I'm looking to do some basic encryption of server messages which would be encrypted with C++ and decrypted using Python server side.  I was wondering if anyone knew if there were good solutions that were simpler or more lightweight than Keyczar.  I see that supports both C++ and python, but would using Crypto++ and PyCrypto be simpler for a newbie that just wants to get something up and running for the time being?
Or should I use Keyczar for python and Crypto++ for the C++ end?  The C++ libraries seem to have dependencies to hundreds of files.
The C++ libraries seem to have dependencies to hundreds of files.
I don't know much about Python, but that is absolutely normal for C++. I'd recommend Crypto++ -- it's a great easy to use library, and it's public domain, meaning you won't have any license problems with it.
EDIT: Keep in mind a large library with lots of code does not mean that you're going to pay in terms of object code. If there are functions you don't use (Crypto++ supports hundreds of algorithms) they won't be compiled into the resulting binary.
Lightweight cryptography toolkit(s) for C++ and Python