Holiday Lesson: The Nutcracker Ballet

My toddler adores the Nutcracker Ballet, and who doesn’t? The music is memorable and beautiful, the story is enchanting, and it feels like Christmas can’t come until we’ve watched it at least once. Between my time teaching elementary music and my daughter’s obsession with the ballet, I’ve made a holiday lesson for the Nutcracker based on a professional kid-friendly performance, that you can find on YouTube! Read on for the link, my suggestions to make the ballet a lesson, and a free PDF!

For all intents and purposes, I have the video that I use linked at the end of this article. It’s the 1993 New York City Ballet doing Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, but this version is special: it was recorded to be like a children’s movie, complete with narration by Kevin Kline.

Here’s what I did: I made time stamps on a separate PDF that you can print out, which aligns with the movie. Instead of just playing the video with your kids, you can use my guide to point out various plot points or other interesting things about the story. That way your child will learn as they watch and listen – and you might, too!

Some interesting facts about this rendition of the Nutcracker:

• This is the 1993 New York Ballet performance.
• Kevin Kline is the narrator.
• You probably will recognize the young actor playing the Nutcracker, too! (Hint: he was left at home for Christmas three years before this.)
• Traditionally the girl’s name was Clara but was changed in this film to Marie.
• Speaking of the characters in the Nutcracker, you can get a detailed write-up of each (and some backstory) here.
• You can read more about the reviews and the initial release of the film on its Wikipedia page here.
• You can order your own copy of the movie here. (affiliate link)
• And if you’d like me favorite children’s book version of the story, you can check it out here. (affiliate link)

And a few tips when watching this movie with your child:

• The * in my PDF indicates a part that might be a little intense or scary for little ones.
• Feel free to use the intermission as a halfway point, so you can break up the movie into separate sessions or days.
• Encourage your child to tell you how the scenes make them feel, or what they think of.
• I love showing kids about the fascinating point shoes, which only the adult female dancers use. I happened to find this video while perusing Facebook late one night and it’s really neat, about what rituals and routines various ballerinas do when it comes to those precious point shoes!
• We also like to do a lesson the next day where the kids get to make artwork about the Nutcracker story, using markers or paint or Playdoh. We love all kinds of imaginative play which you can read more about here.
• Listen to the soundtrack when you’re cooking, letting the kids play, or driving in the car. They’ll soon be able to associate the part of the story with each particular track. That’s the beauty of a ballet – it’s a musical tale!
• Finally, look up any local performances of the Nutcracker to see if you could take the family to a live show. Even if it’s at the community elementary school, it’s really neat to see familiar characters and hear familiar themes in another rendition! Plus hooray for supporting the arts!

If you’d like to get the complete list of all of my favorite family-friendly holiday movies, check out my article here.

And here it is! Your free PDF worksheet download that has the time stamps of “kid points of interest”! Enjoy, and thanks for pinning or sharing this content!