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CHEAP CHEER: Want to get in the...

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CHEAP CHEER: Want to get in the Christmas spirit without shelling out for “The Nutcracker” or underwriting a toy store (F1A)? Check out the gingerbread houses in local hotels or cruise the neighborhoods decorated with thousands of lights and holiday characters. . . . On Gemini Avenue in Camarillo, more than a dozen neighbors take part in a gigantic display that includes a life-size Betty Boop. Homeowner Paul Garrison says he likes it when people recognize his street name. “If you’re downtown and someone asks your address, they say, ‘I know that.’ ”

RIPE FOR THE PICKING: Just in time for that holiday guacamole, the California Avocado Commission rolled out the green carpet for the “first pick” of the 1996 Hass crop. The event at Rancho Santa Rosa Vista farm in Camarillo featured Mr. Ripe Guy, a man dressed up in an avocado suit. . . . The good news about the first pick, state avocado czar Alva Snider says, is that when the Hasses hit the market, prices should come down in the supermarket. Ventura County, which has 11,200 acres of avocados, grows about 25% of the state’s crop.

SLIDING SPIRITS: Nine months after a mudslide destroyed both houses and serenity in La Conchita, Christmas doesn’t offer the same solace that it did in previous years (B1). But some residents are looking on the brighter side. . . . Although Chara Ryan’s Vista del Rincon Drive house escaped unscathed, many of her neighbors’ homes were totaled. Even with the devastation, she says, “there is a feeling that there still is a community, and people are willing to support each other.”

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