It’s the “Only in L.A. Holiday Show!”:Hi,...

It’s the “Only in L.A. Holiday Show!”:

Hi, this is Santa Steve, spinning the platters. Now let’s all gather around our gaily decorated sandcastles and listen to the Radudes.

St. Nick and his elves

Wetsuits off the shelves

It’s the one day of year

They get the waves to themselves.

SAND GETS IN YOUR EYES: Yes, that, of course, is Joe Klein’s holiday standard, “Christmas in Malibu.” Who can listen without feeling a lump in the throat (or a lump on the head, if you took a tumble off a board)? The song’s heartwarming finale has a destitute hang-tenner receiving an unexpected present: Santa’s surfboard.

Put my wetsuit on quick

Paddle out on that big old red stick

Then the best waves I’ve ever seen

Start rollin’ in

A gift just for me from St. Nick.

(Sniff, sniff.) Bless you, Radudes.

A WORD ABOUT OUR COLUMN DECORATIONS: Sheree Ingram of La Canada Flintridge contributed a Christmas-themed photo illustrating that, in L.A., you never know where you’re going to find manger scenes. And, for those in search of a more action-packed holiday, we include an old favorite of ours--one of the images available on holiday cards offered last year at the L.A. Air Force Base.

NOW, BACK TO THE MUSIC: Here’s a tune that writer Rich Roberts heard on Long Beach radio station KLON-FM. All we can say is, Randy Newman, watch out!

Christmas in L.A.

That’s where I want to be

‘Cause I know L.A.

Has got it all for me.

In California on Christmas morn

Ya wake up with a glow

You don’t need sleigh bells

When you can play bells on your stereo.

Hey, and no jokes about that “glow” being smog. Anyway, there you have it, the opening of “Christmas in L.A.” written by Dick Jones.

THIS JUST IN: A skid row Christmas tradition lives on. An anonymous donor known as the Eldorado Elf showed up in a Cadillac for the fourth straight year, handing out $10 bills to an estimated 1,500 street people outside L.A.’s Midnight Mission. Several hundred others were turned away because he ran out of money. The crowd was so large that police had to divert traffic.

“The people down here know [the Elf] always comes between the 21st and the 24th,” said Clancy Imislund, the mission’s director. “So when he didn’t show up the first three days, they just flooded the area [Tuesday].”

HERE’S A REAL HOWL: And now for this unforgettable interpretation of another standard, by a La Crescenta preschool class a few years ago:

Feliz naughty dogs

Feliz naughty dogs

BEFORE WE SIGN OFF: One last traditional for holiday travelers.

L.A. International Airport

Where the big jet engines roar

Happy holidays from Santa Steve!

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Always the curmudgeon, W.C. Fields died on Christmas Day, 50 years ago.