It’s not “The Christmas Ballet” without “Santa Baby.”

While other companies were still rehearsing their Sugarplum Fairies, Smuin Contemporary Ballet’s Brennan Wall strutted onto the Lesher Center for the Arts stage in Walnut Creek in red heels, trailing a 42-foot-long feather boa. Eartha Kitt purred about wanting a platinum mine and a yacht; Wall bumped her hips for men in trench coats who handed over the goods, rolling across the floor like a human treadmill for her to glide across their backs in high style.

The ditty, as crowd-pleasing now as when “The Christmas Ballet” premiered 30 years ago, is a must-include item for this “Nutcracker” alternative. But the production Michael Smuin invented a year after founding the company is also a capacious, ever-growing tradition, with new numbers swapped in and a few old favorites returning year to year. On Saturday, November 23rd, as the Smuin troupe kicked off a month-long run that includes stints in Mountain View and San Francisco, the solace was in the surprising emotional range of “The Christmas Ballet,” and its ability to become ever more inclusive. The greatest joy, meanwhile, was in the fine dancing of an 18-member company in its best form ever under artistic director Amy Seiwert, who took the reins last fall.

The first half “Classical Christmas,” costumed in white, is generally reverential and grand, launching with Bach’s “Magnificat,” proceeding through a hushed staging of “Veni, Veni, Emmanuel” with the women walking hand-in-hand, and coursing, this year, to a triumphant “Joy to the World” finale choreographed by former member Nicole Haskins.

But even in this dignified sphere, Smuin found a place for his wonderfully comic treatment of a klezmer candle blessing, danced with uninhibited zaniness by Cassidy Isaacson, whose lonely idyll was broken by the sudden appearance of four high-stepping men. And this year, Seiwert has added her gently joyful treatment of a “Dona Nobis Pacem” recording featuring handbell choir and the cello playing of YoYo Ma. The snowflake-inspired pas de trois with its intricate patterns was an especially spectacular showcase for newer member Julia Gundzik, who moves with continuous musicality and easy technical confidence—just check out the nonchalant way she steps into a quadruple en dedans turn.

The post-intermission “Cool Christmas,” by contrast, is dressed in red and launches with Louis Armstrong’s recording of “Christmas in New Orleans.” As the ditties go on, droopy Christmas trees tap dance, and a surfer dude rescues his love from a Santa-hatted shark in “Christmas Island.” Wall’s premiere choreographic contribution amped up the camp, with the spectacularly grand pirouetting dancer AL Abraham lip-synching “Wham! ’s” “Last Christmas.” (The eighties-style headband was a good touch.)

But then came another new number by Rex Wheeler, a former Smuin dancer who also performs as the drag queen Lady Camden. In “Someday Soon,” to Judy Garland’s recording of “The Christmas Song,” Wall danced yearningly for an absent love interest by clutching a departed guest’s plaid jacket—then had her yearning answered by the sudden appearance of Isaacson, the jacket’s owner. As Seiwert pointed out pre-curtain, the touching duet can be performed by dancers of any gender combination—and will be, in future performances.

Then, too, for emotional range there was Seiwert’s own “River,” achingly danced by Maggie Carey and Dominic Barrett. “I wish I had a river/ I could skate away on,” Joni Mitchell sings. The tension in Carey’s shoulders as she braced herself against Barrett’s hips for him to clutch and lift her told the painful story. For those of us with heavy hearts this winter, the depth of sadness was a balm, mercifully placed between Seiwert’s capering “Twelve Days of Christmas” and her nostalgic pumpkin-pie treatment of “Home for the Holidays.”

Ricardo Dyer shone with irrepressible sweetness throughout the show. Gabrielle Collins swept across the stage fearlessly in “Silver Bells,” and Joáo Sampaio made a very welcome return. This holiday season is emotionally complex. So, blessedly, was their dancing.

Rachel Howard is a freelance writer.