BUFFALO - OK, I'm dazzled.

For thousands of years, circuses have sought to dazzle the public.

This week a fabulous circus called Cirque Dreams Holidaze is playing at Shea's Performing Arts Center, in downtown Buffalo, and the result is positively thrilling.

First of all, the setting is a dazzler.

Giant toy soldiers, giant wrapped packages, all sorts of images such as these pack the stage and the entire top of the stage is filled with what is painted to resemble miles of red ribbons and bows.

Second, the 30 performers are all young and very good looking, and their costumes are cascades of satin and sparkles and yards of fabric in every color of the rainbow.

Third, these people are amazingly talented.

Again and again, I felt my jaw drop at something amazing which was being done on the stage.

Often, I was so intent on something astounding which was being performed that I began to suspect that I was missing something equally wonderful on another part of the stage.

When it finally ended, again and again, one heard the word, ''Wow.''

Let me give you an example: A beautiful young woman with long, blonde hair was hanging by one foot from a ring which had risen up three stories to the top of the stage.

Meanwhile, a young man dressed as the Mad Hatter from ''Alice in Wonderland'' was dancing a ''buck and wing'' on a large platform, painted to resemble a wrapped package.

In the background, a man dressed as Father Christmas, which isn't quite Santa, but it's close, was balancing a young boy of 9 or 10 on his hands. Meanwhile a pretty girl was riding a unicycle across the stage, pretending to lick a giant candy cane.

While all that was taking place, a lovely young soprano was singing a contemporary carol.

Just deciding where to look took some doing. As I said at the beginning, I was dazzled.

They juggled, they walked a wire, they balanced on structures which looked as though they couldn't stand by themselves, let alone hold up two performers. They did acrobatics, they climbed and descended ropes, a young woman who was standing on the handlebars of a bicycle, ridden by another young woman, leaped into the air and landed on the shoulders of a young woman who was riding a different bicycle in the opposite direction. And, it was all done to beautifully-sung music, both sacred and secular, dedicated to the spirit of the Christmas holiday.

The three singers who served as something of narrators - although there wasn't really a plot - were soprano Amanda Restivo as the Angel of Music, mezzo soprano Anna Bergman as the Ice Queen, and baritone Scott Daniel as Dickens.

Despite what their advanced publicity said, they never took places on the giant metal structure, to become living ornaments on a giant Christmas tree, which probably meant that something had gone wrong with the structure, but things moved so smoothly, nobody could possibly miss that one element of the show.

It was beautiful, it was exciting, and it renewed one's faith in the nearly limitless capabilities of mankind. If you can get to Buffalo before the last performance on Sunday, I suspect you'll be very glad you did.