Christmas meal ideas in LA

[coweepooh]

Sooo...going back to LA for Christmas with my boyfriend and will be having dinner with just my Dad and boyfriend on Christmas day.

I was thinking of cooking but thats unlikely--my dad would probably like something with ham, turkey, and the traditional thanksgiving-like and christmas meal fixings...

I read somewhere that someone had luck with the Ritz Carlton buffet for Christmas last year...could someone shed some light on:

-cost of the Ritz Christmas buffet
-some main points of the buffet and what it has
-anything different or whats amazing about it: like international dishes, or great desserts, etc
-how was the ambience of it

Also--any other suggestions? One other idea was to order Honeybaked but now its kind of last second so I'm not sure if we can still do that for pick up--is honeybaked even open on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?

My options are mainly already set-cooked meals that I can just pick up...from a restaurant or catering place but for 3-4 people...with all the fixings and dessert and such

OR

Going to a restaurant and the more I think about it...the more a nice buffet seems to sound unless theres somewhere stellar that we should try for a special Christmas dinner =)

Thanks SOOOO much for your help--will be trying to make final decisions by end of today or Saturday this weekend at the latest...

[perk]

Check out "Open Table" and find out who's open on Christmas Eve and Day, what their menus are and who has reservations open. It's a safe bet that any high end hotel will serve a holiday meal.
I'm not sure when Honeybaked is open, but don't forget the crowds that line up to get their holiday hams. I always end up driving by one of two of them, and the lines are amazing. So factor that in. The better grocery stores (Gelson's, Whole Foods, Bristol Farms) all have good holiday meals to go, and you can usually order them with short notice. I know friends who did that for Thanksgiving, and even finished the turkey in the oven....so the house smelled good and it seemed as if someone had cooked it at home.