Christmas Symbols

Nutcrackers

History

• Even before Tchaikovsky's famous ballet, The Nutcracker, made the toy popular they were a common Christmas gift. Especially among the poor, they were a beautiful and useful gift that could be made from a piece of scrap wood. After Tchaikovsky's ballet the nutcrackers were usually dressed as soldiers or government officials.

Modern Christian Symbolism

• A German proverb says "God gives us the nuts but we have to break them ourselves". Nutcrackers remind us that nothing in life should come without hard work.

Bible Verse

• (2 Thessalonians 3:7-9) For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.

• Discuss the verse and proverb above, and crack some nuts for a snack.
• Watch The Nutcracker (American Ballet Theatre) by Tchaikovsky.
• Read The Nutcracker by James Mayhew. This is not the simplified version of the Tchaikovsky ballet, but the tale of magical transformation as originally written by Ernst Hoffmann in 1816, on which the ballet was based.

Advent Calendar

• small nutcracker

Music

• While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks

Resources

• History of the Nutcrackers

	Family Celebrations for Christmas by Ann Hibbard Holly, Reindeer, and Colored Lights : The Story of the Christmas Symbols by Edna Barth Keeping Christ in Christmas by Steve Russo Celebrating the Christian Year by Martha Zimmerman