The traditional Thanksgiving weekend staging of the ballet classic The Nutcracker is a harbinger of the holiday season, just as much as repeated airings of It’s a Wonderful Life and the inevitable “Black Friday” shopping frenzy. Columbus, Ohio’s BalletMet does the honors in Buffalo this year with a performance at Shea’s historic theater accompanied by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. The magical journey into the imagination is seen through the eyes of a child—the heroine, Clara—for whom the larger world is wondrous, magical and just a little forbidding. A Christmas tree that grows 20 feet, a roaring dragon, the Sugar Plum Fairy and a Nutcracker/Prince for a hero—these are all part of Herr Drosselmeyer’s magic sack of gifts. As Clara is led through marvelous realms of snow and sweets a true Christmas story unfolds, filling all the audience—no matter what age—with a sense of the season and the delight and anticipation that accompany it—whether you believe in Santa or not. It’s this sense that has kept The Nutcracker little changed from Tchaikovsky’s 1892 version, and though the ballet has been through different treatments by acclaimed choreographers such as Nureyev and Balanchine, it is Tchaikovsky’s famous score that is at the heart of the story. This is the second year that Shea’s and the BPO have collaborated with BalletMet to present this classic—another Christmas tradition in the making.

2pm & 7pm Friday; 2pm Saturday, Shea’s Performing Arts Center, 646 Main Street. (847-1410/sheas.org).

$28-$65 (box office, Ticketmaster)