the nutcracker

is the perfect holiday date.  let me tell you why.

taking a girl to the nutcracker:

           1) proves that you are cultured and confident enough to choose to go to a ballet.  being willing to sporadically watch people spin around in tights is manly.  that's it.  the end.  kaput.  any joe can watch football.  which is fine.  but joe becomes joseph when he goes to the ballet.  

           2) gives the girl a chance to dress up.  you can go as fancy as your little heart desires.  and let me assure you that pretty much every girls' little heart desires to go fancy.  

           3) probably involves a trip downtown in whatever town you're in.  and that town is probably decked out in lights for christmas making the whole evening seem glowing and magical.  girls LOVE that stuff.  

           4) comes close to fulfilling childhood dreams.  not every, but most every little girl at one point wants to be a dancer, spotlighted, up on a stage, performing perfectly, possibly in a tutu.  not every, but most every little girl never attains that dream.  but taking her to watch those dancers dancing comes real, real close.  and scores you tons of points.  

i love The Nutcracker.  i have ever since i was a little pink-tighted, tutu wearing thing wishing i could be Clara with a nutcracker of my own.  my dad's really the reason that i love it though.  i was probably five when he took me to it for the first time.  i think it was just me and him, that's how i remember it at least.  i remember watching the costumes floating by and thinking that i could certainly do those things, that it couldn't be so hard.  i remember being shocked when the christmas tree grew as the mouse king came and the nutcracker came to life and when mother buffoon could hide so many kids under one skirt.  i fell in love with it then and have been in love with it since.  so i go every time i get a chance.  

one of my most memorable chances to see the nutcracker was when i was on a study abroad in vienna.  the viennese ballet was doing a performance with the philharmonic at the opera house.  tess and i thought we were in for the treat of a lifetime.  boy were we ever wrong.  they changed the story, changed the sequence, changed the music, and ended with clara and the nutcracker getting married.  clara is 12.  the nutcracker is made out of wood.  preposterous match.  i forced my dad to take me to the "real" version the next year so i could forget what'd i'd seen in austria.  but the memory still haunts me.  which probably just means i need to see it again.