A Nutcracker Nut

 I love The Nutcracker.  There, I’ve said it. A woman in her 40s with an unconstrained passion for a children's book.

E.T.A. Hoffman’s, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, written almost 200 years ago, is a wonder.  It has fantasy and horror.  It has villains and heroes.  It is both scary and a love story.  It has all the elements of a good read.

I have a collection of these children’s books as well as themed ornaments (remember my post about not being a collector? Yeah, cancel that).   I now have an entire tree that is just The Nutcracker.

I try to add one or two ornaments each year.  Here are some of my favorites:

(l to r) Nutcracker book, a Christopher Radko Nutcracker and  godfather, toymaker, inventor  Drosselmeir.

This ornament has a battery-powered rotating mechanism that makes it turn.   Marya (sometimes called Marie or Clara) on the left, Mouse King on the right.

Now I know some people love the Nutcracker but, to my mind, there is an overabundance of nutcrackers out there.  Perhaps it's because I’m partial to the Mouse King and his antics.  

My lime green Mouse King tree-topper.  Even though (spoiler alert) he is  not victorious in the end, I love seeing him looking down on his tree kingdom

I want all the story’s characters represented on my tree, even the seemingly minor ones. That's why I bought this ornament, and several others like it, on eBay.

The Mother Ginger and her Polichinelles (little puppets)

If you haven't read The Nutcracker and the Mouse King to your children, you should. And don't be surprised if, like me, they love the Mouse King the most.