WORDS AND IMAGES : Holiday Drear : A last-minute gift idea, ‘Bah! Humbug! 101 Great Reasons to Hate the Holidays,’ is floated, as is classical radio, a sure winner!

Well, it’s Christmas Eve. And if you are as bored as I am with that old bomb of a movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” perhaps it’s time for a little bah humbug. Pocket Books has published “Bah! Humbug! 101 Great Reasons to Hate the Holidays” by Ron Barrett and Patty Brown. Hey, someone has to play Scrooge to dampen all this holiday happiness. If you still need one more stocking stuffer “Bah! Humbug!” is just the ticket to keep you laughing while watching the family tear up Christmas wrappings you were planning to reuse next year. Or don’t you do that?

*

On Friday, Christmas Day, after the presents have been exchanged, you might want to introduce the kids to Christmas on the radio. At noon, Lionel Barrymore performs his classic rendition of Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol.” Then from 12:30 to 1 p.m., the famed Welsh poet Dylan Thomas reads “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.” And from 1 to 3 p.m., it’s Billy Vera’s Christmas Party featuring rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm ‘n’ blues and country Western music from the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s. This eclectic celebration of the holiday is broadcast on KCRW-FM 89.1.

*

The Ojai Library is hosting Fireside Read-Aloud for all ages every day at 3 p.m. through New Year’s Eve featuring poets and storytellers Ted Zatlyn, Bervette and George Williams, Jim Lashly, Rain Perry, Virginia Hill and Sharon Berg.

*

Stroll into your favorite, friendly video shop and consider adding to your home video library Cousteau’s “The Great White Shark,” a creature that does not inspire friendly reactions in humans. Is a 2,000-pound, 16-foot shark really a blood-thirsty killing machine? The latest research by the Cousteau team based on their extraordinary encounters with sharks reveals an animal unlike our “Jaws” perceptions.

*

Winners of the Columbus 500 Essay Contest sponsored by Friends of the Thousand Oaks Library and the Conejo Valley Historical Society were honored Dec. 14 at the Newbury Park Library. Elaine Cheung, a sophomore at Thousand Oaks High School received the first place senior award for “Hamburger on Acorn Bread.” Steven Perez, also a sophomore at Thousand Oaks, took second place for “A Columbian Legacy.” Third place went to Jennifer Dingman, an eighth grader at Los Cerritos Intermediate School, for “A Day in the Life of a Chumash Boy.”

In the Junior Essay category, fourth grader Maureen La Femina at St. Paschal Baylon School won a first for “The Chumash of the Conejo.” The second place award went to Garrett Vonk, sixth grade student at Ladera School, for “Ch’ich’i, the Chumash Word for Child.” Brett Griffith, a Maple School sixth grader, won third for “Then and Now.” Thousand Oaks Librarian Brad Miller originated the contest to encourage interest in the history of the Conejo Valley. The Daughters of the American Revolution, Conejo Chapter, provided assistance with planning and judging. Congratulations to the six terrific young essayists.