Every time my family and I see a Rockettes spectacular show, it’s exciting and engaging, getting better each year. The creativity of this unique dance company is incredible to watch as the members perform their world-famous precision dances in front of thousands of people each year.

This is especially true for the dance company’s latest ‘Christmas Spectacular’, the annual holiday show staged at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. This year’s run lasted almost two months, from Nov. 8, 2024, through Jan. 5, 2025.

My family and I saw the show one Saturday in December, and it didn’t fail to delight us all and spread holiday cheer. Memorable show highlights included tap dancing, flying snow fairies and a beautiful and crowd-pleasing nativity scene. As always, the music and visual displays perfectly matched the dancers’ every movement.

“The show was so awesome,” said my fellow attendee and cousin Madelyn Lufft, who attends Shongum. “The nativity scene was very realistic and out of the whole performance, it caught my eye the most. One quite unique glimpse of the show was the snow fairies flying in the air.”

The behind-the-scenes story of the Rockettes is as intriguing as the show itself. The dance company was formed back in 1932, almost 100 years ago. Its longstanding history has not been lost to today’s audiences, as some of the original dances, holiday scenes and outfit changes are still incorporated into the show. Almost a century old itself, Radio City Music Hall remains the perfect venue for this annual spectacle, offering audience members a great angle to view the performance from any seat.

Longstanding traditions aside, the Rockettes organization has made at least one change for the better over time. It has become more inclusive concerning height and weight requirements for dancers and has even hired at least one with a disability. Rockette Sydney Mesher, for example, does not have a left hand, making her the first Rockette in history to perform with a visible disability. As an audience member, seeing all of these physical variations among the dancers made it even more impressive that they were able to adjust and adapt to each other’s differences while on stage.

With this most recent show, the Radio City Rockettes continued to surprise audiences with their incredible talent. In any year, seeing the Rockettes is embarking on a one-of-a-kind experience, one that my entire family sees as mandatory whenever we visit New York City during the holiday season.