While the winter season has numerous wonders—brightly-wrapped presents, snowmen, lights, music, family gatherings—Boston Ballet's The Nutcracker proves itself year after year as the ultimate Christmas- season treat.

Based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's 19th-century tale about a young girl, Clara, who is transported to a magical world by an enchanted nutcracker toy, the ballet premiered nearly 120 years ago in the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1892. Boston Ballet moved The Nutcracker from the Wang Theatre to the Colonial Theatre in 2004 and to its current venue at the Boston Opera House in 2005.

This year marks the final glimpse of the sets designed by Herbert Senn and Helen Pond and costumes designed by David Walker, respectively. In 2012, Boston Ballet will usher in a fresh imagining of The Nutcracker, still choreographed by Mikko Nissinen, but with unannounced designers. Its preview website, bostonballet.org/nutcracker2012, features a preliminary sketch of the ballet's first scene—Drosselmeier at his workshop.

As much as the early hype of The Nutcracker's redesign in 2012 excited me, it was the prospect of this year's holiday season that lifted my spirits. Poinsettias and wreaths, live piano music, champagne, beer and the chatter of families dressed in red and grey sweaters greeted me in the exquisite lobby of the Boston Opera House. My date and I, like many other attendees, took pictures of the Opera House's tall ceilings, chandeliers and opulent decorations. Indeed, the organizers of The Nutcracker made sure it was, in essence, the first big Christmas party of the year.

In the theater itself, the embodiment of Christmas cheer came as the orchestra, led by Jonathan McPhee, fired its first notes into the air, introducing the audience to a fantastical, wintry world onstage.

We see Drosselmeier—Clara's mysterious godfather—working on his prized invention, the nutcracker, before fluttering away in his long, purple, sweeping cape. He then enters a Christmas party hosted by Clara's father and enchants the children there with wind-up dolls, magic tricks and an unforgettable dancing bear.

With all its dancing animals and flying props, Act I is the reason why parents see The Nutcracker with their children, who tend to have little appreciation for ballet but an endless well of enthusiasm for the show's wondrous escapism.

As Clara touches the mysterious toy nestled under the Christmas tree, things start to come to life. A remote -controlled rodent skitters across the stage and returns as a child-sized mouse. Clara's house comes apart, piece by piece, as she enters the Battle of the Toy Soldiers and Mice. The scene, heralded by cymbal crashes, demonstrates a technical and artistic mastery of stage design. In the following scene, Dalay Parrondo and Paulo Arrais, the Snow Queen and King, showcase Boston Ballet's virtuosity in an effortless duet among artificial snow and smoke. Their technical prowess is a prelude to the more dance-focused Act II at the Sugar Plum Fairy's royal court in the Kingdom of Sweets.

As Drosselmeier and Clara land in a pink-clouded candy kingdom in their hot air balloon, we are transported to a land inspired by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's most memorable compositions. With precise jumps and a trumpet call, "Spanish," the first dance, triumphantly introduces the around-the-world dance vignettes of Act II. The slow, sultry violin lines in "Arabian" give the song's two dancers room for emotional expression. "Chinese" has the most memorable imagery in Act II, with children spinning bright red, blue and green parasols around a ballet duet. (The irony is probably lost on most audiences that most Chinese people consider opening an umbrella indoors to be bad luck, but you can hardly blame The Nutcracker's designers for including these iconic props.) Children dressed as furry sheep, especially one confused black sheep, had the audience going wild in "Pastorale," and people cheered even louder in "Russian" as soloist Isaac Akiba performed spontaneous five-foot split jumps.

For me, Lia Cirio's performance as the Sugar Plum Fairy stole the night. Her solos were graceful but had undeniable power in each step, complementing James Whiteside's buoyancy as the Nutcracker/Cavalier in their final duet. After the final dance, as the brightly colored characters of The Nutcracker reentered the stage for a bow, I wondered why audiences kept coming back to the same show year after year.

My date, who has seen this version of The Nutcracker every year since she was a child, and sometimes twice or three times in one year, said that she never got bored with the show. She could offer no explanation, but perhaps it's the same reason that people never get bored of Christmas, either.

The Nutcracker has been a Christmas tradition for over a century, but, like waking up to the first snow of the year, its magic and wonder never fades.

Boston Ballet's "The Nutcracker" runs through Dec. 31 at the Boston Opera House, 539 Washington St. The performance is two hours long, including one intermission. Tickets start at $35. More information at bostonballet.org, 617-695-6955.