Dance

George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker

Thru Dec 28 Every other holiday event feels like a footnote to George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s triumphant score, Balanchine’s choreography, Ian Falconer’s costumes, McCaw decorated to the nines, the snowswept sets and company encompassing cast—all that evergreen grandeur only cements it as the city’s epitomic tradition. McCaw Hall

Dance

Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker

Dec 7–30 If you like PNB’s take on The Nutcracker well enough but think it needs something—maybe that’s table-side food and drink, or a grinding jazz band, or pasties and glitter—Verlaine and McCann’s annual Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker has you covered, even as its spirited cast takes it all off. The Triple Door

Classical

The Tenors

Dec 2 The Tenors are likely what you’d get were you to cross the Three Tenors (a whole different group) with the Backstreet Boys. When the Canadian vocalists come to Benaroya in support of last year’s Christmas Together album, expect a fair amount of hair gel, at least one fedora, and blessedly glossy seasonal harmonies. Benaroya Hall

Special Events

A John Waters Christmas

“The Christmas tree fell over on my grandmother when I was young, and it’s become a holiday memory we all share.” —John Waters

Dec 2 The Father Christmas of Filth returns with his yearly one-man show, A John Waters Christmas. Gird yourself for festive transgressions. The Neptune Theatre

Theater

A Christmas Carol

Thru Dec 28 Why is it that the greatest holiday art—see It’s a Wonderful Life or Elvis’s “Blue Christmas”—is so eager to bum you out? Is it just that, to truly accept redemption, you must first have your happiness razed? Well, if so, A Christmas Carol, returning for its 43rd time, is a damn bulldozer. The Allen Theatre