Holiday Inflation Hits Nutcrackers, 12 Days of Christmas

The New York City Ballet's Nutcracker is spectacular. Here an army of toy soldiers foil the Chubby Mouse King.
Neither Nutcrackers nor tickets for The Nutcracker come cheap these days. It can cost $1.59 a minute to watch the New York City Ballet's Nutcracker from their "Sweet Seats" which cost $215 each for the 2 hour and 15 minute show which includes an intermission.

This chubby "Mouse King" Nutcracker is on sale by the Pacific Northwest Ballet for $82.00 With rabbit fur hair and ears, it is handmade in Germany, probably by Dr. Drosselmeyer himself.
This life sized Nutcracker is sold out, even at $700.00
12 Days of Christmas Inflation is running about 2%.
While you might be able to get some nutcrackers cheap this year, the cost of buying all the gifts in the song "The 12 Days of Christmas" is higher.

To buy everything in the song this year, from a partridge in a pear tree to 12 drummers drumming, would cost $21,456.66, up $385.46 from last year.

Two items that saw the sharpest price rises: five golden rings and three French hens.

New York City Ballet Summer Season at SPAC

New York City Ballet dances Firebird at Saratoga
Tonight, at 8:00 PM, the New York City Ballet will kick-off its 2009 Season at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The season will run from July 7 – July 18. I am headed up to SPAC to see them, and to check out the Lake George Opera's Madama Butterfly. It's difficult choosing between the great Berkshire offerings and those in nearby Saratoga, New York. I will file a report on Berkshire Fine Arts when I return.

Among the highlights of the summer program will be the Ballet’s presentation of the full-length Balanchine ballet, Coppélia, a work partially commissioned by SPAC that had its world premiere on SPAC’s stage in 1974. Children and teens from the Capital Region will have roles in Coppélia as well as Balanchine classic, Firebird which is also part of the Ballet’s SPAC season. The children were chosen from auditions that were held in May.

Other highlights of the Ballet’s SPAC season include the July 11 Ballet Gala featuring the final Saratoga performance of NYCB principal dancer Darci Kistler in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue; iconic Balanchine ballets including Swan Lake, Stars and Stripes, the Four Temperaments, and Scotch Symphony and works by Jerome Robbins and Peter Martins, as well as new choreography.

For a complete schedule and ticket information, visit http://www.spac.org/