Cathedral masses, LA County holiday celebration set for Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve in the Southland will be marked Sunday by Masses and services and the 64th annual Los Angeles County Holiday Celebration at The Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Archbishop José H. Gomez will preside at a 10 p.m. English-language Christmas Eve Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels which will be preceded by Christmas carols with cathedral's choir at 9:30 p.m.

There will also be English-language Masses celebrated at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., a Spanish-language Mass at 12:30 p.m. and a 4 p.m. English-language family Mass with the cathedral's children's choir.

The 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. Masses will be streamed at facebook.com/olacathedral and youtube.com/olacathedral.

Gomez will also celebrate the 12:30 p.m. Christmas Day Mass in Spanish with the Spanish-language choir leading in song. English-language Christmas Day Masses will be celebrated at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.

The Christmas Day 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Masses will be broadcast live on the ABC7 Los Angeles app, Localish Network, over on digital Channel 7.2 and channels 703 or 1246 on Spectrum cable systems, Channel 467 on Frontier cable systems, Channel 1133 on Cox Cable systems and Channel 520 on Mediacom cable systems.

"We are drawn back, year after year, to find Mary and Joseph and the Child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger," Gomez said. "Jesus entered our world as a Child, and he told us that in order to enter his world, we also need to become children. The Child who comes on Christmas promised to never leave us. He renews that promise, the promise of Christmas, in every Eucharist.

The holiday celebration will run from 3-6 p.m. It is billed as Los Angeles' largest free multicultural holiday celebration. It will be televised live by KOCE-TV Channel 50 and streamed at pbssocal.org and the Music Center's website, www.musiccenter.org. It will be rebroadcast at 6 p.m. Sunday on KOCE and at 9 p.m. Sunday and noon Monday on KCET-TV Channel 28.

Tickets are not required. Seating is on a first-come, first-seated basis. Seating is not guaranteed.

Doors open at 2:30 p.m. A line on the Hope Street side of Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center starts forming at roughly 9 a.m. Parking is free in The Music Center garage.

There will be holiday-themed performances by 23 professional and community-based music and dance ensembles, children's and adult choirs during the celebration which will be hosted by opera singer Suzanna Guzmán for the 10th year and actor/model/disabilities advocate Danny J. Gomez.

The Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles will perform at the celebration for the 33rd consecutive year, singing upbeat holiday songs. It is scheduled to perform between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

The Klezmer-Rock band Mostly Kosher will be joined by the Jewish Youth Orchestra, a community-based ensemble of high school and university-aged musicians, in a performance between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Groups set to perform from 3-4 p.m. include:

-- The South Side Symphony, an 18-piece Black youth orchestra which fuses soul, hip-hop and jazz with classical technique;

-- The RAISE singers, an 18-member soul-gospel-R&B choir;

-- Técnica Arte y Folklore, a Mexican folklorico group;

-- the Pasadena Girls' Choir, which consists of singers 7-17; and

-- the Christian Fellowship Chorale, a 30-member gospel choir accompanied by piano, guitar, bass & drums.

Groups set to perform from 4-5 p.m. include:

-- Torrance Civic Chorale & South Bay Children's Choir;

-- The Hiza Yoo Korean Dance Institute (Korean dance);

-- the all-female choir VOX Femina Los Angeles;

-- the nine-piece Latin jazz band Gabrielito y La Verdad whose repertoire includes salsa, cha, boogaloo, funk, Cumbia and Latin soul;

-- the Ramón C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts' vocal ensemble Treble on Grand which performs a cappella accompanied jazz songs and pop music;

-- the Los Angeles-based Bulgarian folk dance ensemble XoroTroptzi; and

-- the MUSYCA Children's Choir.

Other groups set to perform from 5-6 p.m. include:

-- the dance and drumline group Divas and Drummers of Compton, which reached the quarterfinals of "America's Got Talent" and performed in the Super Bowl LVI pregame show;

-- The Palmdale High School Chamber Singers a cappella choir ensemble and the Antelope Valley-based choral group The Sunday Night Singers;

-- City College's the Citrus Singers, a 30-member choir with which performs with handbells;

-- the tap dance ensemble Reverb Tap; and

-- the two-time Grammy-winning all-female mariachi ensemble Mariachi Divas de Cindy Shea.

More information on the celebration is available on its website, HolidayCelebration.org.