As always at holiday time, theaters across the city and, indeed, the country, program Christmas entertainment with the perennial Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol and numerous Nutcrackers leading the way.

In New York this year, however, there are two brand-new entries in the holiday theater sweepstakes: on Broadway, a new musical adaptation of the popular movie “A Christmas Story,” and Off Broadway at New York Theater Workshop, a more somber and unusual work of seasonal fare, A Civil War Christmas.