8:30pm

Pop Music

The three members of Placebo popped up in the movie “Velvet Goldmine” singing T. Rex’s “20th Century Boy,” but glam-rock is just one of the styles the London trio adopts in its vibrant new album, “Without You I’m Nothing.” The hit “Pure Morning” has added to the buzz on this U.S. tour.

* Placebo, with Furslide, the Whisky, 8901 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 8:30 p.m. Sold out. (310) 652-4202.

6:30pm

Storytelling

Leonard Nimoy will host a live radio performance of the KCRW-FM (89.9) series “Jewish Stories From the Old World to the New.” Nimoy will read “Shprintse” by Sholom Aleichem, JoBeth Williams will read “Julia” by Ida Fink and Elliott Gould will read from Philip Roth’s story “I Always Wanted You to Admire My Fasting; or Looking at Kafka.” And the treats aren’t just literary: At intermission the audience will be treated to latkes, the holiday’s traditional potato pancakes.

* “Jewish Stories From the Old World to the New,” Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. 6:30 p.m. $15. Tickets: (323) 660-8587. Information: (310) 440-4500.

2pm

Performance

Playwright and actor Steve Greenstein reprises his solo show “From Bubby to Bat Yam” at the Central Library. Greenstein’s mother was hidden with a Catholic family as a child during World War II, and his grandmother survived Auschwitz. His 90-minute play looks at the Holocaust from a second-generation perspective--how it reverberated in his daily life, from his childhood in the Bronx to his years living in Israel.

* “From Bubby to Bat Yam,” Mark Taper Auditorium, Los Angeles Central Library, 650 W. 5th St., downtown, 2 p.m. Free. (213) 228-7331.

2pm

Jazz

Bobby Rodriguez is a respected music instructor whose classroom ensembles have been honored at the Monterey Jazz Festival and other competitions. He’s also a strong, Miles Davis-influenced trumpeter who plays in the area’s best big bands and leads his own combos. For this now-annual event, he’s refashioned traditional holiday favorites with salsa, cha-cha and merengue beats, then enlists L.A.’s best musicians to play them. Watch Santa samba.

* Bobby Rodriguez Latin Jazz Christmas, Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach. $21-$27; $16-$22, students and seniors. (562) 985-7000. Also Dec. 20, 7 p.m. at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex, Cal State Los Angeles, 5151 State University Drive. $12.50-$25. (323) 343-6600.

7pm

Pop Music

KKBT (92.3 the Beat) stages its sixth annual Holiday Cooldown, featuring Puff Daddy’s pride and joy Faith Evans, hitmakers Divine, blue-eyed soul star Jon B and singers Brian McKnight, Deborah Cox and Tamia.

* The 92.3 Holiday Cooldown, Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., 7 p.m. $35. (323) 380-5005.

5pm

Family Theater

A skeptical young teenage girl rediscovers the magic of the season after she’s swept away on an unexpected journey in the return of “La Posada Magica,” Octavio Solis’ contemporary Latino Christmas play with songs by Marcos Loya.

* “La Posada Magica,” South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, Sunday, 5 p.m. Regular schedule: Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 12:30 and 4:30 p.m. Also Dec. 24, 12:30 and 4:30 p.m. Ends Dec. 27. $17-$28; except Sunday’s opening with post-show party, $27-$38. (714) 708-5555.

Freebie: “Images of Israel: A Photographic Perspective of Israel at 50 Years” is on view through Thursday at Christie’s, 360 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, noon-5 p.m. (323) 761-8122.

Book reading and signing by artists Viggo Mortensen and Christopher Doyle, with actor Dennis Hopper, at 7 p.m. at Track 16 Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica. (310) 264-4678.