And They All Had a Holly, Jolly Time

The acceptance rate was 95% for the first Heritage Christmas Club party Dec. 23 at the Regency Club. Kitty Moses, Joyce Hameetman, Pat Moller and Katie Osterloh were ecstatic as they introduced guests--parents and their offspring of college and young professional age.

“What better way to enjoy the holidays than to celebrate,” said Moses as she and son Steve Keck, Hameetman and son John, Moller and son Kevin, and Osterloh and son Rick hammed it up in front of the foyer fireplace.

Everyone was having fun. George and Betsy Link accompanied their twins, Chris and Tom; Maidee Smith brought Courtney, Amanda and Milan III; Susan and Scott McComas brought Erin; Linda Knight was with daughter Elissa; Peter and Kacey McCoy came with Shane and Patrick; Judith and T.K. Vodrey joined her daughter, Meagan McGuire; Michael and Peter Kezirian were among five sons of Aram and Marilyn; Jim Kilroy escorted two grandsons, and Allison and Tina Spear were with Mike and Susy Niven.

Tina Osterloh, Suzanne Moller, Billy and Teddy Keck, and Chris Hameetman were prominent in the crowd. Arriving guests got welcomes from the host husbands--Steve Moses (his children, Kathy and Bobby Moses, attended), Fred Hameetman, Finn Moller and Al Osterloh.

Mothers grabbed sons and vice versa on the floor for the disc jockey’s mother/son dance to “Proud Mary.”

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Holiday Perfect: Former Ambassador to Finland Rock Schnabel and his wife, Marna, promised “Christmas joy, music and edibles.” A soigne crowd bustled into their Frank Gehry home in Brentwood, sipping champagne and chatting up a snowstorm.

Many were headed for skiing at Sun Valley (where the Schnabels have a new home). Reese and Mary Milner planned to stay at the Sun Valley Lodge with a raft of holiday parties circled in red. Los Angeles decorator Susy Niven (Mike had the flu) also planned on Sun Valley.

Sandy and Shel Ausman were going to Palm Springs, Robin and Gerry Parsky to Rancho Santa Fe. Also there were Robert and Kelly Day, Roger and Joanne Kozberg, Dave and Dallas Price, and Debby Tellefsen, new manager of Bottega Veneta on Rodeo Drive. Tom Tellefsen was back from New York and a party with New York City Mayor-Elect Rudolph W. Giuliani.

At the California Club, Kathleen and Fred Allen hosted one of those perfect sit-down dinners for 40, sending guests off with stars in their eyes and star ornaments with metallic tassels. Among the guests were Julie and Art Pizzinat, Ed and Ruth Shannon, Carol and Warner Henry, and John Maechling, whose wife, Dee (she’ll be called “Grandee”), was in New York welcoming their first grandchild.

The California Club was also brilliant in white flowers for one of the prettiest Pasadena Supper Club white-tie parties ever.

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Santa Anita Stars: The Directors Room of Santa Anita Park was pristine in new fringed red draperies for opening day Sunday. The day-after-Christmas tradition found Steve and Sally Keller (he’s chairman of Santa Anita) welcoming guests with Clifford Goodrich, track president, and his wife, Karen. Interior designer Dorothy Matthiessen put the new touch on the room.

The racing season is dedicated to the late Robert P. Strub, Santa Anita stalwart, who died in May. His widow, Betty, was in the Directors Room, as well as their sons, Robert and John. Having a very good time were Bob and Janice Carpenter, attorney Sarah Keller, Mary Ann and William Kinder, Charlene Liebau and son Jack Jr. (her husband, Jack, is new president at Bay Meadows), Fred and Lois McLane, and Carol and Thomas Mullaney.

More wagering and welcoming the New Year: Lynn and Clement Hirsch, Mary and Arthur Crowe, Virginia and Richard Mackay (the Crowes and Mackays left for Singapore the next day), Mary and Philip Hawley (who left early for a christening), Frank and Margarita Kanne, and Walter and Sheila Hoffman. Stephen Keller escorted Katie Galbraith.

In the winners circle, Jimmy Kilroe, racing director emeritus, wore his red Christmas socks from Alyce Williamson when he presented the Kilroe Award to Mike Mitchell as leading trainer for last season.

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Memorable: George Hale’s cocktail party with masses of old-line Pasadenans and a Scottish bagpiper . . . Priscilla and Curt Tamkin’s “Cheer” party in Bel-Air, catered, per tradition, by Trader Vic’s. Guests were met at the door with mai tais on a tray . . . Festive cocktails hosted by Christy and Charles Bakaly and Gordon Pashgian in the garlanded parlor of the Caltech Athenaeum . . . Bonnie and Charles Black’s merriment in Pacific Palisades, as well as Joan Kaiser Mahan’s open house in the beach town . . . Beverly and Larry Thrall’s Christmas cocktail buffet in Hancock Park . . . Maggie Edwards’ and Gene Croft’s dinner at Bel-Air Country Club . . . Judith McLaughlin’s luncheon at the Town Club in Pasadena.

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One of a Kind: Joan Thompson hosted a cookie party for grandmothers, grandchildren and special friends at her home; grand tot Matthias Thompson of Washington, D.C., was the star attraction . . . Bob, Adri, Connie and Bob Butler welcomed friends for holiday carols in Holmby Hills . . . Louise Griffith and Joyce Stuart invited guests to take an ornament from the tree at their drop-in Christmas luncheon at the Bel-Air Bay Club . . . Harriet and Chuck Luckman hosted friends over their unique dessert table . . . Candy and Aaron Spelling, we hear, celebrated their 25th anniversary with a dancing soiree for 80 of their closest, some touring the couple’s 56,500-square-foot chateau in Holmby Hills. . . .

At a potluck dinner, Carolyn and Chuck Miller, assisted by neighbors including Eileen and Bill Zimmerman, dispensed ho-ho-ho’s. After the seated affair, neighbors gathered around the living room piano to hear sisters Mandy and Candy Miller in a duet before dividing into segments for a rousing “Twelve Days of Christmas,” with each group inventively pantomiming its day.

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To the Annenbergs: It’s a tradition. Former Ambassador to the Court of St. James Walter Annenberg and his wife, Lee, stage their New Year’s Eve party at their estate, Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage. Imagine the midnight toasts after the Annenbergs’ incredible philanthrophy in 1993, topped off by their $500-million gift for education reform projects. Let’s all toast them. Earle and Marion Jorgensen and Norman and Erlenne Sprague will be in that exclusive group.