1) (left to right) Santa Monica Police Officers Kim Sloane, Capri Redondo and Christina Coria, gift wrap presents on Thursday, December 20, 2007 during the 'Its a Wrap Party' at Santa Monica Place. 2) Santa Monica Police Chief, Timothy J. Jackman and Officer Redondo, wrap gifts during the party. 3) (left to right) SMPD Lieutenant Alex Padilla, SMFD Chief Jim Hone and SMPD Chief Jackman help wrap gifts. 4) Police Activities League volunteer Sebastain Couty (left) and SMPD volunteer Jeff Rochlin, assemble a boys bike during the wrap party. 5) Community leaders, volunteers from the Police Activities League  (PAL), Bayside District Corporation and Santa Monica Place, wrapped  more than 250 gifts which were collected during the Winterlit  “Best Gift Ever” community gift drive. Gifts collected will be distributed to children who might otherwise go without presents this holiday season.  

(top) Larry Brown, Susan McGlothlin and Anne Vogel (above) from the Pacific Palisades Optimist Club, count their money during Salvation Army's  Red Kettle Day at First Private Bank and Trust on Friday, December 14, 2007.The Red Kettle campaign, the oldest annual charitable fundraiser of its kind in the United States helps raise money for those who need it most in communities nationwide - providing toys for kids, coats for the homeless, food for the hungry and countless social service programs year-round.

Rabbi Levitansky, from  Chabad in S. Monica ,  and his youngest brother Zevmeyer, 15, light the giant Menorah at the Santa Monica Pier on Tuesday , December 11, 2007 marking the eighth and final night of Hanukah.