Houston Ballet Nutcracker Market

Treat this as a shopping trip with a schedule, not a browse. It is four days at Reliant Center and it draws the kind of crowd that makes the aisles slow by mid-morning, so the first hour after opening is worth more than any other two.

Getting there is the part people underestimate. Reliant Park parks by coloured lot and sells parking in advance through JustPark, which is worth doing — sorting it out at the gate on Market weekend is how you lose the first hour. METRORail's Red Line runs to Reliant Park if you would rather not deal with the lot exit at all, and a drop-off is better still.

Bring a bag on wheels or accept that you will be carrying everything you buy across a convention hall and a parking lot. Regulars bring collapsible carts and they are not being precious about it.

The money is the point as much as the merchandise: the Market is Houston Ballet's single largest fundraiser. Ticket tiers, preview-party pricing and hours are on Houston Ballet's site, and the old nutcrackermarket.com address now redirects there.