San Francisco Ballet ‘Nutcracker’ Dancers Reveal How They Celebrate Christmas (Exclusive)

While visions of PTO dance in the heads of corporate America, something far more traditional is dancing in the heads of Nikisha Fogo and Madeline Woo: sugar plums.

And, in fact, this season, the two woman, are the sugar plum visions dancing through everyone’s heads.

Both Woo and Fogo are principal dancers with the San Francisco Ballet, which means that right now, they’re in the thick of The Nutcrackerseason.

Aside from rising through the ranks of ballet membership and reaching this milestone of their careers as principal dancers, both the ballerinas have built up their own loyal followings online, with Fogo, 30, boasting nearly 75,000 followers on Instagram and Woo boasting nearly 370,000 on the platform, as well as 219,000 on TikTok.

The beloved Christmas-time ballet is a staple performance for attendees across the country, and San Francisco is no exception.

In fact, the U.S. has San Francisco to thank for the country’s holiday past-time of attending a performance of the ballet. Over 80 years ago, on Christmas Eve in 1944, the San Francisco Ballet staged the fist complete U.S. performance of the show, having continued the tradition every year since.

As attendingThe Nutcracker is a Christmas-time endeavor, with the storyline of the show also taking place on Christmas Eve, it follows that many of the performances run up until the day before Christmas and resume immediately the day after.

For Woo and Fogo, the scheduling of the show means making some of their own, new Christmas traditions.

Fogo tells PEOPLE that, over her years as a dancer, especially after moving to the U.S. from Sweden away from her family, she and her fellow ballet members have adapted their Christmas celebrations to meet with the demands of a full performance schedule.

“Normally on the Christmas Eve shows, in between the show, there’ll be a potluck,” she explains.

She also recalls seeing theatre workers hosting a Secret Santa for the company that those interested can sign up for, as well as some hiding Nutcrackers in the basement as sort of a scavenger hunt. The winners get to keep what they find.

Fogo, in her nearly five years at the San Francisco Ballet, has also built her own community among other dancers who might originally not be from the Bay Area.

“[We] would celebrate together and make a cute dinner together or crafting or play games,” she says.

Fogo usually dances in a show on Christmas Eve which, for her, being from Sweden, is when she traditionally would celebrate the holiday.

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“I’m always dancing that day for some reason,” she laughs. “So I normally FaceTime my family in the morning and just spend time with them.”

Fogo also shares one of the San Francisco company’s sweet holiday traditions. During the Christmas Eve show, one of the dancers gets to dress as Santa and conduct the orchestra during the first scene.

“Last year I did it and I performed as the Sugar Plum in the same show,” she laughs. “Normally the last show of Nutcracker for the season, they do a snow dump [in the Snow Scene]. So they just dump all the snow at the same time. I feel bad for the dancers because it’s a lot of snow falling, but it looks really funny.”

Woo has also spoken with PEOPLE about her experience dancing in her fair share of “snow scenes” in the Nutcracker, and she opens up about her experience celebrating the holiday. This year she’s dancing in the show right after Christmas.

“My family’s actually coming up to San Francisco to come celebrate with me, which I’m really happy about, because I would not have been able to be with anyone,” she says. “I’ll be with my family, we will make some dinner and then the next day I’ll have to get back out there.”

While neither of the dancers are from San Francisco originally, they both appreciate the magic of the company’s staging of the ballet.

“It’s a beautiful production and I love that it’s set in San Francisco,” Fogo says, “with the Victorian houses and in the second act that it’s set in the Conservatory of Flowers.”

“I’ve done it so many times now, but every time we do it it still has that spark,” she says. “The Nutcracker is normally the first entry way to ballet for most people. So I’m excited that I’ll be inspiring possibly the next generation of dancers.”