Have Yourself a Tasty Christmas

Even at the soup kitchen, soup isn’t all that’s on for the Christmas weekend.

The Cannery Restaurant will help serve about a thousand needy and hungry people turkey dinner Friday from noon to 4 p.m. at Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, then send them off with a food package that includes fruit and nuts. Santa and Mrs. Claus (she’s the Cannery’s bookkeeper) will pass out gifts to children; unwrapped gifts and wrapping paper are still being collected at both the soup kitchen and the restaurant.

Venison, goose and a Yule log are among traditional specialties to be served Christmas Eve from 6 to 10 p.m. at Cafe Fleuri in Le Meridien Hotel. Adults, $40 plus tax and tip (includes Champagne cocktail); children ages 6 to 12, $15; ages 5 and under, free. Friday from 6 to 10 p.m., the Cafe presents Broadway performers Mikael Healey and Anna Rose in a dinner show featuring traditional songs and “Christmas at the Movies� ($5 cover charge).

The All American Boys Chorus entertains guests at a dinner and concert Christmas Eve at the Ritz-Carlton. The four-course menu includes smoked seafood tart, roasted veal rib eye with pancetta (Italian bacon) mille feuille and sauteed gnocchi, and Christmas log. The cost--$75 per adult, $45 for ages 12 and under--is all-inclusive but non-refundable; it begins at 6:30 p.m.

The Westin South Coast Plaza offers a buffet on Christmas Day from noon to 5 p.m. The buffet includes crab claws--they mean crab Claus, of course--mushroom strudel with peach shallot vinaigrette, turkey with chestnuts and giblets, lobster and mushrooms in champagne sauce, and desserts. Adults, $30 plus tax and gratuity; children 6 to 12, $15; under 5, free.

The Orange County Mining Co. will be open for the first time for Christmas Day this year, serving a buffet from noon until 8 p.m. In addition to traditional turkey and ham, the buffet will also feature prime rib and an ice cream sundae bar. The cost, $17.95 per person, includes a great view of the hills and city but not tax or tip; children 11 and under, $6.95.

Snow White, the Seven Dwarfs and Melvin the “Chrismoose�--what Disney film is he from?-- will be on hand to welcome guests to “A Snow White Christmas� on Christmas Day, a buffet at Disneyland Hotel set in a winter wonderland. Adults, $35.50 not including tax or tip; children 3 to 11, $12.50; under 3, $3. The banquet is offered from noon to 7 p.m.

Traditional turkey with the trimmings, seared swordfish or a Victorian English Holiday dinner with prime rib, garlic mashed potatoes and spinach souffle, are all options Christmas Day from noon to 8 p.m. at Claes Seafood Etc., in the Hotel Laguna. The price for adults is $32.50 without tax and tip; children under 12, $15.

Reindeer lead the way at a smorgasbord offered through Sunday at Gustaf Anders. Six trips to the buffet are recommended: golden caviar, gravad lax or herring; a cold fish course; a warm fish course; a meat course such as reindeer; Swedish meatballs or lutfish, then rice pudding or other dessert. Excluding tax and tip, it’s $29 per person at lunch, $39 at dinner.

Cafe Fleuri, 4500 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach. (714) 476-2001.

Claes Seafood Etc., 425 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. (714) 376-9283.

Disneyland Hotel, 1150 W. Cerritos Ave., Anaheim. (714) 956-6413.

Gustaf Anders, 1651 Sunflower Ave., Santa Ana. (714) 668-1737.

Orange County Mining Co., 10000 Crawford Canyon Road, Santa Ana. (714) 997-7411.

Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, 33533 Ritz-Carlton Drive, Dana Point. (714) 240-5008.

Someone Cares Soup Kitchen, 661 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa. (714) 675-5777.

Westin South Coast Plaza, 686 Anton Blvd., Costa Mesa. (714) 662-6694.

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A gingerbread village created by elementary school students from Garden Grove and Orange as part of a contest remains on display in the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel through Monday. Using the hotel pastry chef’s gingerbread recipe, students built homes with sugar-pane windows, frosting-lined rooftops, gumdrop fixtures and broccoli shade trees. The streets are paved with sugar, of course.

Doubletree Hotel, 100 The City Drive, Orange. (714) 634-4500.

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According to Ron Loutherback of the Wine Club in Santa Ana, hot on last-minute Christmas lists are gift-packs featuring three vintages of Newton Cabernet Sauvignon ($60) and shoppers’ own pairings of attractively labeled Far Niente Chardonnays and Cabernets (ranging from $19 to $24 a bottle); both wineries are Napa-based. Among French Champagnes, Dom Perignon is always big--it’s $63.99 at the Wine Club--but California’s sparkling Maison Deutz is also hot at $8.99 . . . Prego Ristorante in Irvine and Tutto Mare in Newport Beach are two of 14 restaurants throughout the state (others include Harry’s Bar and American Grill in Century City) participating in a group gift certificate offered by San Francisco-based Spectrum Foods. Certificates purchased at those eateries can be used at the participating restaurant of your choice.