The new series will premiere on 8 December at 8 pm (ET/PT).

Since debuting in 2006, Nick Jr's Emmy award-winning The Wonder Pets, produced by Little Airplane Productions, remains the number one-ranked preschool programme in its 10 am slot.

"The Wonder Pets are back in a gorgeous holiday adventure that is sure to become a new, warm and fuzzy family tradition," said Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group animation president Brown Johnson. "Inspired by Tchaikovsky's classic ballet, the Wonder Pets dance and sing their way to saving the day - again."

In Save the Nutcracker!, directed by Jennifer Oxley, it's Christmas Eve and a Mouse King emerges from a picture book and steals the Wonder Pets' Nutcracker from the classroom. Linny the Guinea Pig, Turtle Tuck and Ming-Ming Duckling pursue the Mouse King into the book, dancing through a wintery wonderland filled with sugar plum fairies and sweet treats to the music of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker ballet.

Also available in retail stores nationwide is The Wonder Pets!: Save the Nutcracker DVD. Created by Nickelodeon Home Entertainment and distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment, the DVD includes the title episode plus three additional new-to-DVD episodes from the series.