As noted last week , choirs are the big deal during the lead-up to the holidays. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t other music tailored for December merrymaking.

Let’s look at some selected options:

Handel’s Messiah has become a regular holiday feature, but Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker is almost as illustrious. Of course, it’s always been about the festive season (the titular implement is a Christmas gift, after all), but it took a while for ballet companies all over the world to make it a December tradition. A 1944 Christmas Eve production in San Francisco launched the trend, which is still going strong. Vancouver gets a choice of two different Nutcrackers this year: The Royal Winnipeg Ballet offers five performances Dec. 12-14, while Goh Ballet offers five performances of its version, Dec

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