By Carly White | Posted on October 09, 2025 12:19 PM
2025 Christmas Spectacular adds Sphere Immersive Sound But Keeps Its Aging Format. Despite Flashy Upgrades, MSG’s Holiday Cash-Cow Relies On Ticket Discounts To Fill Over 1.2 million Seats Across 200 Shows.
2025 Christmas Spectacular Promises “New Magic” — but Few Real Changes
The 2025 Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes is set to run from November 8, 2025, through January 5, 2026, at Radio City Music Hall — marking the 91st edition of New York’s most famous holiday tradition. While producers at MSG Entertainment are touting this season’s debut of Sphere Immersive Sound technology as a major leap forward, many longtime fans and industry observers say the move is more marketing than meaningful innovation.
Decades of the Same Tradition
The Christmas Spectacular hasn’t changed its core format in decades. The show still features the familiar mix of precision dancing, nativity scenes, toy soldiers, and Santa-led pageantry. Though beloved, the structure is often criticized as creatively stagnant — a “safe” production that prioritizes consistency over originality. Many fans feel MSG has relied too heavily on nostalgia, turning the show into a lucrative annual cash cow, rather than a dynamic theatrical event.
The New “Sphere Immersive Sound”
This year’s upgrade brings Sphere Immersive Sound, adapted from the Las Vegas Sphere’s technology (also owned by MSG), to Radio City for the first time. The system promises crystal-clear, 360-degree audio designed to make the orchestra and effects sound uniform across every seat in the 6,000-capacity venue.
However, critics argue that children — who make up a large portion of the audience — are unlikely to notice the difference. For most families, the appeal remains the visuals, costumes, and Rockettes’ famous kicks. Tradition also plays a large part. Adults may appreciate the improved clarity with the new sound system, but it’s unlikely to fundamentally change the experience or address the long-standing creative stagnation.
Ticket Sales, Discounts, and the Math of Christmas
This season the show will feature over 200 performances, each seating around 6,000 patrons, totaling more than 1.2 million available seats to fill. Tickets range from $49 to $399, but the sheer volume of performances leads to aggressive ticket discounting just to fill the seats.
Ticket discount offers for this year's show abound typically include no-fee codes (Ticketmaster often charges a whopping $20 ticket fee) early-bird codes (for all the November shows), bulk-purchase promotions, weekday matinee sales, and partnerships with ticket discounting websites and eblasts.
Despite the marketing spin, and the lack of innovation the show remains an immovable holiday institution — dazzling for first-timers, nostalgic for repeat visitors, but still searching for something truly new beneath the glittering snow (that only comes out of the front door at the end of every show)
