The Big Apple is polishing its Christmas image as the nation's top holiday tourist attraction, a wonderland city where tradition is mixed with innovation to produce an entertainment extravaganza for all tastes.
The annual Radio City Music Hall Christmas spectacular, now in its sixth decade, is still the city's most popular holiday performance, running through Jan. 8 on a four performance-a-day schedule. More than 1 million people will see the 90-minute show.Its predictable format features the Rockettes doing "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers," a shortened version of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," "Santa's Toy Fantasy" with a laser Christmas tree, "A Teddy Bear's Dream" with many species of bears from polar to panda, and the "Living Nativity" pageant.
Just down the street is the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, the city's biggest magnet for holiday crowds and the scene of daily free concerts, none more unique than the one being given by hundreds of tuba players from all over the country on Dec. 12.
Three versions of "The Nutcracker" ballet are being offered at major venues.
George Balanchine's celebrated choreography of Tchaikovsky's version, a Chistmas juggernaut after 39 years, is playing at Lincoln Center through Jan. 2, and Mark Morris's tough-minded modern dance version titled "The Hard Nut" can been seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's opera house through Dec. 23.
A Warner Bros. film version of Balanchine's "Nutcracker," starring Macaulay Culkin as the prince and Jessica Lynn Cohen as Clara, is showing at theaters throughout the metropolitan area.
Also at Lincoln Center is Gian Carlo Menotti's Christmas classic, "Amahl and the Night Visitors," scheduled for two performances Dec. 11 by the Little Orchestra Society. Matt Butler of Bronxville, N.Y. - already a City Opera veteran at the age of 12 - plays the title role.
The Big Apple Circus, a swirl of international gymnasts, jugglers, acrobats, horses with a Venetian commedia dell'arte theme, is ensconced for the 16th season in Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center. It runs through Jan. 9. The circus's big yellow and white tent is just a step away from Lincoln Center's sensational Holiday Tree featuring hundreds of silver musical isntruments and a series of free concerts.
More than 50 performances of Handel's "The Messiah" can be heard in New York this season but none better than the Masterwork Chorus's 39th holiday performance at Carnegie Hall Dec. 17 through 19, and the Oratorio Society of New York's 103rd consecutive seansonal performance at Carnegie Hall Dec. 20.
The National Choral Council's annual "Messiah Sing In," a come-you-all for amateur chorus singers, is scheduled for Lincoln Center Dec. 21 and 28.
Carnegie Hall is mounting its own Christmas Festival Dec. 10-13 with performances by the New York Pops and the Texas University Symphonic Choir, a spectacular under the direction of Skitch Henderson, and the Vienna Boys Choir and a special holiday recital by Metropolitan Opera soprano Kathleen Battle.
Lionel Hampton is the top name among the Jazz greats presenting "Bending Toward the Light, A Jazz Nativity" at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue for the first time (Dec. 5-8). This is a dramatic musical performance featuring traditional as well as original compositions performed by 40 musicians in costume.
Magical twilight concerts in front of the Metropolitan Museum's exquisite tree, decorated with 18th century Neapolitan creche, figures kick off Dec. 12 with Chanticleer, an all-male ensemble, followed by Canadian Brass, The Aulos Ensemble and Riverside Chamber Choir.
The top light show in town is at the Winter Garden of the World Financial center, whose three-week holiday festival of music featuring the American Boychoir, Tchikovsky Chamber Orchestra, and Alvin Ailey Repertory dance ensemble, is illuminated by 100,000 tiny lights.
On the other side of the financial district at South Street Seaport, a carol choir whose green costumes create the illusion of a living Christmas tree performs most days through Jan. 2. Another illusion, a scientific recreation of "The Star of Christmas," is the feature film presentation at the Hayden Planetarium, where it has played three generations of audiences.