Note from the mamas: Congratulations to Kathleen Villar, winner of The Nutcracker tickets!
It’s that amazing time of the year when Clara, the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Mouse King (not to mention many, many others!) take to the stage to delight and entertain audiences for the holiday season.
Moscow Classical Ballet’s The Nutcracker will be showing at Walton Arts Center on Dec. 19-21 and we’re giving away FOUR tickets to the opening night show!
This is the fourth time the WAC has brought this show to Northwest Arkansas and we’re so grateful! This is definitely a beloved holiday tradition and a must-see for the whole family. There will be four performances in Walton Arts Center’s Baum Walker Hall on: Friday, Dec. 19 at 7 pm., Saturday, Dec. 20 at 2 pm and 7 pm, and Sunday, Dec. 21 at 2 pm.
Auditions were recently held for children ages 6-10 to be part of the show and 12 local children were chosen to participate in all four performances. Though formal dance training was not a requirement, many of the children take lessons at studios across the region, including Bakstage Dance Co., Williams Center, and Elite Dance Studio.
Congratulations to these local performers:
- Alizabeth Grace McGinnis
- Anna Caroline Johnson
- Avery McFadden
- Brooklyn Bradley
- Ella Grace Cotton
- Gracie Hollis
- Julia Ragon Watts
- Lawson Hooker
- Rylee Ann Adams
- Sloane Pitts
- Wryn Pitts
- Zoe Hahn
ABOUT THE SHOW: The Moscow Classical Ballet gives a stunning presentation of Tchaikovsky’s classic Christmas ballet, featuring Russia’s finest dancers and all the beautiful scenery and costumes you’ve come to expect – audiences of all ages will be absolutely enchanted.
This brilliant dance troupe has won numerous gold medals from international competitions and awards from the esteemed Paris Academy of Dance. The holidays simply aren’t complete without experiencing this live performance.
HOW TO ENTER: If you’d love to win tickets to The Nutcracker, click on the words “post a comment” below and tell us about a favorite holiday tradition you remember from when you were a child — or one you enjoy with your own kids.
INCREASE YOUR ODDS OF WINNING: If you’d like to increase your odds of winning these tickets, just email friends and family about the giveaway and CC us so we’ll be sure to give you credit. We’ll give you an extra chance to win for each person you tell. The email is giveaways@nwaMotherlode.com.
(You can also earn an extra chance to win by signing up to receive the free email newsletter we send once a week. Click here to sign up.)
BE SOCIAL: You can also earn extra chances to win by commenting on our Facebook page, following us on Twitter or following us on Pinterest. If you do any of those, just mention it in your comment or email so we can give you proper credit.
Tickets range from $33 to $47 and can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 479.443.5600 or by visiting waltonartscenter.org. Good luck, mamas! We’ll choose a winner on Friday at 5 p.m.!
My favorite holiday tradition growing up was being at my grandparent’s house to bake cookies and deliver them to neighbors. Now that I have kids of my own, we still go to my grandmother’s house and bake with her. It is such a wonderful thing to be able to do! I follow you on Pinterest and Twitter, commented on FB and get the newsletter. 🙂
My favorite tradition with my kids is decorating the tree! The kids love to help put it up and it makes the house feel like Christmas.
My favorite tradition as a child was watching a 9 hour VHS tape that had a ton of cartoon Christmas specials my Dad recorded for me throughout the years. They featured a lot of old commercials too, which in a way was a priceless treasure of it’s own. I longed for Christmas vacation so I could start watching the tape and we even kept it tucked away in the Christmas box every year to preserve it. Timeless and I wish I still had it.
We bake a gingerbread house together as a family. Would enjoy winning these tickets!
My favorite holiday tradition is one that we do with our own children. We choose a family that has had a rough year financially or emotionally and we secretly deliver “12 Days of Christmas” gifts. We choose and shop for the gifts as a family–they aren’t necessarily costly gifts, but more of a “we’re thinking of you” kind of gift. We then write anonymous notes and we sneak to the doorstep and drop off each gift for 12 days in a row. We started this when our children were small and now our oldest is 20.
I always loved waking up on Christmas to my dad making us waffles! He would read the Christmas story from the bible, and then we would have breakfast and open presents!
My favorite family holiday tradition is wearing Christmas pj’s on Christmas Eve and opening up one gift! The kids get so excited to open one gift.
My favorite was decorating mom’s sugar cookies… and of course eating them!
When we visited my grandparents, we would pile into the biggest vehicle we could find and go search for Christmas lights.
I love our Christmas eve boxes with jammies, hot chocolate, and a puzzle or game, all while we eat snowman and tree shaped pizza!
My family’s favorite tradition was all about Christmas Eve. We would have a seafood dinner, typical of Sicilian families, and we each got to open one present. It was always pajamas, and we’d change into our new pj’s, eat dessert, and play card games. It was always just a cozy, joy-filled night before Christmas.
I love making Christmas cookies with my kids
Opening the one gift on Christmas Eve was always fun and exciting…until the box you chose was a box with clothes. 🙂
My daughter is very shy and freezes up around Santa every year. She has told him every year so far (she is 8 now), that she was able to talk, that she wanted a Barbie when seated on his lap. She is not one for dolls or Barbie’s and is more of a crafty playing child.
Needless to say, Santa brings her the Barbie each year and strategically places her somewhere fun. One year she was driving her Barbie corvette down the hall on the way to the Christmas tree. Last year, she was sitting on the new bike that Santa brought my daughter.
We love to see where Barbie will be. My daughter has not seen Santa this year yet… we shall see what she tells him she wants this year!!
She has danced since she was 3 years old at Kaleidescope dance and would absolutely LOVE to see the Nutcracker!
My favorite tradition is going to pick out a Christmas tree each year.
My fave was opening a present on Christmas eve.
I loved baking Christmas cookies with my children and then with the nieces and nephews. This year I have grand kids to do it with!
My mom and I would paint ornaments every year, so much fun! Follow on twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook!
I have 2 distinct holiday memories. We always baked and decorated sugar cookies. Friends and family joined in over th wheats and it is a tradition I continue now with my child. I also remember being completely enthralled with The Nutcracker ballet. I went several times as a child and would love to take my daughter!! Thanks!!
We love surprising the kids at bedtime by telling them to instead of getting in bed to get in the car for hot chocolate and Christmas lights.
Our family tradition is to go to the Christmas Eve Children’s Mass, then go home and make cookies for Santa. My kids get to open one special present on Christmas Eve. My parents usually come over and share this special time with us too.
We absolutely love this time of year, and have many traditions. My favorite as a kid was baking and decorating cookies from scratch. My mom would let us decorate how ever we chose. so much fun!
When my children were growing up we would set aside one Saturday to bake cookies and make candies for our neighbors, friends and the mailman. We looked forward to it all year. Now they are grown and living away, but I have hope that one day I can continue the tradition with my grandchildren.
My children (all six of them) and I decorate a gingerbread house, or train, every year and use it as our centerpiece. It started one year as a fun time-killer while I prepared Thanksgiving dinner. The next year the kid’s asked about it again and it has now been our tradition for the past ten years. So simple, but so fun and it is creating a positive memory for them!
We did not have a fireplace in our house, so we set up a cardboard cutout fireplace every year. I knew when that fireplace was setup, Santa was soon to arrive!
Baking spritz Christmas cookies with my Grandma, and now baking them with my family.
Liking at Christmas light with family n friends!
We love watching Christmas movies & making cookies together .
Still love watching the classics Charlie Browns Christmas, Frosty & Rudolph every year with my boys, popcorn & cocoa of course
I always loved the candlelight service at our church on Christmas Eve.
We have a Christmas tree for each of our girls with ornaments that are tied to the Christmas story. Each night before bed, we read a story/devotion and add another ornament to their trees.
My favorite tradition with my kids is on Christmas Eve. We take cookies and goodies to the fire station, EMS and police station to tell them how much we appreciated their help when we were involved in a car accident in 2011. Then we go to the square to see the lights!
That should’ve read when we were in a car accident on Christmas Eve in 2011!
Reading Christmas stories with my parents was a favorite Christmas tradition of mine & now I enjoy keeping that tradition alive with my own children.
Drinking homemade hot chocolate and real whip cream while looking at Christmas lights. Spending time with the family all together.
We always go as a family to watch the Christmas Parade of the Ozarks in Springdale. My kids love it and it’s became something fun for us to look forward to every year. Every year when we put up the tree, we watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. We just can’t trim the tree without hearing Clark Griswold in the background! lol
Opening one gift on Christmas Eve and savoring the anticipation of all the rest the next day!
My favorite childhood Christmas tradition was Christmas Eve. We would open presets at our house, then travel to both sets of grandparents’ houses to eat dinner and goodies ad open presents. We would get to stay up till midnight or later. We would then sleep in and enjoy a very relaxing Christmas Day playing with all of our new toys.
My favorite tradition is making a Christmas craft every year with my kids! Love looking back at them every year!
Opening pjs on Christmas Eve. Follow on Facebook.
Going out in the woods to cut down the perfect tree.
My father used to take us kids downtown on Christmas Eve to see the beautiful windows the big department stores decorated for Christmas. Those windows were magical and I am sure it was a blessing to my mother to have us out under foot on such a busy night.
My cousins and I always had a “performance” of the nativity. It’s fun to bring out the costumes for our kids now!
My favorite memorie as a child was my Mother reciting Annie & Willies prayer, a family favorite poem and decorating the tree. We didn’t have a lot of extra money to spend and we’d go out as a family and pick up Pecans in the grove to take to market then my parents would give us each a portion of the money to buy gifts. I still have a tea pot and saucer from my childhood that my brother bought from the dime store. Good memories!
Candle Light Service and Gathering at Grandma’s house for Christmas Eve
Decorating the Christmas tree. 🙂
I used to love going to pick out a Christmas tree and decorating it as a family.
A tradition I have with my children is decorating cookies and making treats!
Our favorite tradition is Christmas Eve at my grandparents farm .. All the family come in and the kids create their own christmas program and perform for all the adults .. 🙂
One of my favorite holiday traditions was making all sorts of goodies with my mom and sisters. We would make up little plates and hand them out to all of our neighbors. I hope to continue this tradition with my kids this year in our new neighborhood!
I loved (and still love) watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special!
Getting up when dad got home from work to open gifts very early on Christmas morning
Our favorite tradition was decorating the tree while listening to John Denver & The Muppets Christmas record. I have it on itunes now and listen to it with my kiddos (even if it does drive my husband insane). It puts us all in the holiday spirit!
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As a child, we all went to my grandparent’s house on Christmas Eve; all my aunts, uncles and cousins. We had a huge meal and exchanges presents. So much fun!!!
My favorite tradition is put up the tree and talking about the special ornaments and making cookies as a family.
My favorite holiday tradition was decorating sugar cookies with my grandma and all my cousins. We would cover most of the cookies in red hots and see who could eat the most! Such hot, tasty fun!
One of my favorite traditions is buying gifts for an angel from the Salvation Army Christmas Tree. I loved it as a kid, and now I love doing it with my children.
My mom used to let me take a day off school and we would bake lots of Christmas cookies with my grandma. They have both passed away so this memory is even more special. I want to start it with my daughter and I soon!
We read a new Christmas book every night leading up to Christmas.
I love reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve to my girls each year.
Looking at Christmas lights.
i remember as a child we would all meet at my grandparent’s house for christmas eve! it was always a full house and so crazy, but fun. all my aunts, uncles, and cousins would be there and together we would celebrate that god allowed us to be togehter another year. i remember all the adults would do a gift exchange for them, and for us. i honestly miss those days, after my grandmother passed away a few years ago things where just not the same anymore, seemed like nobody cared of keeping this tradition, this is what i miss more of my childhood.
The kids and I make new homemade ornaments for the tree each year. It is so fun to see all of them hanging on the tree each year!
When I was a kid my favorite tradition was going to Christmas Eve service at church then having the family over for soup/snack dinner with sweet treats I helped my mom prepare. We would then all pile into my grandparents car and go drive around town looking at Christmas lights. We do the same thing now with our daughter, but we’ve added reading ‘The Night Before Christmas’ before she goes to bed.
Driving around looking at Christmas lights
We’d wake up super early, make coffee for my parents, blare the hallelujah chorus, and drag everyone out of bed.
Selecting a name from the Angel Tree and picking out presents to make them happy.
I remember lighting the menorah with my father and cooking latkes with my mom.
Love watching polar express after having breakfast on Christmas morning. Follow on Pinterest, Twitter and commented on Facebook. I also receive the news letter.
While my children were little I enjoyed having them decorate the tree each year. The first year they were 4 and 2(my daughters) all the ornaments were front and center, so cute. As they grew the tree became more evenly distributed. My children now have families of their own , and I have to decorate the tree myself. So now, I love Christmas day when they all come with their beautiful families.
We realized that as our kids got older, we ran out of time to do the things we really wanted and Christmas came and went so fast! So the next year we started a new tradition of “Family Nights.” These are 3-4 scheduled days together where they will receive their instructions in a wrapped gift. The first one is always decorating the tree, the Christmas parade that night and opening their ornament, then the others are up for grabs and a surprise! Sometimes we give them money to shop for food for a shelter, open a new board game or a fast food progressive dinner and looking at lights. Then we don’t miss the things we truly look forward to, which for me, is having us all together!
We live to take our daughter to see the lights set to music at Concordia in Bella Vista!
My favorite holiday traditions are from Thanksgiving with my family. We always go around the table before the huge meal and each person tells what they are especially thankful for this year.