Great Falls Gets Two Live-Orchestra Nutcrackers This Year, and Only One Is a Touring Show

Last November the Historic Mansfield Theater hosted two Nutcrackers, and the Great Falls Symphony played neither one. Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet played on Nov. 13, 2025. World Ballet Company followed on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025.

The Mansfield has two Nutcrackers again this year, five days apart, and both have a live orchestra. This time one of those orchestras is the Great Falls Symphony.

That change matters for more than the program. The Symphony's Nov. 24 show is the first of a run of events packed into the six days around Thanksgiving. A second run lands on Saturday, Dec. 12. Plan those two stretches and most of the Great Falls holiday season is covered.

The Symphony goes back into the pit

The Electric's Oct. 22 Business Bites column reported that this is the first time in more than a decade the Great Falls Symphony has presented The Nutcracker with live orchestral accompaniment. The Symphony's own event page says it has been "many years" since the orchestra played the score live alongside a full ballet production. It adds that with a live orchestra, "no two performances of The Nutcracker are exactly alike."

Music Director Robert Kahn conducts. The Symphony is sharing the stage with Montana Ballet Company and the Electric City Youth Chorus. Montana Ballet Company describes itself as a nonprofit arts organization serving Bozeman and the Greater Gallatin Valley, so the dancers are coming up from the south to meet the orchestra here. In the release quoted by The Electric, Kahn said the production features "a beautiful set inspired by our state's majestic mountains."

The curtain is at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 24. A free pre-concert talk starts at 6:30 p.m., and tickets are sold through the Symphony's page.

Five days later, the Los Angeles-based World Ballet Company comes back for its second straight year at the Mansfield. The two shows are built differently:

The World Ballet Company show falls on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when families with houseguests are looking for an outing. The Symphony's performance is on the Tuesday before, ahead of the holiday traffic. If you're choosing between them, the hometown orchestra comes first and the tour closes out the week.

Six days hold most of the season

Lay the Nutcrackers next to the Downtown Great Falls Association's 2026 Calendar of Events and Thanksgiving week fills up fast.

1. Tuesday, Nov. 24. The Great Falls Symphony's Nutcracker at the Mansfield, 7:30 p.m.
2. Thursday, Nov. 26. Thanksgiving.
3. Saturday, Nov. 28. Small Business Saturday and the Parade of Lights, both listed for the same date on the downtown calendar.
4. Sunday, Nov. 29. World Ballet Company's Nutcracker at the Mansfield, 6 p.m.

Small Business Saturday and the Parade of Lights share Nov. 28, so the year's busiest downtown shopping day ends with the parade. Watch the Downtown Great Falls Association for 2026 start times as the date gets closer. The calendar lists the date and nothing else.

Then comes a Friday, Dec. 4 with two things happening at once. The Christmas Stroll is on the downtown calendar that night. The same evening, Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art is hosting an artist talk titled "KEEP" from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The next morning, Dec. 5, the Square runs a Traditional Whisk Making Workshop from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Then Dec. 12 stacks up

One week after the whisk workshop, Saturday, Dec. 12 takes on more than any other day in December:

• C.M. Russell Museum. Dec. 12 is a free-admission Second Saturday, part of the museum's winter program.
• The History Museum. "Music for the Winter Solstice with Melissa Smith" runs 1 to 2 p.m., per the museum's events page.
• Historic Mansfield Theater. Tiann Lubkeman's Electric Christmas starts at 7 p.m., with a VIP meet-and-greet from 5 to 6 p.m.

You could see the Russell's galleries for free in the morning, hear the solstice set at The History Museum after lunch, and end up at the Mansfield that night without driving across town.

The Mansfield books a show two nights before as well. A Buzz Brass Christmas, a Great Falls Community Concert featuring the Montreal brass quintet, is set for Thursday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. The season wraps up with the Great Falls Symphony again. Its Christmas concert on Sunday, Dec. 20 brings in the Symphonic Choir, Santa, and a carol sing-along.

Holiday gatherings are moving to booked rooms

Several local businesses are changing how they handle the holidays this year. More of the season's food and flowers will come through events booked in advance.

The Electric's same Oct. 22 column reported the following changes:

• Enbär ends daily restaurant service beginning in November. It will keep offering special events, catering, and private event rentals.
• Electric City Catering, which shares a location with Annie's Taphouse and Homestead 1909, is taking holiday catering orders and Christmas party bookings.
• My~Viola Floral Studio is becoming an event-only studio focused on weddings, celebrations of life, local events, and parties. It will keep filling everyday orders through the end of the year, and its plant boutique will stay open.

Holiday centerpieces and bouquets for Thanksgiving week and Christmas still fall inside My~Viola's everyday-order window, since that service runs through year-end.

For walk-in options, Homestead 1909 inside Annie's Taphouse now serves Saturday brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with bottomless mimosas or ciders for $16. It also opens for lunch on Fridays at 11 a.m. That Saturday brunch slot falls on the morning of Small Business Saturday and the Parade of Lights.

Downtown shoppers will also see a long-running shop wrapping up. Signs in the windows of the Odds n Ends Shop at 123 Central Ave. say it is for sale and holding a going-out-of-business sale.

Before Thanksgiving week arrives

A few dates come before the busy stretch and are easy to miss:

• Saturday, Nov. 7. Alliance for Youth's Youth Craft Fair runs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 3220 11th Ave. S. Admission is free, and local young people sell holiday decorations, art, and jewelry they made themselves. It's an early start on gift shopping.
• Tuesday, Nov. 10. The C.M. Russell Museum's Member Holiday Open House runs 5 to 7 p.m. Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive at 6, and members get 20% off in-store purchases, consignment items excluded.
• Saturday, Nov. 14. The Russell's November free-admission Second Saturday.
• Through Friday, Nov. 20. The second Cat/Griz Food Drive collects nonperishable food at Calumet's Westgate location, 1807 3rd St. N.W., weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. There's a bin for Bobcat fans and a bin for Grizzly fans. Calumet donates $1 to the Great Falls Community Food Bank for every pound collected. Cat fans edged out Griz fans last year, when the drive raised 4,300 pounds. The winner will be announced Nov. 21, the day of the Cat/Griz game.

The food bank's most-needed items include canned fruit, beans, cereal, peanut butter, jelly, canned meats, chili, and soup.

If family is coming for Thanksgiving week and wants to see the Great Falls you know, the Mansfield, the Parade of Lights, and a Second Saturday at the Russell make a good start. And if those visitors start asking what it would take to live here year-round, the team at Live In Montana Real Estate knows this town's calendar as well as its streets. Connect with a Montana expert.