Winter Trip: Pre-reserve train tickets?

Hello! My sister and I will be traveling around Japan during the peak travel season, December 23rd-January 2nd. I was wondering if we need to pre-reserve our shinkansen/train tickets or if we can buy them at the station day-of?

Also, it doesn't look like purchasing a JR Rail pass will pay off. Do you have any advice about possible rail passes/packages?

Our itinerary is below:

December 23: Ise Shima
-Fly from Saga Airport to Chubu
-Take the train from Nagoya to Isehi Station

December 24: Ise Shima

December 25: Hakone
-Take the Shinkansen (Hikari) from Nagoya Station to Odawara Station
-Use Free Hakone Pass to travel around Hakone

December 26: Hakone
-Free Hakone Pass

December 27: Kamakura
-JR Train from Odawara Station to Kamakura

December 28: Tokyo
-Train from Kamakura to Tokyo

December 29: Tokyo
-Free day of sightseeing in Tokyo

December 30: Yokohama
-Train from Tokyo to Yokohama

December 31: Nikko
-Train from Tokyo to Nikko

January 1: Tokyo
-Sightseeing around Tokyo

January 2: Departure

It seems that the only day you have a Shinkansen is on Dec 25th. That is still a normal working day, so no need to prereserve days before. I personally would buy the ticket when you get to Nagoya ,(unless you take the last train of the day). But as you come through Nagoya before you could buy it earlier. Or also at the JR station in Ise.

The other trains are either local trains or Ltd express. For local trains there are no reservations anyway. If you want Ltd express you should buy a reserved seat, but I wouldn�ft expect big issues with that.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Only suggestion is that you might look at the Tokyo-Wide pass (3 days, 10,000yen) IF you wanted to use the shinkansen up to Utsunomia on the way to Nikko. You then get two other days to use it for trips like Tokyo-Odawara (to combine with your Hakone trip) or somewhere else.

Most of the other travels are pretty cheap. You only have one main shinkansen trip so the passes don't help much.

Okay, that's a relief! Thank you so much for your time and the helpful responses!!!