According to a press release, tickets for all stops on the tour will go on sale to fan club members on Sept. 12, and will be available to the general public starting Sept. 15. One dollar of every ticket purchased will be donated to local charities in each market.

Organizers promise that new elements will be added to this year's production, "which already includes an orchestral string section, a full rock band, multiple vocalists, a narrator, extensive pyrotectics, a stunning laser- and light show and even a snowfall," the press release said.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra sprouted from a collaboration between producer/songwriter Paul O'Neill and keyboardist Jon Olivia, both of whom were members of the progressive-metal group Savatage. In the mid-'90s, the two wrote some Christmas songs that eventually became Trans-Siberian Orchestra's 1996 rock-opera album, "Christmas Eve & Other Stories."

The group has since released two more holiday sets--1998's "The Christmas Attic" and 2004's "The Lost Christmas Eve"--as well as 2000's non-holiday offering, "Beethoven's Last Night."

In the fall of 2004, the group issued "The Christmas Trilogy," a box set that houses all three of the orchestra's Christmas albums, as well as its 2001 DVD, "The Ghosts of Christmas Eve."