George Balanchine’s production of The Nutcracker, choreographed in 1954 for the six-year-old New York City Ballet, is lovingly rooted in the original Mariinsky production, which was created in 1892 by Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Balanchine, who’d been a student at the Mariinsky, knew the ballet well, and today his Nutcracker is the best in the world. The Christmas tree—which grows to 41 feet tall, 23 feet wide at the base, and with a projection of four feet and six inches—is in a class by itself. When it climbs to the rafters, your soul climbs too. A beloved New York City tradition, the production glitters like an Old World ornament that’s been handed down through the generations. Of The Nutcracker and its power, Balanchine said, “In every person the best, the most important part is that which remains from his childhood.” —Laura Jacobs