This very likely would have been the first year I took Ella to see the Nutcracker live. We would have made a whole afternoon of it – fancy dresses, dinner downtown, the ballet, and an ice cream night cap. Basically all my girl mom dreams coming true!
Due to Covid (and bed rest) that obviously can’t happen this year. Ella is super into the Nutcracker, constantly reading the book versions and playing out the ballet with her Barbies. I knew I still wanted to bring the magic of the show to her somehow. With major help from my mom, sister, and husband (who lovingly support my crazy ideas), we threw Ella a special Nutcracker themed tea party to watch the televised performance by the Colorado Ballet.
If you are local to Colorado, the Colorado ballet has several other upcoming presentations of the Nutcracker streaming on RMPBS:
- Fri. Dec. 18 – 9pm
- Sat. Dec. 19 – 1am
- Thurs. Dec. 24 – 7pm
- Fri. Dec. 25 – 12am
You can also stream it live on the PBS App. Don’t forget to virtually “fill the theater” and make a donation to the dancers that are so incredibly talented and currently out of work. Link to donate is here!
If you aren’t able to view the Colorado Ballet version (which is fantastic by the way), there are several full length performances on YouTube.
For our tea party, I purchased beautiful Nutcracker Rifle Paper Co party goods from my favorite party shop – Ellie and Piper Co. I also purchased a Nutcracker cupcake kit from Meri Meri, linked here. The decorations were all things I already had on hand around the house. If you are wanting to put together a special viewing party of your own, I’ve linked a few of my Amazon favorites below since most of the party stores are unfortunately sold out.
Since I’m not able to be up and about for long periods of time right now, we went super easy with food. The biggest hit with the kids were the breakfast “cupcakes” – just store bought muffin mix topped with yogurt instead of icing and a few sprinkles. I also ordered a few treats from Target (linked below) and made cute skewers with strawberries and frozen french toast sticks. Instead of actual tea I served lemonade – Ella’s favorite!
A few days ago Ella and I made this adorable Nutcracker stage with dancer puppets! It was a fun and easy activity using the printables from the Magic Playbook. Plus it doubled as cute decor for our tea party.
This was such a simple way to make an otherwise ruined Christmas event still very special! I hope you enjoyed following along too!