When Tony Gonzalez thinks about holiday traditions — especially holiday entertainment — he doesn’t only look back at the classics. Gonzalez, who has served as Transcendence Theatre Company’s artistic director since 2024, is just as focused on the traditions of the future. And he believes the company’s annual holiday show is well on its way to becoming one for Sonoma County families and Broadway fans alike.

“There are the ‘Nutcrackers’ and the ‘Christmas Carols’ and the ‘Messiahs,’ so many beloved holiday entertainment traditions that people return to every year,” Gonzalez said. “Some of them are exactly the same every time, but some are adjusted a little bit to bring something new — and every year we’ve tried to do that.”

Now in its 10th year, the 2025 “Broadway Holiday” production will open at the Sonoma Country Day School in Santa Rosa with an evening show and two matinees on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 13 and 14. It then moves to the Sebastiani Theatre in Sonoma for seven performances Dec. 18-21.

Once a sprawling production with 25 or more performers onstage, the holiday show has been intentionally scaled down to a cast of a dozen or so.

“We’ve found a lot of success in going with a bit of a smaller cast, because you get to know the performers better,” Gonzalez said. “This year, we have eight performers singing and dancing, and six musicians. Everyone gets to share more of themselves, more of their talent, their voices, their tap-dancing. It’s nice and it’s really fitting for the season.”

The song list blends classic holiday tunes, Broadway favorites and popular numbers that evoke seasonal themes of wonder, magic, love and togetherness — even when they aren’t explicitly about the holidays.

“Not all of the songs necessarily shout ‘Christmas,’ but when they are put in the context of a holiday theme, the messages really work,” Gonzalez said. One example is “Children Will Listen,” from Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,” which will be featured in the show.

“That’s not a Christmas song, by any means,” Gonzalez said. “But in the context of sharing stories and experiences with our families, it really works. And we do try to reinvent things a little every year, so I think it’s going to be really special.

Ten years ago, the holiday show debuted at the Luther Burbank Center in Santa Rosa.

Since then, the Transcendence team has moved the production to various venues across the area, presenting it throughout Sonoma County and even in Marin County. The show has been performed in spaces as varied as traditional theaters, large and small, and circus tents erected at horse ranches. In 2020, during the pandemic shutdowns that closed indoor theaters, the holiday show was presented as a drive-in experience at local fairgrounds.

“The venue we plan to do the show in each year has a lot to do with what the show ends up looking and sounding like,” Gonzalez said. He recalled the horse ranch year, which became “a more intimate party-like gathering,” and the drive-in version, which was “such a fun thing because we once again had to adapt to a type of environment we’d never been in before.”

This year’s opening weekend at Sonoma Country Day School’s Jackson Theatre, he said, brings the opportunity to “really take advantage of a stunning theatrical space, with the lights and the set and everything.” The move to the historic Sebastiani Theatre, he added, offers “something magical,” inspiring the team to “bring the magic there as well.”

That sense of movie magic will continue in a special tribute to the film “White Christmas.”

“We’ve taken bits of each iconic song from the movie, along with some of the iconic dance sequences and visual elements,” Gonzalez said. The result, he explained, is a 10-minute encapsulation of the story in signature Transcendence style: “taking something recognizable and bringing something new to it.”

The show also features a tap showcase from Zoe Lytle, a New York dancer and choreographer who performed in the first national tour of the recent “Funny Girl” revival.

Joining Lytle are Britta Rae, who starred in this year’s Transcendence production of “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical”; Natalie Gallo of Broadway’s “Jersey Boys”; Maria Bilbao, who played Johanna in the Broadway revival of “Sweeney Todd” starring Josh Groban; singer-songwriter Colin McAdoo; Conroe Brooks, who portrayed Sam Cooke in the 2000 film “Little Richard”; and Kyle Kemph, a Transcendence regular.

“Some of these performers haven’t been able to come out and do a show with us for a while because they’ve been so busy, but they love coming out because the audiences are so great, and they always feel so welcomed and appreciated,” Gonzalez said. “I’m really excited to have such talented people for this show.”

Above all, he said, the company is intent on elevating its holiday offering.

“We’ve set out to bring a concert that has a level of class and sophistication that maybe is even more than in the past,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve spent a little extra money on design and costumes and all of that, to really give people their money’s worth — so when the whole family comes, they will get an experience they’ll want to continue coming back for year after year.”