Like an eccentric uncle, the holidays often sneak up on people and leave tinsel wherever they go. Deck the halls with today’s deal: for $17, you get one orchestra-level ticket to the Columbia City Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker at the Koger Center for the Arts (up to a $35 value). Choose between the following showtimes:

• Saturday, December 10, at 7:30 p.m.
• Friday, December 16, at 7:30 p.m.<p>

Rated the Best Dance Company of 2011 by the Free Times, the Columbia City Ballet celebrates its 51st season under the artistic direction of William Starrett with a dazzling performance of Tchaikovsky’s fantastical children’s Christmas tale. Thanks to primo seats, audiences can turn their binoculars backward to witness young Clara as she shrinks under her family’s Christmas tree, slipping into an imaginative dreamscape. As her toy nutcracker comes to life and escorts her through a Yuletide wonderland, the troupe’s performers traverse the stage with nimble footwork. Toward the end of the first act, an elaborate battle unfolds between the Nutcracker Prince’s army of toy soldiers and the sinister Mouse King, who outrages his realm with tax exemptions for hamsters. Soon after, Clara and the prince venture into the Land of Snow and the Land of Sweets. Then, as a finale, spectators are treated to a pas de deux, the French term for a foot-to-foot high-five.