| THENUTCRACKER | 1892 ballet whose music - by Tchaikovsky - was for many years more popular than the ballet (3,10) |
| OUTSOLD | Were lots more popular than the others (7) |
| EUGENONEGIN | Which three-act opera by Tchaikovsky was based on a poem by Pushkin and premiered in Moscow on March |
| DECANTS | After end of year more than one worker moves elsewhere |
| JAPONICA | River comes in first day of year (more or less) covering a shrub (8) |
| ADMIRALSCUP | International yachting regatta that was for many years the unofficial world championship of offshore |
| QUEENOFSPADES | 'The ---', 1890 opera by Tchaikovsky based on a novel by Pushkin (5,2,6) |
| MARKETLEADERS | Top of the Polls perhaps? Sounds like an attempt to make those running parties more popular! (6,7) |
| CDCASE | Music holder that used to be much more popular than it is nowadays |
| DONALDDUCK | Classic cartoon character who became more popular than Mickey Mouse in the forties (6,4) |
| NUTCRACKER | "The ...", two-act ballet with music by Tchaikovsky based on a fairy-tale (10) |
| CHRISTMAS | Only day more popular than Valentine's for card giving |
| FRITZ | Brother of Clara and Louise in the 1892 ballet The Nutcracker by Pyotr Tchaikovsky (5) |
| SWAN | Four-act ballet with music by Tchaikovsky that received its premiere in 1877 (4,4) |
| SWANLAKE | Four-act ballet with music by Tchaikovsky first performed in 1877 (4,4) |
| ARABICA | Coffee variety that's more popular than robusta |
| OUTSELL | Be more popular than, in stores |
| TRUE | 1983 album by Spandau Ballet whose title track spent four weeks at number one in the UK Singles Chart |
| ASHTON | Founding choreographer of the Royal Ballet whose corpus includes A Tragedy of Fashion, La fille mal gardee, Facade and A Month in the Country (6) |
| CLARA | Dreaming heroine of Tchaikovsky's 1892 ballet The Nutcracker (5) |
