Hi everyone,
I hope everyone had a great week. This is the last week before the official holiday craziness starts!
This weekend take the kids and have fun at BAMkids Movie Matinees: The Wizard of Oz, check out the Pixel Academy Minecraft Olympics 2015 at The Pine Street School, go see “Peter and the Wolf Lost in the Brooklyn Museum!”, dance at Family Fun with Suzi Shelton at the Jalopy Theatre and take the kids and car to the NYC Parks Retro Drive-In Cinema: The Addams Family in the NY Aquarium parking lot!
Also happening this weekend is the Holiday Train Show at The New York Botanical Garden, Pilobolus’s Shadowland at NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas Screening at the Museum of Moving Image, Jazz for Young People: Who is Duke Ellington? at the Symphony Space, Stroller Tour: Frank Stella: A Retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Family Movies @ the Library: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day at the Central Brooklyn Public Library, Thanksgiving Day Parade Floats at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and Free Family Days at The Wyckoff House Museum.
There are even more events on the calendar so check it out to see everything happening in Brooklyn & NYC this weekend! Also remember to like us on Facebook for last minute events and news!
Enjoy the weekend!
~ Deirdre (mom to O & C)
Friday November 20th
Thanksgiving Day Parade Floats at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan (UWS)
Friday November 20th 10a-1p also next week Tuesday-Wednesday November 24th-25th & Friday-Sunday November 27th-29th. For all ages. Drop-in. Free with Museum admission. Every year thousands of people come to New York to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with its giant balloons and elaborate floats. Create your own 3D float inspired by some of the parade’s most famous designs.
November Storytime: Historical Hats at Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden (UES)
Friday November 20th 1030a. Free with adult admission. Historically-themed stories and crafts for ages 2-6. Storytime happens every third Friday.
Family Movies @ the Library: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day at the Central Brooklyn Public Library
Friday November 20th 330-530p. Location: Dweck Center. Free. Rated PG. 81 minutes. Based on Judith Viorst’s best-selling book, this movie follows the exploits of Alexander as he experiences the most terrible and horrible day of his young life and wonders if bad things only happen to him. But he discovers he’s not alone when his family lives through their own terrible – and hilarious – day.
Pilobolus’s Shadowland at NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts (Greenwich Village)
Starting Friday November 20th 7p and various times until December 6th. See website for more information on dates/times. Durartion: 75 min. Tickets: $45-$75. Appropriate for all ages.
Please note that 8p shows include nudity. Following sold-out performances throughout Europe and Asia, Pilobolus’s Shadowland makes its North American Premiere at NYU Skirball. Pilobolus’s Shadowland is a mix of shadow theater, dance, circus, and concert, incorporating multiple moving screens of different sizes and shapes to create a performance that merges projected images with front-of-screen choreography. Shadowland was the first show of its kind to combine shadow theater with dance and has since inspired many similar productions around the world.
For more Friday events please click here!
Saturday November 21st
Holiday Train Show at The New York Botanical Garden (Bronx)
Saturday November 21st-Monday January 18th. Various times and prices. See website for information. Advance reservations are strongly recommended as tickets do sell out. Purchase tickets here. NYC’s Favorite Train Show Is Bigger Than Ever! Enchanting model trains zip through a display of 150 landmarks, each re-created with bark, leaves, and other natural materials—all under the twinkling glow of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Marvel at G-scale locomotives humming along among familiar sights such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, and Rockefeller Center—surprising at every turn—on nearly a half-mile of track. This year’s exhibition features 3,000 square feet of additional exhibition space, making room for dozens of new trains, bridges, and tracks; a captivating short film of the show’s behind-the-scenes magic; and a stunning multisensory finale of light and sound. Explore a winter wonderland across our 250 acres with special tours, musical performances, and activities for kids, plus take care of your gift list at NYBG Shop and stop for a bite at one of our exciting new dining venues. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind holiday outing!
Stroller Tour: Frank Stella: A Retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art (Meatpacking District)
Saturday November 21st 930-1030a. This program is just for parents and caregivers with babies aged 0–18 months. $25 per adult, plus Museum admission ($22 adults, $18 seniors, free for members and children under 18). Tickets are required; every adult in your party must reserve a ticket to attend. Join Whitney Teaching Fellows, PhD candidates in art history, on engaging tours that highlight works in the exhibition Frank Stella: A Retrospective. Tours are for new moms and dads when the Museum is closed to the public. Crying babies are welcome!
Free Family Days at The Wyckoff House Museum (East Flatbush)
Saturday November 21st 11a-3p. Free. Touch, tour, explore! Farmhouse family days are free and open to families with children of all ages. The activities are best suited for kids ages 4 through 10. Drop in anytime between 11 a.m, and 3 p.m. to explore New York City’s oldest house together. Children must be accompanied by an adult. No registration required. History comes alive as you explore a new theme in the garden or historic farmhouse each month. Educators assist you and your family to explore what life was like in rural Brooklyn and investigate clues to the past. Touch old artifacts, examine the historic architecture, and get to know one of Brooklyn’s first families, the Wyckoffs. Come back each month to try out new hands-on or seasonal activities such as seed planting, candle making, or butter churning. See the website for information on future Free Family Days.
Jazz for Young People: Who is Duke Ellington? at the Symphony Space (UWS)
Saturday November 21st 11a & 1p. Tickets: $25/$20/$10. Run time 60 minutes. Through interactive performances and lessons, our young audience will go on Duke’s journey from Washington, D.C. to New York City, where he digs deep into this music called jazz as it’s being birthed from the belly of New Orleans. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will illustrate how Duke’s discovery of the blues and the development of his own innovative ideas created a new vernacular that would forever change the musical landscape of jazz. His legacy as a composer, a leader and a vanguard of American music is celebrated through this hour-long, youth-oriented event.
NYC Parks Retro Drive-In Cinema: The Addams Family in the NY Aquarium (Coney Island)
Saturday November 21st 6-8p. Free. Join NYC Parks for a free drive-in movie! Pack-up the kids in the car and join us in the parking lot at the NY Aquarium as we screen freaky family favorite, ‘The Addams Family.” Enjoy the laughs as con artists plan to fleece the eccentric family using an accomplice who claims to be their long lost Uncle Fester.. Gates open to the public at 5:00 p.m. Come early to get a good spot. Food is OK, but no alcohol or smoking. Reservations are not taken, so space is available on a first come first served basis. All are welcome!
For more Saturday events please click here!
Sunday November 22nd
Picture Perfect in Union Square Park
Sunday November 22nd 10a-12n. Free. We invite you to get Picture Perfect in Union Square this Sunday in Union Square Park’s West Plaza. Don your most festive attire, and gather your friends and family to have your holiday portraits taken,* enjoy live entertainment, hot beverages from Pret a Manger, giveaways, and so much more! *Photos available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Then head over to the Kids Art-Making Workshop with Children’s Museum of the Arts at Union Square Holiday Market 11a-7p!
Family Fun with Suzi Shelton at the Jalopy Theatre (Carroll Gardens/Red Hook)
Sunday November 22nd 11a. Tickets: $5 kids/$10 adult/$25 family. Suzi couldn’t be more excited to play for her very first residency at Jalopy! For this show, she will be joined by percussionist Abby Levin and bass player Vithya T, at her favorite music venue in Red Hook. Hear new songs, meet new friends and have a grand ol’ time!
BAMkids Movie Matinees: The Wizard of Oz (Fort Greene)
Sunday November 22nd at 1130a & 2p at BAM Rose Cinemas. For ages 6+. Tickets: $7 for children 12 and under, $10 for adults. Entrenched in America’s cultural psyche for more than three-quarters of a century, MGM’s classic fairytale of jewel-toned fantasy lands and homes rediscovered resulted from a nearly disastrous production and barely broke even upon its initial release, but soon became one of the most-watched films in movie history. And with its breathtaking feats of Technicolor and a star-making performance by Judy Garland (not to mention the adorable antics of Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr), it’s easy to see why. Rated: G. Run time 102 minutes.
Drop-in Art Workshop: Fabric Creation at The Jewish Museum (UES)
Sunday November 22nd 1-4p. For ages 3 & up. Free with Museum Admission. Stitch or glue a design on colorful felt inspired by the needle work of Valeska Soares and other artists in the special exhibition Unorthodox.
Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas Screening at the Museum of Moving Image (Astoria)
Sunday November 22nd 1p. Tickets: $12 ($9 for senior citizens and students / free for members at the Film Lover level and above). Order tickets online. All tickets include same-day admission to the Museum. Dir. Jim Henson. 1978, 60 mins. (plus additional clips). Digital projection. One of Jim Henson’s most beloved television specials tells the story of Ma Otter and her son Emmet, who both secretly enter a talent contest to win money for each other’s Christmas presents. This presentation includes Kermit the Frog’s segments. As an added bonus, Jim Henson Legacy President Craig Shemin, producer of the award-winning documentary Behind the Scenes in Frogtown Hollow, will present outtakes from the special and excerpts from the documentary.
For more Sunday events please click here!
All Weekend
Pixel Academy Minecraft Olympics 2015 at The Pine Street School (Downtown Manhattan)
Saturday-Sunday November 21st-22nd 830-6p. $65/session. Minecraft Olympics Division I: Ages 6 – 9 & Minecraft Olympics Division II: Ages 10 – 14. Every year, we host a series of fun and friendly competitions on our Minecraft servers using adventure maps custom-designed by our instructors. This year, it’s BIGGER than ever! Kids ages 6-14 can register for up to 2 different events per day (4 total over the weekend) competing and working together in Minecraft. Meals will be provided by the Pine Street School and are included in the cost. Come join the fun! An Event is a 4-hour, fun, friendly competition in which every participant will get many turns to try our awesome adventure maps. If your child doesn’t prefer the competitive side, we welcome you to join our Creative Room, which involves lots of working together! See the website for more information on the events and reserve your tickets here.
“Peter and the Wolf Lost in the Brooklyn Museum!”
Saturday-Sunday November 21st-22nd 3p. Tickets, available at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music website, are $20 for adults; $10 for children ages 5 to 16; and free for children ages 4 and under. The Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra takes you on an imaginative adventure through the Brooklyn Museum with Prokofiev’s beloved tale and other great music. Clown and comic actor Andy Sapora narrates.
Holiday Train Show at The New York Botanical Garden (Bronx)
Saturday November 21st-Monday January 18th. Various times and prices. See website for information. Advance reservations are strongly recommended as tickets do sell out. Purchase tickets here. NYC’s Favorite Train Show Is Bigger Than Ever! Enchanting model trains zip through a display of 150 landmarks, each re-created with bark, leaves, and other natural materials—all under the twinkling glow of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Marvel at G-scale locomotives humming along among familiar sights such as the Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, and Rockefeller Center—surprising at every turn—on nearly a half-mile of track. This year’s exhibition features 3,000 square feet of additional exhibition space, making room for dozens of new trains, bridges, and tracks; a captivating short film of the show’s behind-the-scenes magic; and a stunning multisensory finale of light and sound. Explore a winter wonderland across our 250 acres with special tours, musical performances, and activities for kids, plus take care of your gift list at NYBG Shop and stop for a bite at one of our exciting new dining venues. Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind holiday outing!
Gingerbread Lane at New York Hall of Science (Flushing Meadows)
Ongoing until Sunday January 9, 2016. Tuesday–Friday 930a–5p & Saturday & Sunday 10a–6p. Free with Museum admission. Museum closed on Thanksgiving Day & Christmas Day. Marvel at homemade gingerbread houses made entirely of edible gingerbread, royal icing and candy. The houses are drafted, designed, baked, planned, built and decorated by chef Jon Lovitch over the course of an entire year. GingerBread Lane has won the Guinness World Record for the largest gingerbread village for 2013 and 2014 and will compete for its third consecutive Guinness World Record this year. Lovitch’s creation will again contend for this year’s Guinness World Record. The all-new 2015 version of GingerBread Lane will cover 500 square feet and will have more than 1,050 houses and structures including a double-decker carousel reminiscent of one on the Coney Island boardwalk in days past and the S.C. Kringle & Co. Department Store which hearkens back to Gimbels department store in the early 1900s. GingerBread Lane 2015 will also have new twists like The Pumpkin Spice Latte Coffee Shoppe, The EveryDay’s Thanksgiving Café, a second train (for the first time), and a 10-square-foot candy factory you can see inside of as you climb the stairs to view GingerBread Lane. While the exhibition’s layout and composition change yearly, GingerBread Lane always includes Eggnog Bay, Gum Drop Row, Peppermint Central Park, Candy Cane Place and Toffee Boulevard. As a grand finale, Lovitch will give away all houses on January 10.
14th Annual Holiday Train Show at Grand Central Terminal (Midtown East)
Starting Saturday November 14th until February 21st. M–F: 8a–8p, Saturday and Sunday: 10a–6p. Free. Location: NY Transit Museum Gallery Annex and Store Shuttle Passage. Presented annually by the New York Transit Museum, this popular model railroad exhibition features Metro-North, New York Central, and subway trains departing from a miniature Grand Central Terminal on a 34’-long, two-level “O” gauge layout. The Museum’s store and booth at the Holiday Fair also offer great gifts for your holiday shopping. Transit gifts are available online at www.nytransitmuseumstore.com.
Cuba Vibra! at the New Victory Theater
Saturday November 21st 2p & 7p and Sunday November 22nd 12n & 5p. See website for future weekend times. For ages 6+. Tickets start at $15. Performance: 95 minutes including one intermission. It’s a hot Havana night when Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba brings the heat in an irresistible fusion of ballet, flamenco, cha-cha, rumba, conga, bolero and salsa. With superior synchronicity, 18 dancers fill the stage with flavorful finesse as they seamlessly dance in lockstep to the Afro-Cuban beats and vocal virtuosity of an on-stage big band. Celebrating Cuban music and dance from the ’50s to today, boisterous Latin rhythms electrify the air in CUBA VIBRA!
The 3 Bears Holiday Bash at Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre (Central Park)
Ongoing until Wednesday December 30th. Showtimes are Monday – Friday 1030a & 12n with additional shows Wednesdays at 230p and Saturday and Sunday at 1p. Tickets are $7/children and $10/adults. The Three Bears Holiday Bash is a variety show that celebrates the holiday season in song, dance and puppetry. This production quickly becomes a comedy of errors when Baby Bear invites Santa to star in Mama and Papa Bear’s annual holiday show. The audience also gets to join in on the fun with a “12 days of Christmas” sing-a-long during the performance! Purchase tickets here.
Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center
Ongoing until January 10th at various times. Tickets start at $25. For more information please see the website. Big Apple Circus returns to the Big Top at Lincoln Center for the company’s 38th season with the World Premiere of its all-new show, The Grand Tour! The Grand Tour transports audiences to the Roaring 1920s, the advent of the modern travel era, when the most adventuresome began to tour the world in ships, planes, trains, and automobiles. With every seat less than 50 feet from the stage, audiences will be awed by the world-class entertainers as they perform breathtaking acts from the four corners of the globe. Clowns, jugglers, acrobats, and aerialists from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America appear with ponies, puppies and more; the troupe sets off on their own whirlwind adventure, accompanied by the live, seven-piece Big Apple Circus Band at each of more than 100 performances.
Paper Quilting at the Lefferts Historic House in Prospect Park
Saturdays & Sundays until November 29th 1-3p. $3 suggested donation. The Prospect Park Alliance and the Brooklyn Quilters Guild present their annual show for display in the month of November. While you are here make your own paper quilt collage to take home or add it to our community patchwork.
Fall 2015 Ready, Set, Kindergarten! at various Brooklyn Public Library branches
Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays until November 22nd at various times. Free. See the flyer for more information on the 30 locations and times. In this special six session series, families will enjoy stories and activities designed to encourage the development of early learning skills. Exploring literacy, science, and math through music, stories, and play will help you and your child get ready for school!
Beauty & the Beast at PuppetWorks (Park Slope)
Saturday & Sundays ongoing until December 20th 1230p & 230p. For ages 4+. Admission for a Child is $9, an Adult $10. No credit cards accepted. Reservations are suggested: 718-965-3391 (current day or advance reservations) or e-mail us: puppetworks@twcmetrobiz.com (NO same day e-mail reservations). Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve’s French Fantasy with a “live” Beast. Adapted for Marionettes by Nicolas Coppola.
For a full calendar of events please click here!