From ancient Greece to the present day, good stories have been of great value to all civilizations. Stories rescue us from boredom, existential emptiness and the harshness of life; and even more so, good stories awaken our imagination. The Nutcracker is a worldwide Christmas Classic. It's popularity stems; in part because the script by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann touches on the importance of fighting for your dreams and also because the music composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is nothing less than magical.