| THENUTCRACKER | A Christmas ballet |
| ANGLAIS | Paired with "cor", one of the woodwinds forming part of the instrumentation of Tchaikovsky's score for the Christmas ballet The Nutcracker that, despite its name, is neither English nor a horn (7) |
| NUTCRACKER | Christmas ballet, with "The" |
| SNAP | A simple card game, a banger inside a Christmas cracker; or, a rolled ginger biscuit containing whipped cream (4) |
| NINELADIES | A number of women cutting a caper in a Christmas song (4,6,7) |
| MAIDS | Octet "a-milking" in a Christmas song |
| NOEL | Christmas, or a Christmas carol |
| WISH | Possibly a Christmas cracker to pull thus contains letters on a pencil in red, say? (8) |
| MOTTO | Saying or maxim often found on a slip of paper in a Christmas cracker (5) |
| ANGEL | Item used to top a Christmas tree; a tradition originally popularised by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (5) |
| PARTRIDGE | Bird found in a pear tree in a Christmas song (9) |
| PRESENT | Ghost of Christmas -; one of the characters in A Christmas Carol (7) |
| AMAHL | Shepherd boy of a Christmas opera hearing a heavy hammer (5) |
| EGGCUSTARD | Flavoured with brandy this accompaniment to a plum pudding is a Christmas favourite (3,7) |
| SANTA | And 42 A class aunt turns out a Christmas favourite (5,5) |
| HIPPEASTRUM | Popular as a Christmas gift, this is a genus of South American bulb, cultivated for its large funnel-shaped, typically red flowers (11) |
| FAIRYTALES | Books that depict an imaginary tale with a moral lesson like Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol: 2 wds. |
| PEARS | Fruits in a partridge's tree according to a Christmas song |
| SONG | Lyrics or a poem set to music, such as a Christmas carol (4) |
| PAST | Ghost of Christmas ___; one of the characters in A Christmas Carol (4) |
