Published in 1816 in Berlin, Germany, the tale we know today as The Nutcracker was originally called "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" or "Nutcracker and Mouse King." The children's fantasy book was written by E. T. A. Hoffmann and sits at a total of around 22k words.
"The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" starts off with a girl named Marie and her little brother Fritz enjoying Christmas Eve alongside their family. Marie notices a nutcracker, takes a liking to him, and is appointed the doll's unofficial caretaker.
Soon, Fritz accidentally breaks the nutcracker's jaw. Marie is saddened by this and binds the "injury" with a part of her dress. Marie promises the nutcracker that her Godfather Drosselmeyer will repair him, and for a moment the doll almost seems to come alive in response to her words.
Later that night, while everyone should be sleeping, Marie witnesses an army of mice - including the mouse king (who, terrifyingly, possesses seven heads) - come up out of the floor. Not only that, but the household dolls come to life Toy Story style.
A battle between the mice and toys unfolds, with the mouse king leading the mice and the nutcracker leading the toys. Just when it seems that the mice are going to defeat the toys - just when Marie fears her beloved nutcracker might be destroyed by the mouse king - she decides to take matters into her own hands.
Marie throws her slipper at the mouse king, and then she faints.
The next day, Marie wakes up and tries to tell her parents about the clash between the mice and the toys, but of course they don't believe her. A while later, Godfather Drosselmeyer returns with the nutcracker, who is now repaired and good as new.
Drosselmeyer explains to Marie how the nutcracker became a nutcracker: How he was once a boy, a puppet-maker's son, and how in helping a princess named Pirlipat break a curse that made her look like a nutcracker, he accidentally took the curse upon himself. Whoever broke the curse for Princess Pirlipat was supposed to marry her, but the princess was disgusted by the way the boy looked after his transformation, so she banished him rather than marrying him.
As the days pass, the mouse king continuously threatens Marie. He says that if she doesn't give him her possessions, he'll destroy the nutcracker, but the nutcracker tells Marie that if she gives him a sword, he'll kill the mouse king. Marie gets a toy sword from Fritz, and the nutcracker slays the mouse king.
The nutcracker then whisks Marie away to the kingdom of the dolls, where she sees beautiful, magical things. (In the ballet, these beautiful, magical things consist of dancing candy and snowflakes, a great deal of other performers from around the world, and the enchanting Sugar Plum Fairy.)
Marie falls asleep in the palace of the kingdom of the dolls and awakes in her own house. Again, she tries to tell her parents about what's happened to her, and to her dismay, they refuse to hear any of it.
Some time passes, and Marie tells the nutcracker that if he were real she would love him no matter how he looked - that she would have never treated him the way Pirlipat did.
In the end, the nutcracker does turn out to be real. A boy arrives at Marie's house, and her mother introduces him as Drosselmeyer's nephew. The boy explains to Marie that he is the nutcracker, and that by professing her love for him despite the way he looked, she broke his curse. The pair later marry and return to the kingdom of the dolls.
I hope you enjoyed December 2023's favorite folktale! | 
