TODAYJAZZMaking it a very smooth ChristmasSaxophonist-composer Dave...

TODAY

JAZZ

Making it a very smooth Christmas

Saxophonist-composer Dave Koz brings his annual Smooth Jazz Christmas show to Cerritos this weekend. Grammy-nominated Koz will attempt to smooth and cool your yule with sounds by a roster of more Grammy-nominated talent that includes singer-songwriter-guitarist-producer Jonathan Butler, singer Patti Austin and pianist-composer David Benoit. The show is officially sold out.

Dave Koz’s Smooth Jazz Christmas, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. 8 p.m. today and Friday. $27.50 to $57. (800) 300-4345.

EVENTS

Mary and Joseph’s journey

Olvera Street’s annual Las Posadas ceremony

continues today and Friday, and will conclude Saturday, Christmas Eve, when actors portraying Mary and

Joseph will join the procession reenacting the original Christmas story of the sojourn to Bethlehem and search for lodging. Singing, a candlelight procession and the breaking of a

pinata will happen each night.

Las Posadas, Olvera Street, El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, 125 Paseo de la Plaza, L.A. 6:30 to 9 p.m. today. Free. (213) 485-8372.

* Also 6:30 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

THEATER

Hanukkah ‘Nutcracker’

National Jewish Theatre Festival presents its touring musical, “The MeshugaNutcracker!,” a holiday spectacle featuring Hanukkah tales past and present, set to the score from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker”

ballet. The festive show

includes a menorah

lighting and Hanukkah singalong.

“The MeshugaNutcracker!”, Westside Jewish Community Center, 5870 W. Olympic Blvd., L.A. Opens 7:30 p.m. today. $18 to $36. (877) 456-4849.

* Runs 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 1 and 5 p.m. Sundays; ends Jan. 1.

FRIDAY

EVENTS

‘12 Girls’ song, dance

East meets West when the 12 Girls of the Sichuan Musical Arts Ensemble make their Southern California debut for a series of song and dance performances at two venues. The troupe performs on traditional Chinese instruments, blending China’s ancestral music with contemporary renderings. The program will include the Chinese acrobatic troupe Cirque Sichuan, a long-time headlining act at Beijing’s Changyang Opera House and winner of numerous international awards.

The 12 Girls of the Sichuan Musical Arts Ensemble with Cirque Sichuan, Kavli Theatre, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Friday. $29 to $49. (805) 449-2787.

* Also 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, San Gabriel Civic Auditorium, 320 S. Mission Drive, San Gabriel. (626) 308-2868.

POP MUSIC

Punks get in the spirit

This is the weekend when even glowering rock musicians get caught up in the spirit of the season and stay home, but a few unrepentant punk-rockers are out there at the clubs, keeping the lights burning and the fans churning. At the Vault 350, Agent Orange and H.R. head a multi-act lineup in a show billed as Punk-Rock Christmas. In West Hollywood, the Vandals figure to pull out some songs from their own Christmas album, including the classic “Oi to the World.”

* Punk Rock Christmas at the Vault 350, 350 Pine Ave., Long Beach. 9 p.m. Friday. $12. (562) 590-5566.

* The Vandals, House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 7 p.m. Friday. $16. (323) 848-5100.

MOVIES

Visually stunning

Mikhail Kalatozov’s 1964 “I Am Cuba” is a great poetic epic that blends the stirring visual daring of Russia’s cinema of revolution with an intoxicating Latin sensuality. It is a triumph of collaborative strategy, with Kalatozov and his dazzling cinematographer Sergei Urusevsky in perfect rapport with each other and with their writers, renowned poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko and eminent Cuban novelist Enrique Pineda Barnet. In this post-Soviet era, however, the idealistic zeal that fuels all of this fiery film takes on a cast that’s truly tragic.

“I Am Cuba,” unrated, opens Friday at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A., (310) 281-8223.

MONDAY

EVENTS

And they’re off ...

It’s a post-Christmas tradition in Southern California -- and, no, not the mad dash to a nearby shopping mall to exchange that wrong-size gift. Monday marks the start of the 69th season of thoroughbred racing at Santa Anita Park. The opening-day lineup includes the Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds, the first leg of the track’s prestigious Strub Series. This year, racing fans are hoping for a bit more kindness from Mother Nature; last year’s rainy winter resulted in 28 “off” tracks. This winter-spring season offers 60 stakes races over 86 days, with $12 million in purses, highlighted by the Santa Anita Handicap on March 4 and the Santa Anita Derby on April 8.

Opening day, Santa Anita Park, 285 W. Huntington Drive, Arcadia. 10:30 a.m. (first post, 1 p.m.) Monday. $5 to $15. (626) 574-6366. www.santaanita.com.

POP MUSIC

A Common occurrence

Common is making his 13th year as a recording artist his luckiest yet, taking advantage of his new association with Kanye West to deliver his bestselling and arguably most accomplished album to date, “Be.” West produced it, and Common’s celebrity connections don’t end there. When he played the House of Blues earlier this year, the Chicago-based rapper was joined onstage by Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock.

Common, House of Blues Anaheim, 1530 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, 7 p.m. Monday. $33. (714) 778-2583.

* Also Wednesday at the House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood., 8 and 11 p.m. $35. (323) 848-5100.

FAMILY

Kidspace: Let it snow

Kidspace Children’s Museum’s “1st Annual Kidspace Winter Wonderland” begins Monday, a two-week round of daily activities on the cool side: special art projects, a kid-participatory Snow People parade, a light display spectacular and, at surprise intervals throughout each day, real snow. Other events include a “Mini Iron Chef Stuffed Snowflakes Challenge” on Tuesday and next Thursday, caroling Dec. 30 and a “Noon Year’s Eve Celebration” on Dec. 31.

“Kidspace Winter Wonderland,” Kidspace Children’s Museum, Brookside Park, 480 N. Arroyo Blvd., Pasadena, Monday through Jan. 8 during regular museum hours: 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; closed Jan. 2 and Jan. 4; $8; children under 1 and members are free. (626) 449-9144; www.kidspacemuseum.org