Thirty-five performances across twenty dates
San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker returns to the War Memorial Opera House at 301 Van Ness Avenue for a run that opens Friday, December 4 and closes Sunday, December 27 with 35 dated performances.
The calendar carries 6:00 PM starts on December 8, 9 and 10, 11:00 AM and 4:00 PM slots on Christmas Eve and on December 27, and 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM slots on December 26.
The booking season is already open. The packages page marks single tickets “On sale now” beside a Nutcracker listing of December 4 to 27. The venue FAQ frames the same thing forward-looking: “Official tickets for the 2026–2027 Season will go on sale in the fall.”
Buy from one source. The FAQ is blunt about the rest: “Sfballet.org is the only guaranteed source for official tickets to San Francisco Ballet performances at the War Memorial Opera House.”
The package price against the single price
The biggest published discount is the subscription. The FAQ states that a Principal 6 Series saves up to 30 percent off the regular ticket price, “depending on the seating section selected.”
The offers page runs a promotional layer on top of that. Promo code SAVEBIG takes 27 percent off the package price, which the page translates as savings of up to 44 percent against single ticket prices, valid on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday packages only. That offer expired on September 14, 2026 at 11:59 PM and the page still displays it, so read every current offer against its own expiry date before relying on it.
What an exchange costs, by ticket type
The exchange ladder differs by ticket type. Single tickets carry a $20 per order advance exchange fee until the day of the show. On the performance date the fee is $25 per ticket, and it applies until three hours before the scheduled start time. Exchanges inside that three-hour window are not allowed.
A Principal 6 Series package exchanges fee-free in advance until the day of show, then at $20 per order on the performance date, again until three hours before curtain. Flight of Four, Mini and Create Your Own packages carry $10 per order in advance, and that fee is waived until January 17, 2027, then $20 per order on the performance date.
Three terms govern all of them. An exchange into a higher price pays the difference. An exchange into a lower price refunds nothing. And the refund policy underneath is absolute: “All sales are final. Tickets are non-refundable. No cancellations.”
Every ticket price includes a facility fee of $1 or $2 per seat, stated on the FAQ page.
Rush at 10 AM, and the wall behind standing room
Rush is the day-of channel. When it is offered, Rush tickets go on sale at 10 AM on the day of the performance and come off sale one hour before curtain, with a limit of two tickets per household.
The FAQ places Rush on “select performances during the Repertory Season” and opens the sentence with “When offered.” so ask before planning a date on it.
Standing room is the priced certainty. Standing-room-only tickets are $10, bought in person on the day of the performance at the box office in the Opera House or by calling 415-865-2000. The ticket places the holder at the rear of the main floor and the rear of the balcony, and the SRO section sits behind a 4′4″ wall. Cash is preferred.
The clock before the curtain
The Opera House lobby opens one hour before the performance begins. Will Call tickets are held at the box office in the Main Lobby, and that box office is open only on performance days, starting four hours before the performance. The FAQ asks guests to arrive at least 45 minutes early because the Will Call line runs long.
Late arrivals face a real rule. There is no late seating while a performance is in progress during the Repertory Season, and during Nutcracker the same rules apply although house management may admit latecomers at its discretion.
The run time is on the production page: Act I at 47 minutes, a 20-minute intermission, and Act II at 50 minutes. Ticket Services answers at 415-865-2000 from Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 4 PM, and at tickets@sfballet.org.
Where to stay for a December matinee
The Opera House sits at the corner of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street, inside 94102. The hotelhuddle directory carries 94102 properties within half a kilometre of the house, each with a street address and a star rating. These are straight-line distances from 301 Van Ness Avenue: Inn at the Opera, 333 Fulton Street, three stars, 117 metres; Hayes Valley Inn, 417 Gough Street, two stars, 257 metres; Inn on Grove, 465 Grove Street, two stars, 301 metres; Inn at Gough, 135 Gough Street, two stars, 464 metres; Abigail Hotel, 246 McAllister Street, 495 metres.
Two gaps matter. None of the five publishes a check-in hour in the directory, which matters for a 2:00 PM matinee, and none publishes a nightly rate. Ask the property for both in writing.
A group of twenty or more can take the discount off the public price from another direction. The ballet’s own group line is 415-865-2000, and the FAQ promises discounted prices at that size. For the rooms, a hotelhuddle request reaches 50 or more hotels in the city in one submission, hotels respond in 24 to 72 hours, submission is free, and the group pays the property directly with no markup added to the rate.
The front-desk script
Five questions settle the trip. What is the nightly rate, the check-in hour and the total with taxes for the December dates? Can the property hold a late checkout or an early bag drop around a 2:00 PM curtain? Is there a December midweek rate, since the run’s 6:00 PM starts on December 8, 9 and 10 fall on weeknights? What is the cancellation deadline in writing? And for the seats, is Rush offered for the chosen performance, and how many standing-room tickets remain?