LEAVENWORTH, Wash. — If there’s one place to “go nuts over nuts,” it’s the Nutcracker Museum in the Bavarian-style village of Leavenworth, WA. The alpine horns, murals and music that fill the town set the stage for a collection that has been growing since the 1960s.

Big, small, old and new, the museum displays a nutcracker for nearly every holiday, occasion and shape a visitor might imagine.

When asked about one without the expected handle, the answer was simple.

“It doesn't need one,” said curator Arlene Wagner. “You take the top off. You put a nut (in the bottom half), and then you put the top back on and whack it.”

Wagner, known around here as the Nutcracker Lady, has presided over the museum for decades.

“This is the only one in the United States. There is one in Neuhaus in Ger

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