The Sugar Plum Fairy

As it is the Christmas season I thought I'd feature some Christmas faeries. Namely, the Sugar Plum Fairy.

The Sugar Plum Fairy is from the popular ballet, The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. The story of the Nutcracker is about a young girl named Clara who receives a nutcracker from her godfather as a Christmas present. That night she wakes up to find that the nutcracker has come alive and is fighting an army of evil rats. Just as the rat king is about to kill the Nutcracker, Clara throws her slipper at him to distract him and the rats retreat. The Nutcracker transforms into a handsome prince and takes Clara through the trees and across a lake in a nutshell boat into the land of the sweets, ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy. After the Nutcracker prince tells the Sugar Plum Fairy of how Clara saved him from the mouse king and the court puts on a performance to honour the heroine. They then make Clara and the Nutcracker prince rulers of the realm. In the movie versions of the story Clara wakes up thinking that it must've been all a dream and then meets either an apprentice or a nephew of her godfather's that looks strikingly like the Nutcracker prince and there are hints that they'll fall in love.

Many of the songs from The Nutcracker are recognizable, and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is one of them, if not the most recognizable.

There are a couple of Christmas films or tv episode specials but my two preferred movies are the 1993 version of The Nutcracker, which has Macaulay Culkin in it and is basically a filming of the ballet.

The second is Barbie in the Nutcraker. Many people may feel hesitant and superior to the Barbie movies, but they are great movies with strong heroines and actual orchestras for the soundtrack. In my opinion it is one of the best film series for your average young girl, and the Christmas films are no exception.