Balboa Park December Nights: Food and music from around the world and free admission to museums and cultural attractions. Pictures with Santa, musical and choral productions, and multi-cultural dance and theatrical presentations. Tonight and tomorrow from 5:00-9:00 p.m. The Balboa Park Miniature Railroad makes its December Nights debut with a three-minute, half-mile journey through the park. Call (619) 239-0512 for more information.

Nutcracker: The family classic is the fifth annual production by the San Diego Civic Youth Ballet at 2:00 p.m. today, and features 120 dancers. Performances Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Dec. 14. Tickets are $10-12. Call (619) 233-3060 for more information.

Sushi improv: The Lower Left Performance Collective and members of the Trummerflora Collective, an experimental live and electronic music group, perform improvised postmodern dance and music tonight at 8:00 p.m. at Sushi Performance and Visual Art, 320 Eleventh Ave. An annual favorite, the show is ranked by the Union Tribune as one of the year’s top ten best performances. Tickets are $18 general, $15 students and seniors. Call the box office at (619) 235-8468 for more information.

Expedition to Ensenada: The San Diego Natural History Museum offers Posada and Women Artisans in Ensenada, an adult expedition to Ensenada today from 8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Visit different women artists’ studios and experience a traditional Mexican posada, that begins with a candlelight procession and ends with a feast, piñata breaking and dancing. Tickets are $84 and include boxed lunch, snacks, dinner and round trip bus transportation. Call (619) 232-3821 for more information.

Holiday Broadway style: For the second year in a row, 6th@ Penn Theatre presents Leigh Scarritt in A Stocking Full of Broadway, singing a musical revue of Broadway and Christmas show-stoppers. This year, she is joined by singer Ric Henry and singer/pianist Rayme Sciaroni in what is sure to be an exciting live performance. Performances are Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m., through Dec. 14. All tickets are $20. Call (619) 688-9210 for reservations.

If comedy is more your style…: Check out The Comic Stand at 6th@ Penn at 10:30 p.m., featuring stand-up comic and show-founder Christian Schirm and a variety of comics from all over California. Tickets are $10. Call (619) 688-9210 for reservations.

Model trains are back: And you thought it was just for kids. The Great American Train Show makes a stop at the Del Mar Fairgrounds this weekend, from 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. at the Exhibit Hall. Visitors get the chance to operate the trains themselves, and participate in model railroad workshops. Tickets are $7, and parking is $7. Call (702) 252-0347 for more information.

Deck the halls: The San Diego Women’s Chorus performs their first major concert of the 2003-2004 season, “Deck the Halls,” tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the University Christian Church in Hillcrest. There will be a silent auction of decorative wreaths at intermission to raise money for their upcoming trip to Montreal to participate in the GALA International Choral Festival. Call (619) 291-3366 for more information.

Scrooge it: It’s time again for some Dickensian redemption as the Lyceum Stage presents A Christmas Carol, the most popular holiday ghost story of the last 159 years. Call (619) 231-3586 for tickets and show times.

Holiday of Lights: The Del Mar Fairgrounds is holding the Holiday of Lights, San Diego’s largest holiday light display, Sunday-Thursday, 5:30-10:00 p.m. and Friday-Saturday until 11:00 p.m. More than 350 light exhibits surround the Del Mar racetrack. Admission is $11 per vehicle. Call (858) 793-5555 for further information.

Irish storytelling: Cygnet Theatre Company’s artistic director, Sean Murray, appears in a special staged reading of Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s St. Nicholas tonight and tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. The theatrical fable tells the story of a disillusioned Dublin theatre critic who follows a beautiful woman to London and procures victims for a band of vampires before seeking personal redemption. Tickets are $25. All proceeds benefit the new, nonprofit theatre company. For tickets or more information, call (619) 337-1525 ext. 3. The Cygnet Theatre is located at 6663 El Cajon Blvd. #N, near SDSU.

Zydeco Tuesdays: Tio Leo’s, a retro swing and blues club in the Midway district, hosts the Bon Temps Zydeco Club every Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. Dance the evening away to authentic Cajun and zydeco music. Cost is free. Call (619) 542-1462 for more information. Tio Leo’s is located at 5302 Napa St.

Capella Gloriana: Joined by the Cabrillo Chamber Orchestra and vocal soloists, San Diego’s premiere a cappella vocal ensemble, Capella Gloriana, celebrates the release of its Christmas CD recording O Holy Night with a performance tonight at North Coast Calvary Chapel in Carlsbad of Handel’s Messiah. Show starts at 8:00 p.m. Call (760) 929-0029 for ticket information and reservations.

Contemporary dance and revolution: Sushi Performance and Visual Art, Allyson Green Dance and UCSD Department of Theatre present Central Station Talkback, dance-theatre-improvisations from East/Central Europe. Tonight at 7:00 p.m., artists share reflections on creating and sustaining a contemporary dance movement during the last tumultuous decade in Eastern/Central Europe. Free to the public. Located at UCSD’s Molli & Arthur Wagner Dance Studio Theater 3. Call (858) 822-3152 for more information.

Handel’s ‘Messiah’: The San Diego Symphony performs the popular and hauntingly beautiful piece that will delight even the young. Tonight’s 7:30 p.m. performance features the San Diego Master Chorale. At the East County Performing Arts Center at 210 E. Main St in Escondido. Call (619) 440-2277 for more information.

Feliz Navidad: The eighteen voices of Pacific Camerata, led by Daniel Ratelle, offer a concert of seasonal music that spans the Renaissance and Middle Ages, tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the San Diego Museum of Modern Art’s Hibben Gallery in Balboa Park. Tickets are $15. Call (619) 696-1969 for more information.