Best Bets / Sunday 12/26 : Tour

The holidays are always a busy time at the Gamble House, the beautiful, Craftsman-style home by architects Greene and Greene in Pasadena. But this year, the Gamble House will have tours available that should accommodate everyone. Anyone who arrives from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday will be admitted for a self-guided tour of this National Historic Landmark.

* Gamble House tours, 4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena, noon-3 p.m. $5; seniors, $4; students, $3. Also Dec. 31, noon-2 p.m., and Jan. 2, noon-3 p.m. Docent-led tours only Dec. 29 and 30, noon-3 p.m. (626) 793-3334.

12:30pm

Family

Got a budding Mark Rothko or Lee Krasner at home? Then the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Express Yourself! program might be just the thing for the day after Christmas. At three different workshops, kids ages 5 to 12 will make prints, create action paintings (yup, by throwing paint from squirt bottles, Jackson Pollock style) and build paper sculptures, something like Alexander Calder. There will also be a special workshop for kids under 5.

* Express Yourself!, plaza of LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, 12:30-3:15 p.m. Free with museum admission. $7; students and seniors, $5; under 18, $1; 5 and younger, free. (323) 857-6000.

2pm

Theater/Family

Music, dancing, audience participation, and wild and crazy characters--”Jack & the Beanstalk--the Panto” is a family comedy in the British holiday tradition of zany fairy tale retellings and gender-bending roles played by a couple of pros from the British stage: Karin delaPena as Jack and Christopher Blake as Dame Trot, Jack’s loopy mom.

* “Jack & the Beanstalk--the Panto,” Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St., Santa Barbara. Sunday and Monday and Dec. 31-Jan. 2, 2 p.m. $11 to $25. (805) 963-0761.

7pm

Pop Music

Jose Hernandez’s Mariachi Spectacular presents the music in a family-friendly format, with the groups Sol de Mexico, Reyna de Los Angeles, Mariachi Voz de America and Ballet Folklorico del Pacifico.

* Jose Hernandez’s Mariachi Spectacular, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos, 7 p.m. $42 to $52. (800) 300-4345.

7 & 9pm

Jazz

The Afro-Latin jazz band of Bobby Matos, recently anointed the city’s best Latin/salsa band for 1999 by LA Weekly, holds court in Hollywood with its usual mix of jazz standards and rhythmic originals. The ensemble, a host of all-stars, includes saxophonist Michael Turre, trombonist Jacques Vroymont, pianist Victor Cegarra, bassist Rene Camacho, percussionist Robertito Melendez and Matos on timbales and other percussion instruments.

* Bobby Matos Afro-Latin Jazz Sextet, Catalina Bar & Grill, 1640 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood, 7 and 9 p.m. $10 plus food, drink minimum. (323) 466-2210.

7 pm

Movies

The Santa Monica Film Festival and the consulate general of France will present the 20th anniversary screening of Eduardo Molinaro’s sex farce “La Cage Aux Folles.” The film is about a gay cabaret impresario and his drag-queen lover and star (Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault) who collide with the straight, and strait-laced, parents of the impresario’s future daughter-in-law. It was remade in 1996 in English as “The Birdcage” with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. A rave dance party will immediately follow the screening.

* “La Cage Aux Folles,” Arcadia, 250 Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, 7 p.m. $20 to $25. (310) 264-4274.

FREEBIE

One-hour hockey clinic for ages 14 and younger at the Downtown on Ice rink; equipment available. 12:30-1:30 p.m. The Susie Hanson Band plays Afro-Cuban jazz from 2-4 p.m. Pershing Square, 5th and Hill streets, L.A. (213) 847-4970.