Brooklynites gathered Saturday night to support their neighbors. The Yuletide Ball is one of the borough’s most cherished society events, and the primary fund-raiser for the Brooklyn Kindergarten Society. The society operates five preschools in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, and Brownsville and the benefit raises 40% of its private funding, about $175,000.

“It’s the biggest social event of the neighborhood. It gives us a chance to see each other in a very different context – ball gowns instead of jeans,” Carolyn White said.

“You walk into the ballroom and it’s like you’re dreaming,” she added.

The celebration started with intimate dinners in the brownstones of prominent Brooklyn dwellers, primarily in Brooklyn Heights. A chairwoman of the ball, Judy Miller, served cocktails in her parlor, where a fire warmed guests and the family dog trotted by in a tartan ribbon.

As waiters in white jackets served Perrier-Jouet Champagne, neighborhood children gave a recital – Chopin at the piano, an Irish Jig and German folk song on the violin, and a few rounds of Jingle Bells. Afterward, 26 guests sat for dinner.

Another dinner, for 60, was too large for the president of the Brooklyn Kindergarten Society, Michele Newman, to accommodate in her home. So she and her husband, Kenneth, entertained at the restaurant Centro.

Starting at 10 p.m., 800 guests filtered into the Brooklyn Heights Casino on Montague Street for dessert and dancing. The crowd included civic, corporate, and cultural leaders, such as the head of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Carol Enseki, whose husband, William Fulbecht, is the only male board member at the Brooklyn Kindergarten Society.

The black-tie affair began in 1920, with a group of 50 Brooklyn women who called themselves the Yuletide Committee and organized a debutante ball at the St. George Hotel. In the 1960s, coming-out parties went out of fashion, and a new group that was buying up brownstones at bargain prices kept the holiday ball alive. In recent years, the dinner’s poshness has been restored, but not its pretentiousness.

Nancy Pearsall remembers going to the ball on a date. Her date, Otis Pearsall, is today her husband of more than 50 years. “I can’t remember missing a year,” she said.

Yuletide Committee member Maggie Levine wore the same skirt her mother wore to the ball. Other members of the Yuletide Committee this year were Martha Bakos Dietz, Tracy Brown, Rachel Hines, Janet Offensend, and Karen Sacks.

***

The attire: taffeta, tartan, and velvet. The meal: sandwiches sans crusts and gingerbread.

Children were the center of attention, on stage and off, at the New York City Ballet’s family benefit on Saturday afternoon. The event began with a performance of “The Nutcracker.” Afterward, on the promenade of the New York State Theater, the dancers mingled and signed autographs.

“This is the best part of the Nutcracker experience,” said dancer and choreographer Tom Gold.

“The kids are so cute. We all just want to take them home,” said Faith Score, 13, who, along with fellow School of American Ballet student Alice Kenney, also 13, has performed in “The Nutcracker” for six consecutive years.

The event drew more than 800 guests and raised more than $550,000. Its chairwomen were Celeste Boele, Farran Tozer Brown, Whitney Murphy, and Sarah Senbahar.