THE CHRISTMAS BEAT GOES ON. Apparently some people think that 150 drunken Santas are a sign that your neighborhood might be going to hell! In the Village Voice, Tricia Romano continues her coverage of police crackdowns with a tale of a Santa-infested Avenue B bar ticketed “for operating a disorderly premises.”

And in New York Press, Christopher Ketcham offers an outlaw Christmas memory straight outta Brooklyn, around Smith Street. (It begins "When the heady Christmas weeks are over....") The piece is no "Auggie Wren" but it still has a certain There Goes the Neighborhood appeal.

Meanwhile, way down yonder in New Orleans....

Photos: David Marc Fischer