These are Clara and Fritz's friends, all presumably straight, vanilla, suburban couples who attend their Xmas party. Each couple will have its own idiosyncrasies and subplots which will play out beginning with the opening vignettes and continuing through the Battle Scene, when they don "bad" X-mas sweaters and assist Fritz in battling the Slutcracker Prince. NOTE: Not all party goers will participate in the Battle Scene, analogous to the battle between mice and gingerbread soldiers in the original Nutcracker.
