Swimsuits On: New Year's Day Polar Bear Skate

Easy quiz: Which citizens are the most cavalier in all the land, when it comes to matters of fine winter weather and parading about in shorts and T-shirts?

Why that would be us, dear SoCalers: We are incredibly, charmingly cavalier, especially come the end of the year, just about the time when icy blasts are hitting much of the nation and we're still busy applying sunblock.

But not this year: A brisk-breezed cold snap has us bundling up, which will make the New Year's Day Polar Bear Skate an opportunity for we braggers to put our money where our mouth is.

Or, rather, our swimsuit in the place where a sweater and jeans would normally be. For the Polar Bear Skate, which shall twirl at Holiday on Ice at Pershing Square on Thursday, Jan. 1, is all about people dressing for July in January, something Angelenos are rather good at, except for the fact that it will actually be a mite frosty on New Year's Day.

For the predicted high that day is 56 — nope, we didn't mean to type "86" which is not an uncommon temperature on New Year's Day 'round these parts — and the low will dip into the high 30s.

Brrrr for sure. The sunglasses-and-swimsuit skate is on from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., and 30 plush polar bears hat'll be handed out to the first 30 people who take the plunge. Or pirouette, rather.

Prizes'll go out to creative costumes and get-ups and such, too. 

Beach attire is the only name of the holiday game, and the usual admission price and skate rental fee will put you on the ice.

So can you live up to all of that bragging you do to cold out-of-staters? About how we Southern Californians can still rock our swimsuits in January? What if you had to wear your trunks and nothing else on an ice rink on a 56-degree day?

Just keep that a cup of hot cocoa at the ready. You've sipped hot cocoa in your bikini before, right? It might be a new SoCal first, on the first day of the year.