Giveaway: Tickets to see The Nutcracker at Walton Arts Center

12/05/2011 nwamamas

You know the holidays are getting close when The Nutcracker comes to town. We’ve got FOUR tickets so you and your family or friends can go see the opening night performance at the Walton Arts Center on Saturday, December 17th at 8 p.m. This show has become a special holiday tradition for many families in Northwest Arkansas.

We’re pairing these tickets with dinner at Bordinos. Woot!

ABOUT THE SHOW: The holidays just aren’t the holidays without Clara, The Mouse King and Sugar Plum Fairy. This production of The Nutcracker is performed by the esteemed Moscow Classical Ballet, which is one of the few remaining ballet companies supported by the Russian Government.

According to The New York Times, “The troupe boasts a cluster of phenomenal young dancers… and its corps performs in an uncluttered, streamlined style.” Regularly performing at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses in Moscow, they have also performed in more than 30 countries around the world.

ABOUT THE FOOD: Speaking of classics, Bordinos is the perfect choice to round out the The Nutcracker experience. Awesome food, great service and a fabulous atmosphere = dinner perfection. Motherlode winners always tell us they’re treated like queens! Click here to see the menu.

HOW TO ENTER: To throw your name in the hat for this giveaway package, click the orange comment button below and tell us what one of your favorite holiday traditions is. Baking the cookies? Putting up the decorations? Church candlelight services? Wrapping the gifts? We love those days off from school when the kids can stay in pajamas all day, drink cocoa and play board games.

You can also enter the drawing by sending your answer to giveaways@nwaMotherlode.com.

HOW TO INCREASE YOUR ODDS: Help us spread the word about this giveaway to your friends and family and we’ll give you an extra chance to win for each person you tell. Just send a note to your friends and be sure to put giveaways@nwaMotherlode.com on the CC line of your note so we can give you proper credit.

As you know, this show is well-known and extremely popular. So if you’d like to guarantee your seats, click HERE for ticket info or call the Walton Arts Center Box Office at 479-443-5600 to purchase tickets.

Good luck in the giveaway drawing. As always, winners are chosen at RANDOM.


Related Posts

152 Comments

  1. I love decorating the house and Christmas Eve church service. I also really love going on tacky light tours.

  2. Our favorite holiday tradition is making a gingerbread house. Sometimes we make one really nice one, and sometimes each of us make one.

  3. We love to go to JBU’s Christmas Candlelight Service. Another favorite tradition is doing the Advent Calendar–we have 3. 🙂

  4. One of our favorite holiday traditions is decorating the tree and reminiscing with each special ornament about special events in our lives.

  5. I am excited that we have started new family traditions. My family has gotten together the last couple of years at my house and my mom doesn’t have to feel the burden anymore. She comes over the night before and she and I get everything prepared for the feast! I am enjoying getting to know my mother as an adult and share that bond!

  6. I love the cold weather around the holidays, especially snow days when you can go outside and go sledding, build snowmen, and make snow angels. Going downtown to the Fayetteville Square and looking at the Christmas lights while you can see your breath is one of my favorites too! :o)

  7. My favorite tradition is attending the 11:00 pm Christmas Eve church service with my family.

  8. Favorite Christmas tradition is attending Christmas Eve services at my home church, Good Shepherd Lutheran in Fayetteville, then heading to my mom and dad’s house to have a meal of ALL APPETIZERS! The next morning after Santa gifts, we go back to Mom and Dad’s in our PJs and enjoy Dad’s prime rib for dinner!

  9. I LOVE the Nutcracker! I remember going to see it when I was 6. Our girl scout troop went & I have never forgotten the wonderment I felt. I would love to take my 5 yr old daughter!

  10. My favorite tradition is driving around, as a family, looking at Christmas lights in our town.

  11. Baking Christmas cookies and hanging ornaments each day of Advent on our Jesse Tree!

  12. My favorite tradition is having my grandkids to the house to help put up the tree and all the decorations. I would love to take them to see the Nutcracker.

  13. We love the Christmas Eve service at our church. Very special time and it keeps it all in perspective:-)

  15. I love everything about Christmas!! Decorating, snow, baking cookies…but I really enjoy teaching my kids about giving to others like Jesus did for us.

  19. My favorite Christmas tradition is the weekend after Thanksgiving we look at Christmas lights and that same weekend as a child we would also pick out an angel off the angel tree and buy for that child and it was exciting as a child to buy for another child, mom always let me pick the gifts and I now that my daughter is old enough to grasp the concept we do the same thing!

  20. My favorite holiday tradition is watching Cristmas movies by the light of the Christmas tree. I love seeing my kids all wrapped up in pajamas and blankets watching the same movies I did when I was a kid.

  22. I love so many things. The decorations, music, etc. But my favorite is a traditional Christmas eve service and reflecting on the best gift of all.

  23. My favorite Christmas tradition is sitting around the tree with all the family listening to the “old favorite” Christmas songs by people like Nat King Cole, Andy Williams and Harry Belafonte. We open all our gifts under the tree by Christmas Eve and then Santa comes and “refills” it. : )

  24. I love the Christmas season for so many reasons but I think I love the special services at church, especially the candle light service. It’s a beautiful calm feeling reflecting on the gift given so many years ago.

  25. Our favorite traditions are decorating the tree and finishing by my husband lifting our son up to put the star on top and emptying our stockings Christmas morning to see what surprises have been left for us.

  26. I love baking Christmas cookies, making fudge, watching “Eloise at Christmastime”, and seeing my child’s excited, happy face on Christmas morning.

  27. My favorite tradition is decorating the tree. I buy ornaments whenever we travel, so decorating the tree is a walk down memory lane for me.

  28. We love the candle light service at church, decorating our tree, and tonight, watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas” while eating Christmas cookies.

  29. I am excited to cook the traditional meals that have been in my family for three generations. I get everything prepared with my mom before everyone arrives. Sometimes, My mom cries because she use to make those meals with her mom. I just enjoy getting to know my mother share that bond she had with her mother!

  30. One of my new favorite traditions is a candlelight Christmas Eve service with my family. I love being with them and celebrating the birth of our Lord.

  31. I love this beautiful season! I always think back to the traditions my family had when I was a child. I’ve tried to keep those for my family today. We enjoy the special Christmas services, baking and candy making, and the fun times together with family and friends.

  32. We have a new tradition this year that I think has now become my FAVORITE tradition! We have an Elf! He gets in to trouble some nights (he drew on my oldest daughters homework) but it is SO much fun to wake up every morning and watch the kids look for him. They are having so much fun!!

  33. My favorite tradition is opening Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve night and wearing them all day on Christmas while we open gifts and watch movies.

  34. I started reading “The Night Before Christmas” to our kids when they were young on Christmas Eve. Now 15 and 9, they read it to us!

  35. My favorite tradition is Christmas eve pajamas! Ever since I was a little girl we’d always get a new pair, and my sister and I would get my mom a new pair, because a single mom she didn’t buy herself new pajamas EVER- she’d wear those jammies year ’round!
    Now that I have 4 kids of my own they all get new pajamas and house shoes, as does my husband… and I always pick up a pair of jammies for my mom too. It’s just not Christmas without ’em!

  36. I haven’t seen The Nutcracker in years, and I don’t think my hubby has ever seen it. We’d love to go!

  37. Our favorite holiday tradition is to have Christmas night be the focus on Jesus birthday. We get the kiddos together and we make their favorite, Angel Food Cake and we have French Onion Soup and we put our party hats on and get our noisemakers going and we sing happy birthday and celebrate the birth of Jesus.

  38. I love making Christmas candy! Martha Stewart has a great recipe for truffles!

  40. My favorite tradition is celebrating advent and coming up with new ways to count down to Christmas. This year: 25 random acts of kindness. So fun!

  41. Baking Jesus a birthday cake with my two little girls is our favorite tradition!! We even leave a piece for Santa!

  42. My favorite Christmas tradition is putting up the tree with my kids and watching Christmas Movies. The Nutcracker is actually their new favorite. They (3 & 6) watched it 3 times last weekend and mimicked the dancing. My son (6) would pick up my daughter and she would put her feet out while he would spin her around! So fun to watch them!

  43. My favorite Christmas memories include baking with my mom. We always made spritz cookies with a cookie press, and we always fought with the darn cookie press! We laughed and fussed and made such a mess, but we enjoyed every moment. Now that we live three hours apart, those are the times we miss the most at Christmastime!

  44. I love the long nights before Christmas day setting up the toys so perfectly to see little eyes glem in the morning!

  45. One of my favorite Holiday traditions that I enjoyed so much was picking out the Christmas tree. The family would all load up, drive the half hour to the Christmas tree farm, discussing the type, size, and shape of the tree we wanted. It would have always rained the night before it seemed so out in the mud we would trapse. “Over here! Look at this one! I found it!” over and over those words would echo until one kid lost and one kid got found and there in the middle of it all was THE TREE! I miss those days and enjoyed them as some of my favorite times with my husband and kids.

  46. My favorite tradition is packing the kids and the presents up on Christmas Eve and going across town to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a fun night of cooking, baking and watching TV. We have done this every year since the kids were little and even today as young adults and teenagers, you can best believe they are planning on packing everything up for Christmas Eve! AWESOME FEELING!

  48. I love everything about Christmas!! But I’m now famous for my Rachel Ray Fudge Wreaths a couple of pounds of the best fudge ever shaped like a wreath!!

  49. My favorite tradition is going to pick out our Christmas tree. We find a unique one each year to bring home. We enjoy decorating it with all of our family ornaments, each one having a story.

  50. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we break out the Jackson Five Christmas CD and start decorating the tree. A new tradition that we are starting this year is to teach our children the different names of Christ and what each one means… what a celebration! We love Christmas!!!

  52. Our favorite tradition is going to the candle light service on Christmas eve.

  53. Making Christmas cookies, watching It’s A Wonderful life, and counting down with the Advent Calendar.

  54. We started Elf on the Shelf last year and it has become a new family tradition. My 4 year old loves finding and hiding Mr. Elf. We also read the Christmas story before we open presents, which we have done my entire life(I’m 31) and we have begun reading it out of “the message” translation because it connects with our 4 yr old so well!!

  55. My favorite holiday tradition with my 2 kids is to attend Wreaths Across America. We lay wreaths on the row of my Father-in-Law and their Grandpa they never had the chance to meet

  56. Listening to Christmas music for the entire month of December, decorating the house and watching Christmas Vacation!

  57. Some of my favorite holidady traditions are watching the movies “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “The Christmas Story” with our family….and my most favorite….On Christmas morning, reading the story of Jesus birth, and baking His birthday cake before we head to the tree to unwrap presents!!!

  58. my favorite is decorating the tree and watching Christmas movies and cartoons! love this season!

  59. I used to love dressing as Santa but now that the kids are to old, I have to go with the food!

  60. One of our favorite traditions is our Elf on a Shelf, Rupert. But this year we started a new one with our daughter being in The Nutcracker in Bentonville! It was beautiful and would love to see this one!

  61. My favorite tradition is how we always go to the grandparents house each year along with all the other aunts, uncles, and cousins. This makes some of the best memories.

  62. My favorite tradition is putting up the Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, driving the kids around to see the lights, making decorated sugar cookies for Santa, and just observing Christmas through the eyes of my children!

  63. I love the day before Christmas Eve. My friends and their children come over to bake cookies and decorate them for Santa. It’s a chance to spend some holiday time with our “family of friends”.

  64. I love to spend the day making christmas cookies with my two girls. We all put on our aprons and make cookies.

  65. I LOVE the family time. My husband and I both have BIG families, so we go to many different places to celebrate the reason for the season and eat MANY great meals!

  66. Our favorite tradition is to give each other one new ornament of meaning each year. When our children are grown, they will have enough to begin decorating their own trees with their own special ornaments.

  67. My favorite tradition is putting up the tree on Thanksgiving night. No one in my house is allowed to watch Christmas movies or sing carols until Thanksgiving is over, but once the meal is finished…its on, we go all out with getting out the decorations, putting on the christmas songs, etc.

  68. The real cedar garland strung with white lights that I hang over the front door tells me I’m home, and inside I know it’s warm and our little sanctuary. This is just one of my favorites; there are so many!

  70. I love the decorating and getting ready for the holiday. One of our traditions is reading The Christmas Story before bed on Chiristmas Eve.

  71. Our favorite Christmas tradition is our annual “Donut Day.” It started when my mom was a little girl, and now my kids are enjoying the tradition. We usually get the whole family together (aunts, uncles, cousins) the Saturday before Christmas and make donuts, order pizza and end the day playing games. My kids start asking when it is in June!

  72. My favorite holiday tradition is making homemade spiced tea from my mom’s recipe. It brings back many great memories from my childhood. It’s amazing what memories can be triggered by the smell and taste of something special.

  73. My favorite tradition is Christmas morning sitting around with the family drinking mimosas and eating monkey bread. YUM!

  74. I love getting to see family that I don’t see very often. Cooking and baking for them is my favorite part!!

  76. Favorite holiday tradition? Hearing the Christmas story read aloud.

  77. would love to see the Nutcracker. Have never seen it. would be a fun night. Love Christmas eve and making cookies to decorate with the girls

  79. We always put up the tree and decorate the house the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Then we watch a few Christmas shows as a family.

  80. Christmas is my favorite time of the year and I love all of the traditions….shopping, baking, decorating, family, food, wrapping, christmas carols, warm fires, spiced cider, kindness from strangers, christmas lights….fun, fun, fun!

  82. I love curling up in comfy pj’s with my family and watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas on Christmas Eve. There is the anticipation of Christmas morning in the air, and of course the calories in the cocoa, popcorn, fudge, and cookies don’t count that night, right??!

  83. Spending time relaxing with family, eating too much yummy food, and seeing my kids’ faces on Christmas morning are my favorite parts of the season!

  84. My favorite thing about the holidays is seeing the end result of putting up the Christmas decorations and see the Christmas lights on the neighbors houses as well.

  86. Oh, I love the tree on Christmas morning! Our daughter (now 25) still wakes us and I love watching her face as she opens gifts. It used to be watching what Santa left, but now it’s us – and each other. Coffee … Sausage biscuits … Christmas carols … and joy!

  88. Drinking hot chocolate cuddled up in your PJ’s, Driving through neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights.

  89. On Christmas Eve, my husband reads the Christmas story to our kids….reminding us of the true meaning of Christmas!

  90. making a new ornament each year and seeing the old ones come out of the boxes

  91. going to the nutcracker is always a treat but not done that often. would be great to go

  92. I love the smell of Christmas candles burning and cookies baking in the oven. Also, I enjoy the candlight service at Cross Church.

  93. I have always cherished the “little” things involved in the Christmas season. …the extra sparkle in my kiddos’ eyes, Christmas music on every station, reading over & reminding ourselves of Christ’s birth, extra time w/ extended family, decorating together, yummy treats & esp. GETTING TO EXPLAIN THE REAL REASON OF THE SEASON TO THOSE WHO MIGHT NOT BE OPEN TO LISTENING DURING OTHER PARTS OF THE YR.!

  94. My mom always made a christmas calendar for december with flaps to cover the days and each morning we’d peel off the flap to discover that nights’ special family activity: things like: candy canes and hot cocoa, drive around to see christmas lights, treat under pillow….ect.

  95. The Nutcracker is one of our top holiday favorites. I would love to be able to share this beautiful Christmas special with my family.

  99. I love picking out and trimming the tree and the smell of pine in the house. Love to see all the lights on the houses.

  100. We love holiday baking. From family traditions like cheese wafers, sausage balls, and pumpkin bread to new kids favorites like nutter butter rudolphs and puppy chow, there is something for everyone!

  103. My favorite holiday tradition can happen anytime during the holidays. All that is required is that I am able to enjoy a gathering of my children and grandchildren. We have spent Thanksgiving together on the Saturday after for many years and although we may not be together on Christmas we are in spirit as we all attend church wherever we live. Then we gather round for fun and games on New Years. Family is the heart of everything.

  105. This is my favorite time of the year. I love Christmas. This is the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior

  106. Even at the ages of 29 & 25, my brother and I still go to my parents house on Christmas Eve and sleep in the same room, and wake up to presents from “Santa”. My dad cooks a big breakfast after we get up. Now, we get up a little later, but all the motions are the same! And now that we’re both married, our spouses join in on the fun.

  107. My favorite holiday tradtion is Christmas Eve candlelight service. What a great preparation for the birth of our Savior! My second would definitely be eating Andes mints out of the stocking first thing in the morning!

  108. My favorite Christmas tradition was adopted from my husbands side of the family. Santa gifts are not wrapped instead they are left by the tree unwrapped for the kids to see on Christmas morning. It is so much fun to see the looks on their faces when they wake up and see what Santa left them. I love Christmas. Such a joyful time of year and a wonderful way to celebrate our Savior Jesus Christ.

  110. I’m not sure if this is going thru…wrote 2times I hope it worked …just a test

  111. By far my favorite Christmas tradition is the Christmas candlelight service, the lights and Christmas shows at silver dollar city are also wonderful. I just love Jesus.

  112. My favorite holiday tradition usually falls the Saturday after Thanksgiving when we put up the Christmas tree and do our family ornament exchange. Everyone gets a new ornament every year, symbolizing the biggest thing that happened for them that year. It’s great to pull out all the ornaments every year and relive all of those wonderful memories before opening our new ornament and putting it on the tree last.

  113. I enjoy spending time with my family in front of fireplace)) and eat all that good food))

  114. My kids and I started a tradition of chalking Merry Christmas on driveways and leaving little gifts at doors anonymously several years ago. We look forward to this every year.

  116. We celebrate Jesus’ birthday with a happy birthday Jesus cake. The kids love having cake and I like reminding them of what the season is really all about.

  117. A Christmas Day horse ride with my teenage daughter! Even better if there is snow on the ground.

  118. I have a 12 days of Christmas with my kids. Each of the 12 days, they get a clue or rhyme to figure out what their activity or treat is for that day. The kids love it.

  120. I LOVE putting up the tree every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving!! All my kids come home and help. REALLY a good day and a GREAT way to start off the Holiday Season.

  121. My favorite Christmas tradition is our “Pickle” ornament. He’s like the “Elf on a Shelf” but he is an Elf tree ornament. He shows up in different places around the house every morning and our son has to find him then put him back on the tree. On Christmas morning he shows up in one of our son’s wrapped gifts (I guess we’ll have to get another “Pickle” ornament for our new daughter…)

  123. This is a wonderful giveaway. My mother wanted to buy 4 tickets but couldn’t afford them. I would love to win these for her!

  124. Staying in our pajamas all day on Christmas while the kids play with all their new toys! Also, going to see the Fayetteville square lit up and driving around to find the best private residence lights!

  125. When the kids wake up christmas morning running to the tree after Santa has delivered all there gifts 🙂

  128. My favorite tradition is watching A Christmas Story on TNT each year with my brother. It’s our little “unoffical” tradition.

  129. Christmas eve tradition that has carried on from generation is my favorite part of Christmas. We gather around and read The Night Before Christmas , drinking our egg nog and hot cocoa after we guess all the presents under the tree! Of course the fun is when we open them the next day and find out what they really are!!

  130. I love wrapping presents with my mom…we do it every year together and it always gives us a chance to talk and laugh.

  132. We love putting the tree up together as a family. My kids love to reminisce about the ornaments they have made through out the years.

  133. Spending time with my family is my greatest joy.
    Having tickets to send grand daughter and a parent.

  135. My favorite part of Christmas is getting to be with our two daughters, sons-in-law and five grandchildren! The kids are getting old enough now to enjoy Christmas and the morning is fun with them opening presents and seeing what “Santa” brought, but the best time is all of us together that morning reading the Christmas story of the birth of Christ and remembering that He is the best gift of Christmas!

  136. My favorite tradition is making cut out cookies with my kids. I love letting them decorate however they like. Oh and the old time shows, love them!!!

  137. One year on a whim I wrote a little message on the box that our Christmas tree came in. Then each year afterward I kept adding a sentence about whatever big event happened that year; the births of our children, anniversaries, etc. 10 years later I continue the tradition, and each year we look back and smile.

  138. One of our neat traditions is to see a holiday show. This one would be so perfect since our nine year old would not just be awed, but would truly appreciate the performance.

  140. My favorite? That’s too hard…I love it all! I love listening to Christmas music while driving around searching for Christmas lights.

  141. Our favorite tradition is getting my husband out of the house for a few hours while my girls and I put up the decorations. When he returns our house is transformed! He loves not being a part of the stressful decorating, and we love blaring holiday music and having girl time!

  142. hmmm. It is hard to pick a favorite. I think my favorite was getting to decorate the cookies my mom baked, of course trying to be more artistic than my sisters.

  143. Every Christmas Eve, our family tradition. is to eat hamburgers, fries and drink a Christmas Coke at home. The days leading up to Christmas can be hectic, so I want a fun and easy meal to enjoy with my family. We look forward to the time we get to spend together.

  144. Making Christmas cookies, especially roll-out butter cookies. Recipe is from my Great Grandma. Can’t wait to make them for my daughter’s first Christmas this year!

  145. Making a snowman on the first snowfall no matter how little the snowman turns out!

  146. Our family’s favorite Christmas tradition is making snowflakes. All our boys just love this! We cut paper snowflakes and hang them from our ceiling. They love seeing their decorations hung from the ceiling and we remember how God makes each snowflake unique just like He has made each of us unique!

  147. Our favorite traditions is baking cookies and driving around town to see the Christmas lights

  148. One of my favorite holiday traditions is putting up the Christmas tree and having my 3 daughters (Emily 15, Madison 12, and Rachel Grace 6) decorate the tree with all their arts and crafts from over the years. We have enough ornaments now that we don’t use anything but their artwork.
    Thank you! 🙂
    Georgia Sherrill
    Home: 631-1185

  150. We have a tradition of taking our family picture in front of the tree which I love because I see how much the kids have grown over the years. But I also look forward to our annual cookie exchange party which kicks off our holiday season & has grown to over 30 ladies now. As our girls get older they are enjoying the one night a year we all get together to just laugh & spend time with friends!

  152. Love christmas morning after the gifts are opened, we eat a big breakfast, drink hot chocolate and watch the Polar Express.

Comments are closed.