Panic and Peace on the Night Before Christmas

From a primo tamale stand in East Los Angeles to the sweet surf of Manhattan Beach and from the serenity of a Pasadena children’s church chorale to desperate shopping aisles citywide, Los Angeles worshiped Tuesday at the altars of spirituality, commerce, nature and tradition.

And, mostly, it was good.

At the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center, one of the first acts in the 37th annual Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration--a six-hour free concert--the Coventry Carolers sang “White Christmas” a cappella in front of a painting of sailboats on the ocean.

Latino neighborhoods witnessed the annual Christmas Eve scramble for tamales, a central part of the traditional holiday feast. At Juanito’s on Floral Avenue on the Eastside, the staff wrapped, steamed and served up to 12,000 of the cornmeal and meat delicacies by closing time Tuesday.

One busy customer, Richard Najera, worried that he was already 20 minutes late to meet a client at his paralegal office in Los Angeles. But Najera was not budging from the line at Juanito’s, where he was filling an order for his 80-year-old mother. “She’s the boss,” he said.

In the San Fernando Valley, it was “Jingle all the Way” meets “Road Warrior”as harried shoppers crowded stores in search of last-minute gifts, and drivers raged their way through crowded streets and jammed parking lots.

“The crowds were bad and the people were impatient,” said Marina Grijalva as she left the Target store in Northridge after a bout of Christmas Eve shopping. “I’ll never do this again at the last minute. Never.”

At the All American Party Store in North Hollywood, owner Julie Cohen said, “It seems like every man in the world waited until the last minute to get their gifts wrapped.”

One shopper leaving the Northridge Fashion Center with a giant-sized “Hello Kitty Doll” said his wife “has been asking for this since last year.”

“Now, I have some more shopping to do for my kids,” said the man, who asked not to be identified.

With chaos reigning at Gelson’s in North Hollywood, Yvette Aslanian, 30, and her mother Lina Hartounian, pointed to their cake which read: “Happy Birthday Jesus.”

She wants her children, she said, “to understand that it’s not just about gifts and Santa Claus.”

At El Porto in Manhattan Beach, dozens of surfers bobbed on their boards under mostly sunny skies, enjoying a three-foot break. “I moved from the South out here for this,” said Cal Jackson, 42, just out of the water after a two-hour session. “Back in Tennessee, I’d be huddled inside, trying not to freeze.”

Downtown, about 20 homeless people who live beside the Harbor Freeway at the encampment they call Justiceville/Homeless USA turned the tables on holiday tradition--preparing a meal and party in which they fed the community.

“This place means a lot to me, it keeps me going,” said Mike Vasquez, a resident who was dishing out turkey and fixings to more than 300 people, including many teenagers from Los Angeles-area foster homes. Vasquez also helped collect toys that were distributed at the celebration.

For most people, of course, Christmas Eve was a time to reconnect with relatives, even if it meant going to great lengths to do so.

The Tamori and Cochenour families found themselves trapped at Los Angeles International Airport’s Terminal 5 on Tuesday morning, desperately trying to make a connection to Honolulu, to rejoin several college-age children who had already flown there.

The two couples and a 16-year-old daughter, Adrienne Tamori, should have been at Waikiki Dec. 21, but that was before a blizzard trapped them in the Tamoris’ hometown of Carson City, Nev. They couldn’t get to the Reno airport until Tuesday and their L.A. layover was turning into anightmare, with lost baggage tags and the threat of being bounced off an overbooked flight.

“This was going to be the Big Fling,” Margaret Tamori said. “Now it’s the Big Fling Gone Awry. Have a merry Christmas anyway. We will too . . . eventually!”

John Jefferson also traveled a long distance to visit his family back East on Tuesday, but for what might be called the virtual Christmas Eve dinner.

While Jefferson, 33, and a friend sat at a linen-draped table at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, his family joined him at the other end of a video-conferencing line, at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City.

The Los Angeles hotel arranged the event for one worthy individual who could not afford to be home for Christmas. Jefferson, a Pacific Bell employee from Santa Ana, was chosen for the treat by the Challenger Boys and Girls Club in South-Central Los Angeles, where he is a volunteer.

Jefferson and a family friend, John Moseley, 33, ate a sumptuous meal and--while waiters hovered in the background--talked with Jefferson’s mother, father, sister and nephew.

“So is this as good as having me home, Mom?” Jefferson asked his mother, Gloria. She replied: “Next to having you home, it’s the best thing.”

Betty Brown and Genovea Rios would agree with that sentiment. The two women and their downtrodden families received surprise $1,000 checks from an anonymous donor Tuesday, gifts that were delivered by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Division.

One of the checks went to the 41-year-old Brown, a Virginia native who is struggling to raise her 8-year-old son and two grandchildren in a tawdry downtown hotel. “Santa forgot to drop this off for you,” Officer Willie Carter said as he handed Brown the money.

Carter said Brown was chosen for the gift because of the caring she had shown for her son--often waiting at a bus stop for him to return from school, despite her being confined to a wheelchair and breathing with the aid of oxygen.

Brown was so excited at receiving the money that she seemed nearly to hyperventilate. “I think I’ll use it to get a place with a yard. This is no place for children,” Brown said. “But, if I can’t find a decent spot away from the gangs, I think I’ll go back to Virginia.”

The second $1,000 went to Rios’ family in the William Mead housing project, north of Chinatown. Rios, 35, her husband and three daughters had been in danger of being evicted from the project before Officer Daryl Vest helped make payment arrangements with the rent manager.

Tuesday’s gift was an added bonus, leaving Rios nearly speechless. “I’m going to buy some toys and I’m gonna go to the dentist.”

Finally, often at day’s end, many an Angeleno settled in to celebrate the true foundation of the season.

At All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, the convergence of spirituality and celebration reaches a fever pitch. The pews were packed solid a full half-hour before the 7:30 p.m. Christmas Eve service.

“It’s amazing. I can’t believe how many people are here tonight,” said Joanna Mendelman of of Annapolis, Md., who is visiting relatives in the area and learned of the service, which includes a 55-person choir and a chamber orchestra.

To ensure that every seat in the chapel is filled, the Rev. Tim Safford even exercises crowd control from the pulpit.

“It’s Christmas,” he said. “The first thing you need to do is introduce yourself to your neighbor and squeeze in.”

At the Church of the Angels in Pasadena, the focus is smaller. In the 1889 chapel, children design and perform the entire Christmas Eve service, and they are its target audience.

Wearing her prettiest red-and-green dress, 9-year-old Katherine Lash read from Isaiah as babies cried in the background. A proud father videotaped every moment of the service. At times the church aisles more resembled an elementary school playground than a place of worship.

“We came to this last year and it was fun because of the kids, so we decided to come back,” said Hanna McConaghy. “We have college-age kids and older, so we need to get a dose of the kids.”

“The whole of Christmas is about children,” said the Rev. Robert Gaestel. “After all, Jesus our savior comes as a baby.”

Times staff writers Ken Ellingwood, Andrea Ford, Duke Helfand and Peter Y. Hong and special correspondents Deborah Belgum, Michael Krikorian and Richard Winton contributed to this story.