian and Armenian food (the Violet in question being the sister of Mischa Markarian of Mischa’s in Hollywood). . . . Noted restaurant consultants Susan Fine and Michael Moore (who started the Beverly Hills Breakfast Club, among other things) are plotting a new informal place to be called the Acme Grill on the site of Bubba’s on South Beverly Drive--in partnership with Paul Fleming, whose Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse is just down the street. . . . The “Closed for Remodeling” sign has been replaced by one reading “For Lease” at DDL in Beverly Hills.

The Last Word: And meanwhile, with absolutely no reference to recent events in and around this column intended, here’s a thought for the season from the late great Thomas Love Peacock: “Live in hope, but in the meanwhile live on beef and ale.”