Operation "Avoid the 100" has been great for police, but not so great for Los Angeles drinkers-and-drivers. The L.A. Sheriff's Department reported today that from the time the holiday campaign to catch drunk drivers in the act launched on December 16 till this past Sunday, December 25, a total of 1,506 arrests have been made. more ›

The holiday season is in full swing, and we found a few events tonight to get you in the spirit of things. This editor's favorite Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life is on the big screen; there's an Ugly Sweater Contest to benefit the LA Mission; Scrooge and Cratchit are together again on stage in NoHo; and there's a Kwanzaa kickoff celebration in DTLA. Read on for all the details. more ›

There are only four more sleeps before Christmas. You don't have to be Semi-Homemade Sandra "I'm Freaking Terrifying" Lee or your great Aunt Tamanay to create a cherished (or at least wanted) homemade gift for your friends and relatives in a short amount of time. more ›

We don't get much snow here, so most of the cheesy "snow globes" tourist-centric shops sell are filled with sparkly glitter instead of that frosty white stuff that falls from the sky. This video, however, is a photographic take on a snow globe, with over 4,000 still images shot on a custom rig of various locations in Los Angeles. more ›

'Tis the season for twinkling lights, festive decor and merriment. Lucky for Los Angeles, local photogs have been capturing holiday moments throughout December. We've culled a few of our favorite snapshots from the LAist Featured Photos pool to help awaken your spirit. more ›

While braving the local roadways this holiday season, Angelenos are adding one item to the top of their gift wishlists - less traffic. Or perhaps a hovercraft. Though Los Angeles suffers from clogged streets and freeways all year long, getting from point A to point B, especially near popular shopping districts, is extra unpleasant during the holidays. more ›

'Tis the season for Christmas lights and merriment, and Los Angeles never hesitates to string up twinkling spectacles in celebration of the holidays. The budding hosts of BDCi News' upcoming show, "K&A Adventures with Korbin and Max" recently visited El Segundo's Candy Cane Lane to view the festive displays, meet Santa and find out if the kiddos have been naughty or nice this year. more ›

Yes, there's new episodes of "New Girl" & "Raising Hope" tonight but we're heading to holiday hiatus for many shows. Check out our audio gift picks to keep the funny going over the holidays. --- The TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan is also in the full post. more ›

"This is Hollywood: A place, an industry, a state of mind," begins the narration from this 1946 short film promoting visiting sunny Southern California's movie making and outdoorsy paradise. more ›

Mall parking lots are no joke during the holiday season -- a swiped spot can be all it takes for a driver to unleash his or her holiday-induced rage. That's why the Riverside Police Department is enlisting the help of eight volunteers on horseback to help patrol lots in the area, reports NBC Los Angeles. more ›

Saturday afternoon more than 50 professional and amateur bakers will present their dainty delectables at Los Angeles' first-ever Cupcake Camp. more ›

How people get around in cars and on foot in Downtown Santa Monica during the holidays is going to change, and hopefully for the better. Just ahead of Thanksgiving, the City of Santa Monica will begin testing out some new strategies to help improve the vehicle and pedestrian flows through the area. more ›

When 150,000 to 200,000 people show up for a huge Halloween party, you're going to get some of the best of the best when it comes to costumes. As always, that's West Hollywood's annual Halloween Carnival. more ›

Hundreds of thousands will descend upon West Hollywood on Sunday night, clad like Lady Gaga, zombies or a plethora of other costumes (read LAist's 2010 trendy predictions) for the annual West Hollywood Halloween Carnival. But such a massive event means a multitude of street closures and parking issues. more ›

What's a West Hollywood Halloween season without some political displays? Couple ChadMichael Morrisette and Mito Aviles, who made national headlines when their 2008 display included an effigy of Sarah Palin, are at it again and this year it's about the Catholic church. more ›

It's a national holiday and in Los Angeles city limits, that means relaxed parking rules. Obvious things like parking in red zone, handicap areas and on sidewalks will still be enforced, but most meters and preferential parking districts will not. The following is via LADOT's website: more ›

Registered sex offenders in one Riverside County city might have to leave if they want to celebrate Halloween. A motion (.pdf) before the Perris city council tonight (.pdf) could offenders from decorating their home. It would also instruct them to keep outside lights off not answer the door to trick or treaters. The idea follows in the footsteps of the city of Orange, but it originally was modeled after a Missouri law that, among other regulations, quarantines sex offenders inside their house from 5 to 10:30 p.m., according to the Press-Enterprise. more ›

Polkatots Cupcakes in Pasadena is a little girl's fairyland of pink walls and jars of rainbow-colored candies. We love their supermoist cupcakes, especially the adorable little mini cupcakes that satisfy that sweet tooth with minimum guilt. more ›

Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day, so in addition to the green beer and cheeky pinching, if you want to try your luck with Irish cooking between now and the 17th, recipes aren't anywhere near as hard to come by as that elusive four-leaf clover. more ›

Usually a statement like "he's got more jobs than names" wouldn't be impressive at all, but the man whose birth certificate reads "Sean Combs" has had a lot of names. He's been called Sean "Puffy" Combs, Puff, Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy and Diddy. After spending an afternoon with the mogul of many monikers, I thought of another name for him -- Santa Claus. more ›

Keeping with a new Gothamist tradition, we're asking what your December 25th looks like. Submit your photos tomorrow, whether you celebrate Christmas or not. From surfing to hiking up Runyon, ripping open presents to cooking dinner, going out to eat to wandering Los Angeles area streets. Show us how you spend the day off. Send us your photos at tips-at-laist-dot-com or submit them to our Flickr pool (tag with "122509") and we'll publish a gallery of our favorites on Monday. Happy Holidays! more ›

Still searching for the perfect gift for your hard-to-please friends? Allow us to propose a solution -- hit them all at once with an intimate group yoga class, held at your home with instructor Sari Heifetz Stricke of Sari Yoga. Stricke has been running Sari Yoga for three years, and bases her classes on the philosophy that yoga should be accessible to everyone, not just Santa Monica moms flitting about town in Hard Tail pants (our example, not hers). By taking classes at home with a group of friends or family, Stricke says, students often feel more comfortable asking questions and having fun, and don't feel the competitive edge that has become par the course at many yoga studios. more ›

In this video, LA City Council President Eric Garcetti is seen reaching out out to all major SoCal law enforcement agencies and regular citizens in the hopes of nabbing someone behind a crime so heinous it's "a corrosive and bad thing for our country." more ›

Another collection of holiday gift ideas that give more...and many of these are perfect for those of you who like to save it last minute...and perhaps not even leave the house! Check out PhiLAnthropist Gift Guide Part I for more... more ›

Here's a curious e-mail from a reader. "Target is out of Christmas lights. ok..not totally out... but in the last 3 days..I have gone to the Target stores in Woodland Hills, Echo Park, Glendale, West Hollywood and Pasadena..and they have less than a dozen boxes of string Christmas lights and each store..(mostly blue lights). I have asked and been told that they will not be restocking before Christmas...so that's it." We checked in with Target's website, which lets you search the availability of stock in local stores. While not completely out everywhere, our tipster is right--lots of items are marked as "Out of Stock" and "Limited Availability." more ›

The thieves in this Grinchey Garden Grove heist are still at large, according to the Orange County Register: "In a highly orchestrated burglary, someone broke into the United Labor Agency of Orange County's underground storage facility over the holiday weekend and carted out loads of donated toys and an estimated 20,000 pounds of food, said Sgt. James Colgrove of the Garden Grove Police Department." The agency has 24 days before Christmas to recover its losses. more ›

The upcoming holidays are about giving, and for many of us that means both giving gifts to our loved ones and to those in need. One way to help out in both areas comes via Chicago-based retailer CB2, who opened up a branch of their home decor store in a segment of the onetime Virgin Megastore space at 8000 Sunset this April. more ›

Does anyone else hear the overwhelming sounds of silence? Where once elipticals whirred and treadmills whizzed, now there are only crickets. From Santa Monica to Echo Park, aerobics studios are feeling a chill wind blow. It seems, friends, as though no one can afford their gym membership anymore. But an empty wallet is no excuse for clogged arteries, and in fact, exercise will get your mind off depressing stuff like that pesky recession. Here are some ways you can keep your resolution to get in shape without breaking the (already broken) bank. more ›

Here at LAist, we all hope you are enjoying your holiday season! Just for fun, here's a throwback to a fews weeks ago when SantaCon took over the streets, previously covered here and here. Cheers! more ›

The U.S. economy is in the tank. We all know that. But what we didn’t know is that somewhere along the line it became the norm for companies to become Scrooge-like by issuing pink slips, layoff notices, or holding reorganizations, reshuffling, restructurings, downsizings, rightsizings, RIFs (reduction in force, dontcha know) – the week or two before the Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year’s holidays. more ›