Christmas Unwrapped

The yellow kite seemed a curious gift for winter, but on a Christmas morning when Santa Ana winds whipped lawn Santas, a kite was the perfect present.

“Kite!” said a giggling Brooke Ballenberg, who is almost 2.

Shuffling up her West Hills street in pajamas and frilly pink slippers, she grabbed the teddy-bear kite’s blue and red tails as her dad ran backward to lift Brooke’s new toy.

“On the Barney tape, there’s a scene where they’re flying a kite, and all she could say to me was, ‘Daddy, I want a kite,’ ” Steve Ballenberg said.

His wife, Leslie, watched, amazed that her husband was outside on Christmas morning.

“He never goes outside,” she said. “He’s watching football all day.”

Perhaps because of the wind, with gusts of 35 mph and higher in some Valley areas, the Ballenbergs were some of the few people outside in the San Fernando Valley on Christmas morning.

Elsewhere in Los Angeles County, however, the brilliant weather, with temperatures in the 70s, brought people outdoors in a way that the rest of the nation envied.

In Manhattan Beach, 43-year-old Vince “Surfing Santa” Ray was thankful for the big waves, which provided a chance to spread Christmas cheer one more time in what has become an annual South Bay tradition.

On Christmas morning, as a dense veil of fog slowly lifted from the beach, Ray pulled a cherry-red surfboard from his Chevrolet station wagon. He coated it with wax. “Ho! Ho! Ho!” he belted out to in-line skaters who passed by.

He pulled on his red neoprene Santa wetsuit--complete with a black belt, red hat and black boots--and a flowing white fake beard and headed for the waves.

“It’s fun. It’s all about giving. To me, Christmas is giving your time. Yourself,” said Ray, enjoying the smiles as people noticed him out in the surf.

“Santa! Can I ask you for something?” one surfer shouted to Ray between 10-foot swells.

“Of course,” said Ray, a surfing instructor from Redondo Beach who last year took on the mantle of Surfing Santa after his predecessor retired from the volunteer appearances.

The man asked for a trip to Hawaii.

Chilly Nation Envies Southland’s Sun

While this Surfing Santa spreads good cheer rather than promises or presents, he stressed that Californians have a year-round gift: the weather.

“My friends in Michigan have so much snow they can’t leave the house now,” Ray said. “They can’t go to work or send their kids to school. Here we are, surfing.”

What did folks in Chicago have to say about Southern California basking in 70-degree sunshine? “I don’t want to hear about it,” Jim Ramsey, weatherman at the Windy City’s WGN-TV, said in a telephone interview. “We actually had a good day today. It got up to about 10 or 12 degrees.”

In the San Fernando Valley, some Christmas morning excitement couldn’t be kept inside.

Children had new bikes to ride, and the few kids who didn’t already have trendy metallic scooters apparently had been good enough this year to get their wishes.

“Everybody else around the street had one, and I felt kind of jealous,” said Jessica Olson, 11, who was trying out a shiny new silver-and-red scooter with her Winnetka neighbors.

A few streets over, the Gardners were showing off their presents to a visitor.

There was a plush Dalmatian toy that does tricks. “You don’t have to feed it,” dad Gary Gardner said.

There were Nintendo video games and a remote-controlled Humvee for the boys. “I thought I’d get them that so I could get them outside to play,” Gardner said.

And for 9-year-old Katlynn, there was a poster of the boy band ‘N Sync.

“They sing good and they’re cute,” she said, explaining the appeal of Justin, J.C., Joey, Chris and Lance.

“All of ‘em?” her brother, Arthur, asked.

“No, just Lance,” Katlynn said.

Movie theaters and grocery stores were among the few places open Monday, and the employees said it was the extra money for the holiday shift that made them volunteer for service.

“It’s for my family,” said Koo Hwan Chang, a father of two who pulled a 12-hour shift at his Reseda liquor store. “I work so my family can have a nice Christmas every day.”

While Many Played, Others Worked

Selling tickets to “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Dude, Where’s My Car?” was not how 16-year-old Solange Aurelio wanted to spend her holiday.

After less than two hours at a Chatsworth megaplex, she was ready to go home.

“It’s horrible,” said Solange, who had stayed up late opening gifts.

“I’m tired: I got up at 8 a.m. and began working at 10 a.m. My friends and family all feel sorry for me.”

Fatigue had also set in for Deen Marakkar, a Denny’s manager who clocked out at 5 a.m. Monday only to discover a few hours later that 10 people were coming over for dinner that night.

Sighing deeply at a Northridge grocery store, Marakkar loaded vegetables and liquor into his cart as he checked off his list.

“Hindus don’t celebrate Christmas,” he said, “but we’re just going along with the spirit of this.”

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Times staff writers Sonia Nazario and Mitchell Landsberg contributed to this article.