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Christmas Eve, at Clara’s house
The Nutcracker
The story begins with a present: a wooden toy, from a godfather who makes toys.
The Nutcracker is Tchaikovsky’s Christmas ballet, first danced in St Petersburg in 1892. Here it is for children: a picture book that plays the orchestra on every page, a board book for the youngest, a musical jigsaw, three pop-up books, and a wooden present of our own.
Nutcracker books and a puzzle, with music
Press the note and a little of Tchaikovsky’s orchestra plays, so the music arrives as something they already know.
The Story Orchestra
Hardback
Before the ballet, or after it: press the note on every page for ten seconds of Tchaikovsky’s score, then hear them all again at the end.
My First Story Orchestra
Board book
For the youngest: Clara’s journey to the Land of Sweets on thick board pages, with a button on each spread and six short clips of the orchestra.
The Story Orchestra
Musical puzzle
For hands that like to make things: 48 pieces, and four of them sit over sound buttons, so the music grows with the picture. Ages 5+.
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A wooden present, still
Uncle Drosselmeyer’s was a nutcracker. Ours is sixty hardwood blocks in purpleheart, padauk, zebrano and oak, which pack back into a solid oak tray when the building is done.
The tray can carry the child’s name, engraved as a complimentary part of the order. Made to be handed down, and covered by our Multiple Lifetime Guarantee.
The Nutcracker story
“The gift is a wooden nutcracker, carved in the shape of a little man.”
Clara spends Christmas Eve watching the clock, waiting for her godfather, Uncle Drosselmeyer, the toymaker. He brings the nutcracker. Fritz breaks it. “Here,” says Uncle Drosselmeyer, “I will fix him.”
Then the nutcracker comes to life, and Clara follows him on a journey to the Land of Sweets, where she meets the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Pop-up Nutcrackers
The magic that unfolds: open the cover and Christmas Eve stands up off the page.
Little Tiger
Five scenes, in rhyme
For reading aloud at bedtime: Clara’s Christmas Eve told in rhyme, and five layered scenes that rise as the pages open, from the party to the Kingdom of Sweets.
Templar
Hoffmann’s tale
For older readers who want the whole story: Hoffmann’s original, with Marie and the Mouse King, retold around six pop-ups in folk-art colour.
Usborne
Pop-ups and flaps
For children who like to peek behind things: deep pop-up scenes with flaps to lift, and a QR code for the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
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On a visit to Paris, Tchaikovsky heard a celesta for the first time, and liked its “heavenly sweet” sound so much that he ordered one.
He was the first composer in Russian music to use it: listen for it in the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Two more of his ballets are on the same shelf: Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty.
Seeing The Nutcracker this Christmas
Read it together first, and the music is already familiar by the time the curtain goes up. The Royal Ballet dances it at the Royal Opera House from 3 December 2026 to 13 January 2027 (ages 5 and up), and Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Birmingham Hippodrome from 20 November to 12 December 2026.
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