The Run in Numbers
San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker fills the War Memorial Opera House from 4 to 27 December 2026. The window covers 24 calendar days. The production page lists 35 performances across 20 of those dates.
Fifteen dates carry two performances. Five carry one. The single-performance dates are 4, 8, 9, 10 and 15 December.
The Weekend Weight
Sixteen of the 35 performances fall on a Saturday or a Sunday, split evenly between the two. Each of the four Saturdays carries two performances: 5, 12, 19 and 26 December. Each of the four Sundays carries two as well: 6, 13, 20 and 27 December.
The Daypart Map
Five curtain clocks appear across the run. Fifteen performances start at 7:00 pm, 13 at 2:00 pm, three at 6:00 pm, two at 11:00 am and two at 4:00 pm.
Fifteen of the 35 performances begin at 11:00 am or 2:00 pm. Thirteen of that group are the 2:00 pm curtain, which lands on 13 dates, and every one of those dates also carries a 7:00 pm performance.
Three consecutive midweek dates hold the 6:00 pm curtain: 8, 9 and 10 December. Each carries that single performance.
The Two-Performance Dates
Fifteen dates carry two performances: 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26 and 27 December. Thirteen of them pair a 2:00 pm curtain with a 7:00 pm curtain. The remaining two carry the 11:00 am and 4:00 pm pair.
Both midday pairs fall on 24 and 27 December. Neither date carries a 7:00 pm performance. The two 4:00 pm starts sit only on those two dates, and the two 11:00 am starts do the same.
The Four Dark Dates
Four dates inside the window carry no performance: Monday 7 December, Monday 14 December, Monday 21 December and Friday 25 December.
The closing week runs 22 and 23 December at two performances each, holds two on Christmas Eve, restarts 26 December with two and ends 27 December with two.
Curtain Finishes and the Dining Windows
The published run time is 117 minutes, with Act I at 47 minutes, the intermission at 20 and Act II at 50. A 7:00 pm curtain ends at 8:57 pm, a 2:00 pm curtain at 3:57 pm, a 6:00 pm curtain at 7:57 pm, an 11:00 am curtain at 12:57 pm and a 4:00 pm curtain at 5:57 pm.
The house publishes its dining windows against those clocks. Prelude at the Opera House opens two hours before the 2:00 pm Sunday performances and the 7:00 pm Tuesday to Saturday performances, and one hour before the 6:00 pm shows. The plan-your-visit page prints no Prelude or North Box window for the 11:00 am and 4:00 pm performances.
Two Programmed Additions
The 27 December 11:00 am performance is the fifth annual Sensory Friendly Performance, staged with Autism Society SF Bay Area. The production page describes it as adapted for neurodiverse audiences. The Nutcracker Nightcap runs at the Taube Atrium Theater across from the Opera House on 4 December, with a 9 pm start, a $150 ticket and a 21+ rule. The production page states that the Nightcap ticket does not include a performance ticket.
The Day-Use Frame Around the Window
The production page, the FAQ page and the plan-your-visit page carry no day-use listing, no hourly room and no room block.
The city’s day-use inventory reads 562 hotels available in San Francisco on the hotelslots.org directory, which prints 24 cards of that total. The dayuse.com San Francisco shelf prints an average price of $119.61 for a day room in the city. Both figures carry a read date of 16 October 2026.
What the Source Does Not Publish
No attendance figure, no hotel partner, no group rate and no shuttle line appear on the pages reached. The production page carries the line “Programming, casting, and prices subject to change.”