that's snow business; Spinning reindeer, a North Pole knees-up and a

the snowmanedinburgh festival theatreUNTIL December 29 then touring

HHHH Expectations were high. My three-year-old, Caitlin, is a panto veteran. She saw Puss In Boots last year, which qualifies her as an expert, and now expects laughs and frequent usage of words such as "bum".

Scottish Ballet's The Snowman would be different, I explained. This was a ballet, which meant lots of dancing - a good thing when you're three and attend ballet classes - but few laughs and a positive moratorium on "bum". This, C decided, would be fine as long as they did lots of spinning around.

As it turns out, the splendidly costumed characters in Robert North's ballet from Raymond Briggs's famous illustrated tale do very little spinning or very little dancing of any kind in the first act. But C is not overly fussed. The wow factor of this highly visual production - with its shimmering snow, playful snowmen and cutsie animals - is high enough to produce audible gasps. But in act two, our patience (if you can describe wriggling around and asking when the spinning is going to start as patience) is rewarded. Our hero's flight across the world culminates in a North Pole knees-up.

This feels a little like The Snowman meets The Nutcracker, packing the dance into a fairly sparse story. But with ballerina spinning tops and reindeer en pointe, a fluffy snow princess and a jolly, jigging Santa, this is joyful and colourful enough for young ballet- heads to forgive the wait.

Given the storm clouds hovering over Scottish Ballet, it's good to report that it has a hit. North's triumph is that he faithfully reproduces the uncomplicated charm that made Briggs's original cartoon seem as though it might save the very spirit of Christmas. And he shrewdly adds a villain in the shape of Jack Frost, a master- stroke for C who, when Frost lays his icy hands on Snow Barbie, betrays her panto roots by rising to her feet and screaming: "No! Jack Frost! You're naughty!" at the top of her voice.

We haven't quite learnt the rules of ballet yet you see. But we will, I am reliably informed, be going back.

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