By Guy D. Garcia

It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the White House last week. The tree arrived, a 20-ft. blue spruce from Michigan. Nancy and Ronald Reagan, meanwhile, were sending off the official presidential Christmas card, a reproduction of a Jamie Wyeth painting that shows the White House's north portico under a blanket of snow marked by a winding trail of squirrel tracks. Printed and mailed at the expense of the Republican National Committee, the card will go out to 125,000 friends and supporters, about 50,000 more than last year. The Reagans apparently acquired some new friends on the road to the President's recent 49-state electoral triumph. The First Couple have even decided on a gift for each other: a new pickup truck for the ranch. It may have been the President's second choice, actually. Asked by reporters what he wanted from Santa Claus, he responded, "Minnesota would have been nice."

It was the night of a lifetime-five lifetimes, to be more precise. Said an awed Danny Kaye: "You get to the top and just before you start down you know that that is the very top of where you are going." Comic Actor Kaye, 71, shared the pinnacle moment last week in Washington with Singer Lena Home, 67, Opera Composer Gian Carlo Menotti, 73, Playwright Arthur Miller, 69, and Violinist Isaac Stern, 64. The quintet were receiving this year's Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime achievement in the arts. They join a select company of only 30 other recipients.

For late-night rock 'n' rollers it was an ungodly hour, but the gig was for an exceptional cause. So 37 top musicians made a point of showing up at 10:30 a.m. in a London studio to record Do They Know It's Christmas? The one-day superstar session-dubbed Band Aid-was organized by Bob Geldof, leader of the British group Boomtown Rats, to raise money for the famine victims of Ethiopia. The $2 single, which will be released in the U.S. this week, has already sold a million copies in England, where it appeared three weeks ago. The record is "enough to make a difference, but it's also a statement," says Sting, part of the charity jam. The money raised so far is already on its way to Ethiopia through Band Aid Trust, an organization of rockers and business executives.

Actress Sonia Braga, 34, seems to have a penchant for multiples on the screen. In her most famous role, the Brazilian Loren played Dona Flor, she of the two husbands. And now Braga has a three-part undertaking. In Kiss of the Spider Woman, two prisoners, played by Raul Julia and William Hurt, pass time in jail as Hurt's character recounts the plots of early Hollywood movies he has seen, including one about a French chanteuse named Leni Lamaison and another about the title Spider Woman. Braga plays both, as well as Julia's girlfriend. Of the three, Braga found Leni the most intriguing "because she was a woman of the '40s like Joan Crawford." But with Braga around, who needs to be nostalgic?

-By Guy D. Garcia