The best Christmas shows in NYC in 2024

You’ll get a kick out of this holiday stalwart, which still features Santa, wooden soldiers and the dazzling Rockettes. In recent years, new music, more eye-catching costumes and advanced technology have been introduced to bring audience members closer to the performance. In the signature kick line that finds its way into most of the big dance numbers, the Rockettes’ 36 pairs of legs rise and fall like the batting of an eyelash, their perfect unison a testament to the disciplined human form. This is precision dancing on a massive scale—a Busby Berkeley number come to glorious life—and it takes your breath away.

RECOMMENDED: How to get tickets to the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes

George Balanchine's magical 1954 production, set to Tchaikovsky's timeless score, includes the full New York City Ballet company, two casts of School of American Ballet students, scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska and lighting by Mark Stanley, after Ronald Bates's original concept. The show is a magical occasion: Along with a one-ton Christmas tree that grows from 12 to 40 feet, there's a snowstorm of blizzard proportions and a Mother Ginger with a nine-foot-wide skirt. In the end, however, Balanchine's choreography is what holds it all together. It's enchanting, and it never grows old.

Christmas has come early to Broadway this year: the latest Broadway revival of this 2010 holiday musical is really elfin’ good. Based on the 2003 Will Ferrell movie, the show follows a grown man named Buddy, raised in holly as one of Santa’s helpers, who travels to New York in search of his father. This new production is directed by Philip Wm. McKinley, and Grey Henson is the bright new star at the top of its tree. His guileless Buddy is a creature of twinkle from his eyes down to his toes—an overgrown sweetie with a gentle heart and penchant for mild mischief—and it’s a pleasure to take off with him on Elf’s magic ride.—Adam Feldman

Playwright Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) and director Trip Cullman (Significant Other) have previously collaborated on the Off Broadway premieres of Bachelorette, Assistance and The Layover. Now they reunite for the acerbic writer's Broadway debut, set at a holiday family gathering that is—when aren't they?—fraught with strife. Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies) and Zachary Quinto (Star Trek) lead the cast of this Second Stage production, which also features Molly Bernard, Roberta Colindrez, Barbie Ferreira, Rebecca Henderson, Christopher Lowell and Christopher Sears.

Austin McCormick and his risqué neo-Baroque dance-theater group Company XIV present a lavish erotic reimagining of the classic holiday tale, complete with circus performers, operatic singers and partial nudity. The word nutcracker has customarily conjured innocent wonder; now be ready to add glitter pasties, stripper poles and comically large stuffed penises to the toys in wonderland. Definitely leave the kids at home. 

RECOMMENDED: Company XIV’s Nutcracker Rouge will make you blush

The Irish Rep presents a third return engagement of its 2016 adaptation of James Joyce's quietly epiphanic short story about a holiday meal in Dublin, staged immersively at an intimate Upper East Side townhouse. Ciarán O'Reilly directs a script by Paul Muldoon and Jean Hanff Korelitz, this time with Christopher Innvar, Kate Baldwin and—as our elderly hostesses, the Morgan sisters—Mary Beth Peil and Úna Clancy.

John Kevin Jones goes to the Dickens in this one-hour account of the novelist's classic holiday ghost story, adapted with director Rhonda Dodd. The Merchant's House Museum, formerly the home of a wealthy 19th-century family, provides an atmospheric candlelit setting for Jones's 12th annual engagement. Select performances include a preshow reception at which the audience sips mulled wine and Jones recites Clement Moore's “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”

This hour-long original musical adaptation of Dickens's yuletide fable, created by composer Michael Sgouros and librettist-director Brenda Bell, returns for its 16th year at the West Village's Players Theatre. The updated set is inspired by traditional British panto.

"Tomorrow" never dies! Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin's beloved 1977 comic-strip musical, last seen on Broadway more than a decade ago, comes back to NYC with the tuneful tale of how a coppertop ragamuffin, her dog and an ultrarich industrialist save each other (and the country) during the Great Depression. For most of the show's holiday stint at Madison Square Garden, EGOT winner and View-master Whoopi Goldberg plays the slatternly, orphan-hating Miss Hannigan. Jenn Thompson, a replacement Pepper in the original Broadway run, directs this touring production.

Irish Rep chieftain Charlotte Moore directs her own concert adaptation of Dylan Thomas's holiday prose poem, buttressed by traditional Irish music, in the company's cozy production, which has become a local yuletide tradition. (It has previously been presented in 2010, 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2022.)

Local bump-and-grind impresario Johnny Porkpie reimagines Scrooge as a greedy strip-club owner named Ebeneza who rips off her dancers—and, of course, her clothes—in this risqué burlesque-theater adaptation of Charles Dickens's holiday chestnut. If you like your spiritual redemption stories perked up with pasties and tassels, this is the Carol for you. The cast this year includes Scout Durwood, Fancy Feast, Cheeky Lane, Tiger Bay, Tigger, Cashlee Banks, Miscallaneous DomTop and Jo Weldon. (Leave the kids at home for this one, folks.)

Pavol Liška and Kelly Copper's Nature Theater of Oklahoma, which enthralled audiences with the 10-hour musical anti-epic Life and Times: Episodes 1–4, makes its long-awaited return to New York City with the North American premiere of a wild new dance-theatr piece—described as "over-the-top, tightly choreographed political-grotesque work"—about a security company staffed by former actors that must defend itself against a rival company of former ballet dancers. The entire thing is set against the score from The Nutcracker, and is sure to be plenty nutty.

Celebrity impersonator Dorothy Bishop throws a Christmas party with Barbra Streisand, Cher, Adele, Stevie Nicks and more in this holiday edition of her diva tribute show. The beloved veteran scenester and media personality Michael Musto is her special guest. 

M. Rigney Ryan stars in a scrappy one-man version of Dickens's Victorian tale of a skinflint scared into Christmas cheer. The adapation is by Dialogue with Three Chords cofounder Stephen Gracia; brooklynONE's Anthony Marino is the director. Priced at a mere $5, this is a miser's delight!

Now in its 21th iteration, Charles Rice-González's holiday play, which subverts both The Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol, imagines a queer Latino couple caught in a journey through time one trippy Christmas eve. Witness ’80s flashbacks, Martha Stewart dinner parties and plenty of angelic divas to light the way. Chris Rivera directs this year's edition, which features cabaret performer Michael Michelle Lynch.

Nimbus Dance’s annual twist on The Nutcracker guides audiences through the streets, parks and sewers of Jersey City in a production that pairs 15 professional dancers with more than 80 young perfomers. Nimbus leader Samuel Pott directs and choreographs the show, which is set to a jazzy variation on Tchaikovsky's score and includes animated projections by Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger. 

Since 2018, R & R Productions has been mounting its own annual variations on the British holiday Panto tradition—which typically involves well-known folktales presented as broad family-friendly pageants, but in this case is decidedly adult in spirit. The latest iteration, written by Robert K. Benson and directed by Madeline Wall, brings drag queens and stalkers to the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. Don't be fooled by the 4pm curtain time: This is naughty, bawdy stuff. 

Imagine a musical remake of Saturday Night Fever set in 1970s Fire Island, and you'll get a sense of Anthony Fett's general vibe. A familiar figure in the West Village piano bar scene, this indefatigable showman makes the Yuletide gayer than ever in his annual holiday set.

Jackie Beat has been doing Christmas shows for more than two decades, and you can’t stop the Beat. The longtime comedy queen is a natural-born entertainer with a powerhouse voice, and her carol parodies (like “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Syphilis” and “Santa’s Baby”) are often hilarious. 

This production interprets the classic with hip-hop choreography and an updated version of the holiday story; directed and choreographed by Jennifer Weber and adapted by Mike Fitelson, the production features onstage DJs, an amped-up version of the Tchaikovsky score and a short opening act by rap pioneer Kurtis Blow. (The show also plays twice at NJPAC on December 8 before hitting Brooklyn's Kings Theater on December 23.)

Ballet Hartford artistic director Claire Kretzschmar, an erstwhile New York City Ballet soloist, makes her NYC debut as a choreographer with a double bill of holiday-themed pieces: the world premiere of Weihnachtsbaum, set to music by Franz Liszt, and A Ceremony of Carols, set to a dozen songs by Benjamin Britten. The works are accompanie by live piano, harp and choral singing.

EPIC Players specializes in creating performance opportunities and social communities for neurodivergent and disabled artists. (The acronym stands for Empower, Perform, Include, Create.) In this production, the troupe offers its own devised, neuro-inclusive version of Charles Dickens's perpetually popular yuletide fable, directed by Travis Burbee and featuring original music by Ray Dodd. 

Make the yuletide bright at the final iteration of Sleep No More's cast cabaret, the McKittrick Follies, at the atmospheric Manderley Bar of the soon-to-be-shuttered McKittrick Hotel. Kit Flowers—the alter ego of erstwhile Sleep No More cast member Ginger Kearns—hosts an evening of music, games and Christmas surprises. Festive attire is encoutraged.  

With its 1960s setting, comic-book–style art design and cross-dressing lyrical dancers, this is one of the kookiest productions of The Nutcracker. Using the entirety of Tchaikovsky’s composition and including a section of the original E.T.A. Hoffmann story that even the original version of the ballet omitted, Mark Morris Dance Group’s take—which returns to BAM this yeat for the first time since 2018—is still fresh and very, very fun, especially after a few boozy hot cocoas during intermission.

The Secret Theatre, which had a near-death experience during the pandemic, decks the halls of its new Woodside venue with its version of Charles Dickens's haunted tale of a pinchpenny's redemption. Company founder Richard Mazda, who wrote the adaptation, also directs the show and leads the cast as Scrooge. 

Brooklyn Ballet's take on The Nutcracker, choreographed by artistic director Lynn Parkerson, emphasizes cultural and artistic diversity. Alongside sequences that hew to the classic 19th-century tradition are interludes featuring street dance, flamenco, belly dancing, Chinese dance, hoop dance, hip-hop and the Hopak, a traditional Ukrainian dance.

The 2024 edition features Kamala Saara and Jonathan Hart in the pas de deux and krump specialist Brian "HallowDreamz" Henry as the Rat King, along with Aliesha Bryan, the Eva Dance Studio, Sira Melikian, ShanDien LaRance and Michael “Big Mike” Fields. Live music is proviced by beatboxer Baba Israel, violinist Zafir Tawil, accordionist Mikhail Smirnoff and dizi floutist Yimin Miao.

Caustic wit, witchy charisma and fearless queer wisdom have made Justin Vivian Bond one of New York’s essential performers. Now the alt-cabaret star, trans icon and newly laureled McArthur "Genius" Grantee returns to Joe’s Pub with a solstice show to melt the hearts of snowflakes everywhere.

Actors lead the audience on a pub crawl through Brooklyn's Industry City in a show that nods to the Welsh wassailing tradition known as the Mari Lwyd, in which celebrants travel door-to-door with a skull on a hobby horse, challenging homeowners in contests of rhyme. (Think of it as a quaint British forebear of battle rap.) The show, written by Stephen Gracia and directed by Don Manzo, begins at brooklynONE's home base, the Tom Kane Theatre, before moving on to the Frying Pan, Fort Hamilton Distillery, Gun Hill Publick House, Standard Wormwood Distillery and Barrow's Intense Tasting Room. 

New York’s stalwart old-school entertainer and Somebody Somewhere star Murray “Mr. Showbiz” Hill brings his rollicking year-end celebration—always one of the highlights of the season—back to Joe's Pub with burlesque titillation, musical mayhem and comedic mirth. Hill knows many talented people, so expect some very special guests. 

Joe Iconis is a mainstay of local musical-theater songwriting, and he parties as well as he composes: His shows, stuffed with longtime friends and collaborators, have an exuberant sense of community. Now he returns to 54 Below with the 14th annual edition of his rollicking holiday show. In addition to the usual gang—which has now swelled to almost 50 performers—he is joined here by Broadway treasure Annie Golden.

Choreographer David Parker and his Bang Group reprise their neovaudevillian version of The Nutcracker, a comedic deconstruction of the holiday classic that mixes tap, ballet, contemporary dance, disco and bubble-wrap stomping. The cast for this year's edition includes students from the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center; the matinee on December 14 and the evening show on December 19 are followed by a Winter Wonderland Afterparty that includes hot chocolate, sweets, photo ops and a tap-dancing station.

Random Access Theatre’s boozy-geeky Drunk Texts series muddles classical texts—or modern ones reimagined as classical—into a cocktail of drinking games, improv and audience interaction, in which the audiences chooses which thespians take shots. Now the gang toasts the holiday season with its highly spirited annual version of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. 

Dances Patrelle offers its annual performance of Francis Patrelle's The Yorkville Nutcracker, set in 1895 New York and featuring adorable child dancers alongside the professionals. This year's edition stars New York City Ballet soloist Miriam Miller as the Sugar Plum Fairy, joined again by NYCB principal Jared Angle as her Cavalier.

Jack Grossman and Zoe Wohlfeld, who met at a clown college in France, made their Ediburgh Fringe debut earlier this year with A Night of Drama, a semi-improvisational romp in which a very serious director attempts to stage a very serious play—only to be thwarted by unccoperative performers and stray banana peels. Grossman directs this special Christmas edition of the show, with a cast that includes Wohlfeld, Kate Owens, Miles Calderon, Jill Calderon and Michael Galligan.

Three Birdland mainstays—the clarion-voiced Klea Blackhurst, the waggish host Jim Caruso and the velvety pianist-crooner Billy Stritch—get into the swing of the holiday season with their 15th annual set of set of jazzy Christmas classics.

As part of its Once Upon a Ballet series, which is aimed at young children, NYTB presents its annual hour-long Art Nouveau version of the holiday ballet, complete with clockwork elves and an owl that flies over the audience. The set design is by Gillian Bradshaw-Smith and the costumes by Sylvia Taalsohn Nolan.