This past month, live event venues have been teeming with Scrooges, Grinches, Rockettes and Michael Bublé. Nuts have been cracked, carols have been sung, and (best of all) seats have been filled despite lingering health concerns with COVID, flu and cold viruses going around. People this holiday season have wanted to be entertained, and our INTIX members who run the ticketing operations at the various theaters, performing arts centers and symphony halls have earned some sorely needed end-of-year revenue.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, for instance, hosted its spectacular Camp Christmas. From Nov. 17 through Christmas Eve, the six-acre winter wonderland has featured everything from a classic carousel to visits with Santa Claus to hot cocoa and craft cocktails for attendees of all ages. For the 38th consecutive year, Raleigh Little Theatre in North Carolina put on its version of “Cinderella,” featuring a Royal Ball that takes place on Christmas Eve. And, of course, Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan once again featured those high-kicking Rockettes.

Not to be outdone, Omaha Performing Arts this past month played host to everyone from Mannheim Steamroller to Michael W. Smith to “A Drag Queen Christmas.” Ashley Voorhees, Associate Vice President of Administrative Service, says, “Diverse programing is important year-round. However, representation around the holidays is important as it’s a time to gather with friends and loved ones and celebrate. This will be the third season ‘A Drag Queen Christmas’ will be at the Orpheum, and it’s quickly becoming an Omaha favorite. So far this year, we have sold 36% more tickets than we did the first season. Each season we have a variety of artists play our venues and still keep to tradition and have the repeat performances, like ‘The Nutcracker’ and Mannheim Steamroller.”

Another venue that has been decking the halls in a big way is the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. It has played host to everything from “Home Alone in Concert” to Arturo Sandoval’s “Swinging Holiday.”

Joe Carter, Director, Sales & Customer Experience, says, “When planning for holiday programming, be sure to consider all members of the community when booking acts. We generally have a few weeks of programming — including events good for the whole family, as well as genre-specific concerts that appeal to different parts of the community. This year, we range from hip-hop and Latin jazz to pop, classical and film work. The audience varies greatly from performance to performance, reflecting the great diversity of our city.”

At the same time, holiday audiences certainly turn out for the old standards. The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s (BSO’s) "Holiday Pops" certainly qualifies in this regard. David Winn, Box Office Manager for the BSO, feels that audiences this year “really needed to get a break from the world, without a mask, and being able to sing [The 2021 Holiday Pops did not have any audience participation singing]. Sitting in the audience for a nostalgic concert listening to the Boston Pops, hearing ‘A Visit From St. Nicholas’ — better known as the opening stanza of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ — along with all your favorite holiday stories and music is just the thing people needed.”

Also performed was a version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” that was written specifically for the Pops. New this year was a snow machine in the lobby and pine scent machines pumping in the smell of seasonal trees. Santa was on hand to host meet n’ greets at all of the Pops’ children’s performances. And Winn and his staff set up a new merchandise booth in front of the building on Massachusetts Avenue.

Lenore Schwartz Heller, Director of Patron Services at The Palace Theatre in Stamford, Connecticut, says, “Comfort shows are important to the community. Even though we at the theater think about deviating, our audiences look forward to ‘Rudolph’ the weekend after Thanksgiving and ‘The Nutcracker’ every December.” 

The whole idea is to put on a good show. It’s what everyone who attends a live event at the holidays wants. Also key? Skypp Cabanas, Senior Manager of Ticket Operations for Center Theatre Group in LA, says, “Consider dropping your age limits and plan for a certain percentage of your house or certain areas designated for children or babies in laps. The same goes for the other end of the spectrum with older folks who need aisle seats or no stairs. Setting up a section of your sales path to include details about all the ways your production or event is physically accessible to all would be incredibly helpful and allow you to service more of the community during the holiday season. This can — and hopefully will — translate into more ticket sales. If nothing else, it's the right thing to do and a good strategy to show the public you're thinking about them.”

Those interviewed for this article agreed that the holiday season has been a great time to market to patrons. Things like tickets, gift cards, venue merchandise and so forth have been great ideas for holiday gifts.

Cate Foltin, Business Manager at the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts in Michigan, says, “For our market, it is about giving the gift of experience through live entertainment. That can be through tickets or gift certificates. We go pretty heavy into this with campaigns centered around gift certificates, time-limited special promotions [and so forth].”

Carter adds, “We have been very successful with our annual ‘Give the Gift’ promotion, focusing on tickets and merchandise, as well as our gift card. Though we offer discounts for targeted concerts, the majority of tickets purchased through the offer are for non-discounted tickets. We do about 70% of our annual gift card business in the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas and our online merchandise sales triple.”

Cabanas calls such marketing “extremely important. Not only does it help your organization's bottom line at the end of the year, but it also gets the patrons to commit to visiting you and get excited about what that gifted event is.”

So, do our interviewees have a dream holiday show that they would love for their venue to put on in a future year? The answers were varied and heartfelt. Voorhees says, “I just look forward to seeing what our calendar has to offer. Because each season, there is something that I always want to attend during this time of year. OK, it’s probably something that no one could afford, but wouldn’t it be great if you could combine a bunch of artists and let them perform a few of their hits and then have a Q&A between songs discussing their favorite holiday memories or funny holiday stories?”

Carter says, “Just once, it would be fun to do a holiday show at the Hollywood Bowl. But we’re already pushing it with concerts in November. We Angelenos don’t handle cold nights very well! But it sure would be fun to have 18,000 people celebrating the holidays with a concert in December, all snuggled up with their Bowl blankets, hot cocoa and warm vibes!”

Foltin, meanwhile, admits her dream is to actually be in a holiday show. And what show would that be? “If I were younger and taller and more agile … ‘The Rockettes Holiday Show!’”