Any guide to holiday theatergoing in New York City must begin with the three annual staples: “The Radio City Christmas Spectacular” starring the Radio City Rockettes, “George Balanchine’s the Nutcracker” (and about a dozen sweet or sassy alternatives), and the many variations of “A Christmas Carol.” But there’s more — plays, ballets, operas, concerts, musicals, burlesques, and hybrid entertainments that have reappeared each December, some for decades. Some are bracingly expensive, most not; a few are surprisingly raunchy, most are family fare. There are always new holiday show; I include a few examples below that might be hoping to become future annual traditions.
ROCKETTES, NUTCRACKERS AND A CHRISTMAS CAROLS
Radio City Christmas Spectacular (Radio City Music Hall)
Now through January 5
The Radio City Rockettes are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year, but the show for which they are now best known didn’t begin until 1933, 90 minutes of singing, dancing, and comedy, performed by 36 Rockettes at a time plus some 100 more cast members.
Tickets are $48 to $710 , depending on where you sit and when you go (There are as many as five shows a day; the morning show is typically the least expensive — except on Christmas Eve ,
The Mother of All Nutcracker Suites
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker NYC Ballet (Lincoln Center’s Koch Theater)
Now through January 4, 2026
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 two-hour-long 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.
Alternative Nutcrackers
Company XIV’s Nutcracker Rouge (Theater XIV, Bushwick), through February 14, 2026, annual tradition since 2013, a burlesque for ages 18 and over; “Nutcracker Sweets” (Puppetworks Dec 6- 30); My First Nutcracker (Theater row, Dec 6); Francis Patrelle’s “The Yorkville Nutcracker” The Kaye Playhouse, Dec 11-14); Princess Lockerooo’s The NutWAACKer (Guggenheim, Dec 12)Nut/Cracked (92NY, Dec 13 & 16 in person, Dec 14-18 online), The Brooklyn Nutcracker” Kings Theater Dec 16; Keith Michael’s Nutcracker (Florence Gould Theater, Dec 19-21)
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.
Among the longest-running productions in New York City are A Christmas Carol The Musical, (Nov 30 — Dec30), celebrating its 17th annual holiday run at the Players Theater in Greenwich Village, and
A Christmas Carol at The Merchant House Museum (through December 27th), celebrating its 13th holiday run.
Then there is A Christmas Carol, at PACNYC, opening December 4 and running through January 4
One of the most acclaimed recent theatrical adaptations of Dickens’ story ran on Broadway in 2019, adapted by Jack Thorne (who also wrote Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Stranger Things: The First Shadow) and directed by Matthew Warchus (Matilda, God of Carnage, etc.) I loved its wondrous stagecraft, though not its length, and was surprised it did not become an annual event. But now that production, with a different cast and a new co-director, has come to the performing arts center at the World Trade Center site. (PACNYC didn’t yet exist when this version of A Christmas Carol ran on Broadway)
A Nutcracker AND A Christmas Carol
One holiday staple, now in its 22nd year, combines both Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol: “Los Nutcrackers: A Christmas Carajo,” December 5 – 13 (simultaneously live-streamed on December 7 and 12) at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (aka BAAD)
The queer Latin comedy tells the story of Carlos and Gabriel, a couple together for 15 years whose incessant bickering sends them into the queer heavens, where a ghetto diva spirit guides them on a whirlwind journey of their shared history.
OTHER ANNUAL HOLIDAY TRADITIONS
Alvin Ailey at New York City Center
December 3 – January 4
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.
‘Twas the Night Before by Cirque du Soleil (Theater at MSG)
December 4 – 28, 2025
Cirque du Soleil introduced this holiday show in 2019, an acrobatic take on “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” the famous poem by Clement Clarke Moore (“Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…”) and the first thought I had then was: Why didn’t they think of this before?
In the show, a jaded girl named Isabella gains the holiday spirit after she meets the characters from the poem, and is dazzled (as are we) by Cirque’s spectacular acts of derring-do.
Peter and the Wolf (Guggenheim Museum)
December 5 – 14
Since 2007, Isaac Mizrahi annually narrates, directs and costumes Sergei Prokofiev’s children’s classic musical story, 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
Seven in One Blow, or The Brave Little Kid (Axis Theater)
December 5-21
An interactive holiday show for children, now in its 24th year, based on the classic fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, in which a boy gets an unjustly fearsome reputation after swatting flies
The Magic Flute Holiday Presentation (Metropolitan Opera)
December 11 – January 3
An abridged, family-friendly version of Mozart’s musical fairy tale. Julie Taymor (The Lion King) directed this 100-minute English-language version. She also created the costumes and the puppets.
The show is accompanied by an illustrated synopsis. “Complimentary face painting will be available before the matinee performances on December 27, 29, and 30 and January 3.”
The 15th Annual Joe Iconis Christmas Extravaganza, (54 Below)
Dec 12 – 14
The always huge, theater-heavy cast this year includes Annie Golden.
Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce (Town Hall)
December 19
I saw an online version of this show during the pandemic and found it.. weird, with the star looking like a tropical fruit monster, or as Mac had told costume designer Machine Dazzle and make-up artist Anastasia Durasova, “make it look like a public-access show on LSD.”
NON-ANNUAL HOLIDAY SHOWS
Merry Mayhem (New Victory Theater)
December 5 – 28
Australia’s Circus Oz “tumbles, tussles and trapezes to the beat of a live rock band”
Bread and Puppet’s The Christmas Story (Theater for the New City)
December 11 – 14
ary and Joseph sleep with the cows because they don’t have $26.50 for a room at the Sandy Arms motel. King Herod laments the balance-of-payment deficit. The bubble-headed bourgeoisie of Jerusalem dismiss the star in the east as a publicity stunt. An “ancient story remade for today’s horrors”
Edelweiss (Soho Playhouse)
Dec 13-21
It’s Christmas Eve and the news of Santa Claus’s sudden death has thrown the North Pole into chaos. Elves and reindeer riot in the streets, the Gingerbread House of Commons crumbles and Mrs. Claus boards a Southbound Polar Express leaving the denizens of the North Pole shell shocked. Join four elves and a reindeer as they come together to sing and dance their way through the five stages of grief; and, perhaps, discover they can save Christmas after all. A complicated-sounding plot, but just 40 minutes long.
Amahl and the Night Visitors (Lincoln Center)
Dec 16-Jan 4. Opens Dec 18.
Kenny Leon directs this family opera (just 45 minutes long) composed by Gian Carlo Menotti, in association with the Metropolitan Opera, with Broadway favorite Philip Boykin and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. In the desert lands of the first century, a young boy catches the sight of a giant star. Later that evening, as his mother prays for the family’s future, they are visited by three wondrous kings whose unexpected arrival opens the way for Amahl’s heartfelt generosity to shine as brightly as the star itself. T
