"If you want to taunt your East Coast friends with photos of an ocean sunset for Christmas, book dinner at Terraza inside Santa Monica's Hotel Casa Del Mar. A $125 set menu is available on Christmas Day, and it includes dry-aged kanpachi crudo, grilled prawns, and roasted scallops. Brunch is also available earlier that day for the same price and will offer dishes like french toast and dungeness crab cake benedict." - cathy park, sylvio martins