Trans-Siberian Orchestra: The Ghosts of Christmas Eve

About This Event

This is a 30th-anniversary staging of 'The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,' with two full performances the same day — 2:45 and 8 PM — so a matinee option exists if a late-December school night isn't in the cards. The band's own music director has said ticket prices for this anniversary run were kept lower on purpose, not the usual arena-tour markup.

TSO was founded in 1996 by producer and songwriter Paul O'Neill, who pulled together members of the metal band Savatage with one goal: build a progressive rock band that pushed the genre's boundaries further than anything before it. Their 1996 debut, 'Christmas Eve and Other Stories,' introduced the rock-opera format and elaborate pyrotechnic stage shows that became the band's signature; it took off once they started touring properly in 1999. Since then, the band has sold more than 100 million tickets and 10 million albums, and donated over $11 million to charity along the way. O'Neill died in 2017, but the band and the holiday tradition he built have kept running without him.

Worth knowing: this is two separate, full performances in one day, not a matinee-plus-encore situation — pick the 2:45 or the 8:00 show, and check tsochicago.com since pricing isn't listed here. (Calendar entry below is set to the 8 PM show.)