I’m trying to persuade my family to...

I’m trying to persuade my family to dine out on Christmas Eve, something we’ve never done. My sister wants us to stay at home, though, and she has a lot more clout in the family, so it’s going to be a struggle.

If I can coax her to vote with me, we’ll have some interesting choices, as some of the South Bay’s finest restaurants are offering special Christmas Eve menus.

One is the Palette Cafe, Tom Kamijo’s hidden little gem nestled in a shopping center next to a bowling alley. The Palette’s bargain four-course meal ($34.50) gives you first-course options such as foie gras and wild mushroom terrine, escargots with garlic parsley cream sauce or smoked salmon with potato pancake, caviar and a dill-yogurt sauce.

The next course is pumpkin soup with pumpkin gnocchi. At entree time, you can choose between filet mignon with a potato tart, Madeira wine sauce; sauteed veal, garlic-wild mushroom sauce; and a half lobster and scallops (lobster cream sauce). Dessert is a chestnut mousse cake.

Up the street, chef Christine Brown is set to prepare several Christmas Eve specials at Fino, where diners will also get a warming mulled wine. A salad of grilled vegetables and shredded duck is dressed with a dried cherry vinaigrette ($4.95), and tempting open-face lobster ravioli comes with a portobello mushroom sauce ($6.95).

Main course picks include venison medallions with port wine, peppercorns and sweet potato cake ($15.95) and game hen stuffed with lamb sausage, spinach and feta cheese ($15.50). For dessert, Fino will prepare pots de creme au chocolat , a rich, creamy chocolate custard. It’s the kind of thing you’d want to offer that busy guy Santa.

Palette Cafe is at 22549 Hawthorne Blvd., Torrance. (310) 373-7055. Open Christmas Eve 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Fino is at 24530 Hawthorne Blvd., Torrance. (310) 373-1952. Open Christmas 5 to 10 p.m.