A FEW minutes into the opening scene and I suddenly realised why this evergreen ballet oozes with appeal.

It was that eureka moment, the split-second in time when the only mystery that remained was why the thought hadn’t occurred sooner. For gazing at the impossibly large Christmas tree – Nutcracker buffs will know this as the magical plant that makes your average suburban leylandii look like a bonsai – it all became crystal clear.

Here was the embodiment of everyone’s perfect traditional Yuletide, a fantasy land that now survives mainly in folk memory. The tree, the box of toy soldiers… this is the Edwardian to late 1950s Christmas, when every child had two loving parents, doting grans and grandpas, and all was well with the world.

However, none of this nostalgia would really connect were it not for those liberal sprinklings of dust that fall from producer Sir Peter Wright’s magic wand on to the diminutive shoulders of Nao Sakuma’s Sugar Plum Fairy, whose pas de deux with Chi Cao’s Prince becomes an art form that should surely go on permanent display at the Tate Gallery.

The couple move as one, in the manner of those winter flocking birds seen on nature programmes, where their ornithological choreography seems to be guided by some form of collective consciousness.

This is more than just diligence during rehearsals, for there is indeed an almost alarming chemistry shared by these BRB favourites.

And talking of wizardry, Robert Parker’s ever-so-slightly menacing Drosselmeyer the magician endows his usual flawless performance with a decidedly edgy feel.

His keen sense of theatre injects added adrenalin to a piece that is already packed with energy and pace, while Carol-Anne Millar’s demure Clara soon shows that this is a partnership of equals.

And all the time, the story’s inexorable glide into a magical and mystical world is expertly guided by Tchaikovsky’s timeless score, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia’s conductor Barry Wordsworth being more than a match for the great composer’s genius.

Nobody does Nutcracker like BRB and it’s fair to say that Christmas wouldn’t be the same in the West Midlands without this annual seasonal offering. For let’s face it, where else could you see sets that would make a Hollywood movie mogul greener than the tree itself and a cast capable of giving Busby Berkeley’s chorus line a run for their money?

The Nutcracker runs until Sunday, December 13 at Birmingham Hippodrome. And whether you’re young or old, this cracker of a show is an absolute must for everyone’s festive stocking.