My city's leading mommy blogger just published a list of ALL the available productions of Nutcracker this season in the larger metro area, and it got me to thinking about how weird that is. It is unique for being one piece of art performed regularly in every major US city... that I wouldn't dream of going to myself without the requisite accessory, small antsy humans in dress-up clothes. There's no comparable opera or Broadway musical. Tchaikovsky presumably didn't compose the thing in the hopes that someday it would help sell little red velvet dresses and tiny bow ties. What happened to make it Baby's First High Art Performance?