You better not pout, you better not cry, because the world’s longest-running drag tour is coming back to town with fabulous holiday cheer. Produced by Murray & Peter Present, A Drag Queen Christmas returns for its 12th year, launching a 39-city national tour that kicks off on November 11 in Detroit and runs through December 29 in Jacksonville. The 2026 edition is hosted by returning fan favorite Nina West and features an all-new merry lineup of drag superstars from RuPaul’s Drag Race, including Season 18 winner Myki Meeks.
Joining Nina and Myki for this seasonal celebration are Drag Race Season 18 standouts Nini Coco, Darlene Mitchell, Juicy Love Dion and Discord Addams, alongside All Stars favorites Crystal Methyd and Silky Nutmeg Ganache. With a mix of camp, comedy, fierce looks, dance performances and plenty of holiday magic, the tour promises a festive celebration of drag and community. For Nina, returning to the tour is about more than entertaining audiences: it’s about helping people create holiday traditions of their own and offering a welcoming space where everyone can celebrate.
In our conversation, Nina reflects on the enduring appeal of A Drag Queen Christmas, the importance of community amid last year’s safety concerns in Florida, and the joy of bringing drag to audiences across the country. She also discusses stepping into the role of Ruth in Pirates! The Penzance Musical, following in the footsteps of her friend Jinkx Monsoon, and developing a musical adaptation of her children’s book The You Kind of You as she continues pursuing her Broadway dreams.
You’re hosting the Drag Queen Christmas Tour again for another year. What keeps bringing you back, and what makes it such a special holiday tradition for you?
They keep asking me – which is a big one – but it’s become a tradition for me. I really love being on the road during this time of year. I love being able to see all different parts of the country and how these cities and these communities mark the holiday season. But I also really love seeing our audiences evolve. I say this every year, but it’s remarkable for me to see our audiences make this their own tradition. Some people will go to The Nutcracker; some people will go to A Drag Queen Christmas and it’s really cool to be a part of that tradition. This is my fifth or sixth tour but the third straight in a row. It’s awesome. It’s a great tour. I love Murray and Peter and I love being on the road during the holidays, so it keeps me coming back.
This is the 12th year of the Drag Queen Christmas Tour. You had mentioned evolution, so how do you feel the tour has evolved over the years, and what do you think it has allowed it to become such a tradition for drag fans?
They’re consistent. I think they book really consistent entertainment and consistent talent, but I think the theming surrounding this show, which is that it’s an all are welcome, all-inclusive show, makes it really appealing to people who may not have holiday traditions of their own for whatever reason, especially if they’re LGBTQIA+ folks. They might have to establish different standards and different traditions for themselves, and I think that’s why we’ve seen it evolve.
It started off as a pretty small tour, and now it’s the longest running drag tour that’s on the road – and I think that’s because there’s a commitment to the quality, to the product and to the entertainment, but mostly to the communities that are showing up and supporting this show. I think this show is really offering some support and acknowledgement that the holidays look different for everybody and here’s an opportunity for you to celebrate in a way that’s comfortable and feels safe and fun and celebratory.
You’ve got a stacked cast this year. What can audiences expect this year from that might surprise them, and how would you describe the energy of this cast?
The cast is so good, right? We’ve got so many queens right off their season. We’ve got fresh All Stars runs, including our winner, Crystal Methyd and a return of my season 11 sister Silky Nutmeg Ganache. I think that the tour is stacked in terms of diverse types of different kinds of drag and entertainment, and I think that’s what’s fun. You’re going to see camp, you’re going to see comedy, you’re going to see queens serving fierce looks. You’re going to see dance performances. The show is just really well-balanced. It’s going to give people such a good taste of what drag is right now, and I think that’s great. I’m really excited for Myki, and I’m excited for Nini and I’m just really excited to be working with these queens.
After doing the show yourself for quite a few years, do you have a favorite number or a backstage tradition or memory that puts you immediately into the spirit?
You create your own traditions on the road. I go through a TV watching tradition where I watch all my favorite classics beginning on the tour on November 11th, and I carry that through until December 23rd before I go home on our last pre-Christmas show. And then I go home for the holidays on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and then I fly back to tour.
I’ll usually start off with Muppet Christmas Carol and I then will go into The Mistle-Tones, which is a big favorite of mine. A lot of people don’t know it, but it’s a classic Disney Channel Christmas film with Tori Spelling that came out maybe 12 years ago. I love it so much. I’m turning red because it’s one of my very favorites. But that’s a tradition I have in the dressing room. I’ll play that. I’ll have my iPad with me, and I’ll watch those movies straight through.
One of my favorite traditions with the show that’s established itself through the holidays is that I’ll walk through the audience and I’ll talk to people, asking them about their favorite traditions – and just hearing from the audience and having audience interaction during this holiday season is a very favorite tradition of mine. Another thing I’ll do on the road for the holiday tour is when we get up in the morning and are getting our bearings, I’ll see where we’re located in the theater versus the city center. Sometimes we’re located downtown, and I’ll walk to a local bookstore and grab a cup of coffee. I’ll pick up a book or just talk to the people working in the bookstore and find out what is there to do that morning before I have to go get ready for the show that evening. Oftentimes, these cities will have Christmas lights or Christmas displays or holiday festivals, depending on when we’re arriving in the town. I try to participate in some of those things and just get a flavor of the community that I’m in before we do the show that night.
On the tour last year, there was an issue with a show in Florida. What do you remember about that experience and how you were able to move on from it?
It was Pensacola, and when we pulled into town, the streets were all blocked off. What I appreciate is that the city took it very seriously, the venue took it very seriously and Murray and Peter took it really seriously. I remember that everything was just on lockdown, which we’re pretty used to after 2022. Having done these tours now for several years in a row, I have a little bit of a memory of having these experience where the conversation surrounding drag is that people can be really aggressive and violent with their opinions which, unfortunately, can lead to threats and action. In 2022, literally every stop we had, there were bomb threats. There were safety threats, people were saying, “We’re going to show up and we’re going to shoot Nina West in the head.” “We’re going to show up at her hotel. We’re going to do X, Y, Z.” All these threats. So, to have that experience and then go into this experience and be reminded of what that was like was upsetting.
We are here to spread joy during the most wonderful, giving time of the year. It does not need to be said times are tough. It does not need to be said that the nation is polarizing. We’re in a state of complete disagreement and the country seems to be divided in half. But, we know that. I think everyone is experiencing that. What I think we’ve lost is the ability and sense of having a conversation when we disagree rather than resorting to threats and violence. But, when we went into that situation in Pensacola, it was an opportunity for us, I think, to be reminded that hey, we have to take care of ourselves. We have to take care of each other. There’s a responsibility to one another, especially of the cast, to be safe and to be mindful that not everything is going to be peachy keen and hunky dory, and there has to be open conversation with the venue, with the town, with the promoters and the producers, just making sure that we’re all safe.
And for the most part, I feel we walked away from that experience thankfully, without anything happening and with the knowledge that for us to be able to do these things in this kind of climate and this world, we have to be mindful, we have to be safe and we have to take care of one another. That’s just a very true statement and how we all negotiate that and how we do that is very important. And not to scare anybody – I don’t want to scare anyone, especially these queens who this is their first time going on this tour. But it’s just a reality of touring and a drag tour in this climate, especially across the country in red and blue states. But people are not red and blue people, right? We don’t exist in that way. We coexist together.
When we go to Nebraska, there are LGBTQI+ people who, even if they don’t come to the show, need the knowledge of knowing that show is happening in their town – and that gives them safety and comfort. The work that we’re doing is important regardless of whether or not you buy a ticket to the show. It’s important that there’s a drag tour on the road and that people can say, “Oh, yeah, these queens, these LGBTQI+ people are coming to this community, and they’re doing nothing but spreading joy.” And that’s empowering to people, and hopefully that allows people who feel empowered enough to feel comfortable enough to buy a ticket and support the show. We want people to show up. We want people to come, and we want people to celebrate the season with us. But even if they don’t, knowing that there is a tour on the road that’s coming to a town that may not seem accessible and/or welcoming to anyone who might be different, hopefully it gives them comfort knowing, “Oh, this tour is on the road and this is doing something to have the conversation, to increase awareness and to have those things on the table.”
Switching gears a bit, you are now going to be in Pirates! The Penzance Musical. What is it like to take over in that part that Jinkx Monsoon originated?
Oh, it’s crazy because The Pirates of Penzance, the original Gilbert and Sullivan musical, is a crazy, timeless operetta. It’s just hugely hysterical, comical and really funny. And this re-imagining is done by Rupert Holmes, the musician of “The Pina Colada Song” fame. He’s amazing, super incredible, super smart and super brilliant and here created this fantastic, jazzy reimagining.
I love to be able to step into this character of Ruth and make her my own using inspiration from Jinkx, who is a friend of mine and who I think is staggeringly brilliant, incredible, fearless and ferocious. I’m taking some of that and imbibing that into my Ruth but I’m also taking some inspiration from the classic Ruth from Angela Lansbury, who did that television production of Pirates that I grew up seeing when I was a kid and fell in love with. It was Linda Ronstadt, Angela Lansbury, and Kevin Kline. I was just obsessed with it because it was so silly and ridiculous. But Ruth in this version is so different than that Angela Lansbury version and this piece is a little bit more of a commentary on the period with which it’s being reimagined (which is 1880s New Orleans). We just started rehearsals a week ago and I’m just having the time of my life, and I’m excited for people to see it. I do it for a weekend right before I hit the road with Drag Queen Christmas.
And then after Drag Queen Christmas you’re going to take it on the road, right? ‘
I hope so. It’d be really fabulous. I would love that opportunity. I love being on the road. I love touring. My time with Hairspray…those two years were some of my favorite performing memories that I’ve ever created and had with a group of incredible artists and people. I love those people. I love that cast very much. I was just saying to a friend last night, I was like, gosh, how…” When you’re in the middle of it, when you’re in the thick of it, you’re just like, “Ah, though this’ll, how this’ll happen again.” And then you’re and when you come out on the other side of it, it’s like, gosh, You lament and go, “Wow, that was so special.” That was lightning in a bottle. I really hope I get to have that opportunity again. That would be a dream.
Speaking of musicals, your book, The You Kind of You, is going to be adapted into a musical. Can you tell me a little about that?
I collaborated with two incredible writers. I co-wrote the book with my friend Eric Ulloa, who is an incredible theater artist, and my friend Caleb Damschroder, who is brilliant and writes TYA (Theater for Young Audiences) musicals. He wrote the music and I wrote the lyrics. This show is just like hope and joy personified and the music is so much fun and so catchy. It’s about a little girl who is supposed to have this incredible day with her dad, and something happens and she is out to make a difference and help make a better day for her father and the adventure that she goes on along the way. It is charming and beautiful and silly. I think children of all ages are going to love it. I hope they do at least.
We did our workshop just a few weeks ago and we’re in the stage of rewrites. We’re getting ready to have its world premiere in Columbus, my hometown, in April and then hopefully it has a life well beyond Ohio and gets a little bit of a life in New York and maybe in some theaters around the country or maybe a tour. We don’t know. We’re just really putting one piece down at a time. Our focus is the world premiere and I never say this, but I’m so proud of this work and what it could be and I’m just so excited. I hope people gravitate towards it and are inspired by it.
You’ve won hearts on Drag Race. You are a Disney princess. You are my queen of Christmas – forget Mariah. But, is there a dream role, project or collaboration that is still on your bucket list?
I really want to be a professional theater creator and a professional theater actor and writer – and I hope that I can make it to a Broadway stage. That is the dream. I would love to do it and, of course, there’s so many different projects that exist, but there’s also things that don’t exist yet that I would love to be considered for.
Sure, I would love an opportunity to try my hand at Oh, Mary!, not necessarily playing Mary. I would love to either play Abraham or the chaperone, which I think are much more suited for me. I would love to do Hamilton and play the King, which would be fantastic, but also I’d love to do a production of La Cage or The Producers. Roger DeBris is a dream of a role. I just the collaborative art of theater. I love being on stage and I love the live element of an audience. Those are the kind of gifts that keep finding their way into my life and as I work, hopefully they will.
The world of drag has opened so many doors for me, and so how I also correlate that to Nina as the character that I’ve created and the worlds could exist with her, without her and alongside of her are so important. I’m always thinking about that because I wouldn’t have these opportunities if it weren’t for her, so how do I balance all of those things? But I love it so much. I love the theater so much, so I hope that happens. Of course, I want to do more television. I want to do more film and I hope that some of those projects find their way to me as well. I say yes to everything, so hopefully people will ask, “Hey, are you interested?” and I can say, “Sure.” I am down for the ride, so I just hope I get to stay on the coaster a lot longer.
Tickets for “A Drag Queen Christmas” are available now at www.dragfans.com. Follow Nina on Facebook, Instagram and her website.
