For those looking to do some (very) early Christmas shopping, the ultimate stocking stuffer may be season tickets to the 2007-08 Betts Broadway Series at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines. It’s a neat little package that includes Santa and the Radio City Rockettes in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. The show even includes a living nativity scene that will feature two camels, four sheep and a donkey – all live on stage.

Wrap that up with three Tony Award-winning Broadway shows, and you’ve got quite a gift.

Of course, the 7,000 or so current season ticket holders already know that their season tickets are a gift that keeps on giving, says Jeff Chelesvig, the Civic Center’s president.

“As people get busier, they like the idea of knowing they’re going to go to a show on that night,” said Chelesvig, who said many season ticket subscribers have told him they build their schedules around the show nights.

The Civic Center, which has offered season ticket packages for the past 10 years, has bucked the national trend of declining season ticket sales, he said.

“It’s great,” Chelesvig said. “You really have to think about it in terms of how college football is propelled by season tickets. We have the same goal of selling as many tickets as we can. That’s very important to us, to be able to meet our goals for the shows.”

The Broadway Series kicks off in November with “Avenue Q,” which Entertainment Weekly has called “one of the funniest shows you’re ever likely to see.” The Broadway hit won three Tony Awards in 2004 for best musical, best score and best book. Following the Radio City Christmas Spectacular’s 46-show run from Dec. 6-30 will be “Twelve Angry Men,” starring Richard Thomas, which will stop in Des Moines in February 2008 as part of its national tour.

The series, which will include at least four more shows yet to be announced, also features “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” a two-time Tony Award winner in 2005 for best book of a musical and best featured actor in a musical.

Such stellar programming is one of the primary reasons the Civic Center’s base of season ticket holders has grown to approximately 7,000, Chelesvig said.

“We believe that if a person becomes a season ticket holder, they find out how advantageous it is to have the same seats all the time, and to have exchange privileges,” he said.

In other venues around the country, 7,000 season ticket holders is “a very respectable number,” he added. “We would love to get somewhere close to 10,000. That would be about half the tickets for a one-week run (of the Broadway shows).”

Bob Landess and his wife, Nancy, are among the veterans of the Broadway Series.

“We always get our season tickets as early as possible, and renew on an annual basis,” he said last week, as he waited with other Patron Circle members to hear the 2007-08 series announcement. They also try to participate in the annual trip to New York City sponsored by the Civic Center for patrons each fall.

“We’ve always been very much impressed that the performances we see in Des Moines are equal to or sometimes better than those we see in New York,” Landess said.

Season tickets, which this year will range from $113 to $250 for a set of tickets to each of the five shows in the Betts Broadway Series, vary in cost depending upon both the date and the section code in which they’re located. The biggest variance in price is between price codes A and B, the two most preferred sections; the code C tickets remain family-friendly at about $20 per ticket.

Another couple in the Patron Circle, Mel Weatherwax and his wife, Kathy, always buy tickets to all of the shows, but on a show-by-show basis.

“The only reason we’re not season ticket holders is we’re never sure what other events we have going on in our life,” he said. “We just prefer not to be locked into a particular night.

“We think the Civic Center is a real jewel not just for Des Moines but for Central Iowa as well,” Weatherwax said. “I don’t know if people realize how fortunate we are to have Jeff Chelesvig, because he’s gotten so many shows that cities larger than us haven’t been able to get.”