While there are always new shows in December (see December 2023 New York Theater Openings), the heart of theater during the month is in many ways the annual holiday shows — plays, ballets, operas, concerts, musicals, burlesques, and hybrid entertainments — some of which have reappeared each December for decades. Some are bracingly expensive; most are not. Some are surprisingly raunchy; most are family fare. Some are so popular that they are already sold out (maybe you can plan early for next year.)

Any guide to holiday shows in New York must begin with the three staples of New York City holiday theatergoing: “The Radio City Christmas Spectacular,” “George Balanchine’s the Nutcracker” (and about a dozen sweet alternatives), and the many variations of “A Christmas Carol.”

Rockettes, Nutcrackers and Carols

Radio City Christmas Spectacular (Radio City Music Hall)
Now through January 1, 2024

This 90-minute show starring the Radio City Rockettes (36 at each performance, 80 total) has been an annual tradition since 1933, helping to define the holiday season.

Here’s a sample of their performance at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (their performance in the parade  is another long-time tradition):

Tickets are $72 to $497 , depending on seat but also when you go (There are as many as five shows a day; the morning show is typically the least expensive, the one at 4 p.m. the most.)

The Mother of All Nutcracker Suites

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker NYC Ballet (Lincoln Center’s Koch Theater)
Now through December 31, 2023

An annual tradition since 1954, New York City Ballet employs all of its 90 dancers, as well as 62 musicians, 32 stagehands and two casts of 50 young students each from the School of American Ballet to present this Tchaikovsky-scored ballet about a brave young girl who “turns the tide in a battle between toy soldiers and mischievous mice.” There’s also an onstage blizzard and a Christmas tree that grows to 40 feet.

Here is dancer Emma Van Enck performing (and explaining) the Marzipan Shepherdess number in the Nutcracker.

Tickets run from $95 to $325. plus up to $12 additional fees per ticket, 

Alternative Nutcrackers

Company XIV’s Nutcracker Rouge (Theater XIV, Bushwick)
Through January 28, 2024
An annual tradition since 2013, Austin McCormick and his erotic dance-theater group present the Burlesque version of the Nutcracker Suite in Bushwick, strictly for ages 18 and over.

My First Nutcracker at New York City Children’s Theater, best for ages 3-8 (Dec 2-21), Jersey City Nutcracker (Dec 8-23), Park Avenue Chamber Symphony Insideout Nutcracker (December 9) The Yorkville Nutcracker (December 14-17),  New York Theatre Ballet’s Nutcracker (in NYC December 16 and 17), The Bang Group’s Nut/Cracked (Dec 16 at 92NY, Dec 17 online), The Brooklyn Nutcracker (Dec 16), The Hip Hop Nutcracker at NJPAC in Newark (Dec 23)

And right now, online through AllArts, you can watch A Nutcracker (Un Casse-Noisette) by French choreographer Bouba Landrille Tchouda, and on December 17 and 18, four other Nutcrackers as well: The Hip Hop Nutcracker, Anthony Williams’Urban Nutcracker, a version by the Prague National Theatre, and one choreographed by Vasily Vainonen,.

A Christmas Carols

The most produced plays throughout the country — second only to Shakespeare — are stage adaptations of Charles Dickens’ novella about Scrooge’s ghostly visits scaring him into dropping his miserly ways. Here are three long-running productions:

A Christmas Carol The Musical, (through December 30) is celebrating its 15^th  annual holiday run at the Players Theater.
 A Christmas Carol at The Merchant House Museum (through December 24th), is celebrating its 11th holiday run.
A Christmas Carol at McCarter Theater (December 6-24)

Two solo versions:
Mr. Neil Gaiman’s A Christmas Carol at Town Hall (Dec 18 and 19)

Guy Masterson’s solo A Christmas Carol at SoHo Playhouse (December 20-30)

Two unique angles:

Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol (from Scrooge’s business partner Jacob Marley’s point of view) at Queens Theater (Dec 15-23)

Filthy Lucre: A Burlesque Christmas Carol (a nude strip club owner rethinks her priorities) at Laurie Beechman Theater (Dec 8- 23)

A Nutcracker AND A Christmas Carol

One holiday staple, now in its 20th year, combines both Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol: Los Nutcrackers: A Christmas Carajo at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance  “a gay, Latino comedic play” December 2 through December 16

Other Annual Holiday Traditions

Peter and the Wolf (Guggenheim)
December 8 – 10
Isaac Mizrahi narrates, directs and costumes Sergei Prokofiev’s children’s classic, which in thirty minutes tells the story of a boy living in the Russian Wilderness, meeting a host of animal friends (each with different melody played by a different instrument) until his grandfather warns him of the dangers of the wolf

The Magic Flute Holiday Presentation (Metropolitan Opera)
Dec 8 – 30
An abridged, family-friendly version of Mozart’s musical fairy tale. Julie Taymor directed this 100-minute English-language version. She also created the costumes and the puppets.

Seven in One Blow, or The Brave Little Kid (Axis Theater)
December 3-17
An interactive holiday show for children, now in its 22nd year, based on the classic fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, in which a boy gets an unjustly fearsome reputation after swatting flies

The 13^th Annual Joe Iconis Christmas Extravaganza (54 Below)
December 8-10
The cast for the holiday concert numbers some fifty performers, including Annie Golden, Will Roland, and Andrew Barth Feldman

Times Square Angel (Theater for the New City)
December 11
The 24th annual holiday performance written and starring Charles Busch in his homage to holiday films from the 1940s. He portrays Irish O’Flanagan, a tough-as-nails nightclub chanteuse in 1940’s Manhattan who makes Scrooge look like a sentimental sap.

Alvin Ailey: Revelations (New York City Center)
through December 31
This dance company’s program changes from night to night, but they always make sure to include Revelations, a soulful dance that uses African-American spirituals, song-sermons, gospel songs and holy blues to explore the places of deepest grief and holiest joy.

New (or non-annual) Holiday Shows

Journey to the Rainbow: Big Apple Circus and Circus Roncalli (Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park)
Dec 3 – Jan 1
A new show presenting dreamlike wonderland blending New York City’s hometown circus with the romance and magic of today’s European circus tradition. The show promises fourteen circus and variety acts performed by 34 artists from around the world in a big tent.

Twas the Night Before Christmas (The Theater at Madison Square Garden)
Dec 7 – 28
Cirque du Soleil muscled in on the seasonal holiday show four years ago with this acrobatic take on “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” the famous poem by Clement Clarke Moore, and my first thought was: Why didn’t they think of this before! They disappeared last year, but now have returned.

Iluminate (New World Stages)
through January 21
Acrobatic dancers glow in the dark. The combination of the technology and the choreography makes for a stunning spectacle of a show, which I first saw in a now defunct downtown theater seven years, but not since.

It’s a Wonderful Life: Live radio play
through December 10
This stage adaptation by Joe Landry of the 1946 starring James Stewart, which has been bouncing around with different directors at various venues, lands this year at the Heights Players in Brooklyn

Isaac Oliver’s Lonely Christmas (Ars Nova)
Dec 11-12
a holly-jolly-melancholy show

Lady Bunny: A Very Blue Christmas (Laurie Beechman Theater)
Dec 7 – 15
Lady Bunny is always around for the holidays, always raunchy, but never the same. The latest show is a raunchy spin on some 30 Christmas classics