Hi everyone,
The first weekend in December is here and Hanukkah starts Sunday night so it is another busy fun weekend here in NYC!
This weekend take the children to the Atlantic Avenue Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony & Party at Belarusian Church, the Lighting of the Brooklyn’s Largest Hanukkah Menorah at Grand Army Plaza, the Gingerbread Ship Workshop at BLDG92, Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas Day) at The Wycoff Farmhouse Museum, Dancewave’s Nutcracker Sweet Holiday Fiesta at PS 133, Hanukkah Family Day at The Jewish Museum, BAMkids Movie Matinees: Disney Classic Cartoon Shorts, Light in Winter First Sundays at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the 6th Annual Dumbo Family Holiday Party at The Powerhouse Arena and Rabbit Days and Dumplings at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.
Also there are some fun ongoing events happening this weekend like Pedal Punk at The New Victory Theater, Pilobolus’s Shadowland at NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts, New York Theatre Ballet: Keith Michael’s The Nutcracker at Brookfield Place, LOS KIDS presents Dvořák: Exploring the New World at The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas at The Theater at St. Jean and Holiday Train Show at The New York Botanical Garden.
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!
Have a great weekend!
~ Deirdre (mom to O & C)
Friday December 4th
Stop, Drop & SHOP! at Chocolate Works Brooklyn Heights
Friday December 4th 4-6p. Fee: $30/guest. Boys & girls ages 6 & up welcome. Drop off the kids to make a tasty present while you go shopping. Make a solid chocolate bar with fillings and then decorate it to look like a gift box. Add a present pop as the perfect topper to any present. Both treats are wrapped and have a gift tag. Now that’s a happy holiday! See website for additional Stop, Drop & SHOP! dates.
Target Free First Friday Nights at Children’s Museum of Manhattan (UWS)
Friday December 4th 5-8p. Free. On the first Friday of every month admission is free from 5 – 8pm, sponsored by Target.
Atlantic Avenue Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony & Party at Belarusian Church (Boerum Hill)
Friday December 4th 6–8p. Free and open to the public. Atlantic Avenue LDC hosts Tree Lighting & Party. 5 to 6 PM: Caroling Along Avenue with Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Mark Morris Dance Group’s Hard Nut Singers. 6PM: Atlantic Avenue Tree Lighting Ceremony – Meet Santa! Officiated by Council Member Stephen Levin. 6:15 to 7:30 PM: Holiday Tree Lighting Party. Welcoming Performance: Brooklyn Music Factory’s “Big City Country” Band. Annual Atlantic Avenue Merchant Holiday Window Competition Winners Announced. Holiday Performances From: Brooklyn Public School 38 – Chorus and Tap Dance, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music – Suzuki Violin Students, Brooklyn Ballet with “Pop” Opera Vocalist Sara Stevens. 7:30 PM: Food and Refreshments! *Guests will be welcomed into the Church immediately following the Tree Lighting Ceremony that is held outside. All Guests must wait until the Tree Lighting is officiated to enter the Church. Thank you for your cooperation.
Pedal Punk at The New Victory Theater
Friday December 4th 7p. Ongoing until January 3rd. See website for additional showtimes. For ages 5+. Tickets start at $19. Performance is 2 hours including one intermission. This holiday season, the spectacular Cirque Mechanics (Boom Town, New Vic 2011) rolls into town with moxie The New York Times calls “exceptional, evocative, eye-catching, ear-catching and, to keep the list short, engrossingly entertaining!” In the steampunk-styled PEDAL PUNK, featuring a 20-foot-high, pedal-powered mechanical masterpiece, the powerful performers amaze with a heart-pounding pole drop, awesome aerial acts and high-flying tricks (on a trampoline!). With every spin of a sprocket and rattle of a wrench, the quirky cast of characters transform a bevy of bikes into an astounding assortment of acrobatic apparatus in this adrenaline-fueled circus for the whole family.
For more Friday events please click here!
Saturday December 5th
Gingerbread Ship Workshop at BLDG92 (Brooklyn Navy Yard)
Saturday December 5p 1p. $10 for children. FREE for accompanying adult. Join BLDG 92 for holiday family fun at our Fourth Annual Gingerbread Ship Workshop. Pastry Chef Katie Rosenhouse, with the assistance of her happy helpers, at Brooklyn’s own Buttermilk Bakeshop, will create a gingerbread ship model ready for children to decorate and “commission”. Participants become ship builders in training as they are led on a mini interactive exhibit tour followed by an arts & crafts based shipbuilding workshop led by an educator from the Brooklyn Historical Society. Each participating child will also receive a gingerbread ship cookie and supplies to decorate.
Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas Day) at The Wycoff Farmhouse Museum
Saturday December 5th 1-4p. $5 Adults/ $3 Children under 10/ FREE for kids 2 and under. FREE for Museum Members and Cool Culture Families. Explore New York City’s oldest house and experience the Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas which evolved into the American tradition of Santa Claus, with colonial music, treats, stories, and crafts. Start the day off at 1PM with a concert by colonial balladeer Linda Russell. Enjoy a special visit from St. Nicholas as he arrives on horseback at 2:30pm. Grab a carrot and feed St. Nicholas’s faithful horse before signing the Red Book of who’s been naughty and who’s been nice. Sip cider as Sinterklaas tells the tale of The Bakers Dozen. Take your photo with Old St. Nick. Games, food and crafts will continue throughout the day: Try your hand at colonial games, nosh on holiday food to warm your soul, create a holiday pomander, or decorate a Dutch clog for Sinterklaas before the tree decorating and lighting as the sun goes down.
Rabbit Days and Dumplings at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum (Crown Heights)
Saturday December 5th 1-130p & 2-230p. Free with Museum admission. For all ages. Come join Elena Moon Park and friends as they perform music from Rabbit Days and Dumplings, a cross-cultural celebration of East Asian folk and children’s music, ranging from northern Japanese sea shanties to Tibetan jump rope rhymes, joyous Korean harvest sing-a-longs, and Taiwanese train songs.
Events for Youth & Families: Play Date at the Central Brooklyn Public Library
Saturday December 5th 1-2p. Free. Join husband and wife duo Greg Attonito and Shanti Wintergate of the kindie music group, Play Date. Their music inspires children to use their imaginations—and their dance moves—to explore the world around them. Play Date’s aptly named album, Imagination, won NAPPA’s 2015 Silver Award, 2014 Parents’ Choice Fun Stuff Award and Creative Child’s 2014 Seal of Excellence Award. “There’s always been a strong sense of self-discovery and independence in good kids’ music,” said NPR’s Stefan Shepherd, “and…Imagination has it all.” Play Date’s song “XYZ” was recently featured in a Nordstrom “The A-to-Z Life” back-to-school video.
Dancewave’s Nutcracker Sweet Holiday Fiesta at PS 133 (Park Slope/Gowanus)
Saturday December 5th Show I 330p & Show II 530p. Tickets: $12 advance, $18 at door. Children under 3 free. A fun-filled family event celebrating School at Dancewave students and Dancewave Company and Ensemble students. Join us for two exciting dance performances, and get into the holiday spirit in festive style!
For more Saturday events please click here!
Sunday December 6th
Light in Winter First Sundays at Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Free with Garden admission. Nature Walks with Brad Klein: Winter Birding 11a-12n. Meet at Visitor Center. Register in advance here or on-site the morning of the walk. Spot winter birds in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden and beyond with naturalist Brad Klein. Bring binoculars if you have them. Also check out Colossal Creatures: The Art of Giant Origami! Marvel as Taro’s artists craft tremendous paper animals before your eyes, and hear about the roots of this ancient Japanese art form. 1130a-1p at the Lillian and Amy Goldman Atrium.
Hanukkah Family Day at The Jewish Museum (UES)
Sunday December 6th 12n-4p. Ages 3 & up. Free with Museum Admission. Noon – 4 pm: Drop-in Art Workshops: Found Object Menorah Characters, Painted Fabric Design for Hanukkah, Collaborative Light Collage, Dreidel Decorating. Also 11:30am to 12:30pm: Book Signing in Museum Shop with Amanda Peet and Andrea Troyer and their book Dear Santa, Love Rachel Rosenstein and a reading at 1p. Also 12:30 pm: Drawing Performance: Hanukkah Stories Coming to Life and 2:30 pm: ShirLaLa Hanukkah Concert. 1:30 pm and 3:00 pm: Spotlight Tours: Discover Hanukkah lamps from around the world on a brief gallery tour. See the website for all the details on the event.
BAMkids Movie Matinees: Disney Classic Cartoon Shorts (Fort Greene)
Sunday December 6th at 2p at BAM Rose Cinemas. For ages 5y+. Tickets: $7 for children 12 and under, $10 for adults. Disney Classic Cartoon Shorts: This selection of charming cartoons from the golden age of Disney are wonders of hand-drawn animation, showcasing the studio’s extraordinary technical innovations as well as iconic characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy in some of their earliest screen appearances. Rated G. Run time: 99 minutes.
6th Annual Dumbo Family Holiday Party at The Powerhouse Arena
Sunday December 6th 3-5p. Free. For more information, please call 718.666.3049. RSVP appreciated: RSVP@powerHouseArena.com or RSVP here. The 6th Annual Dumbo Family Holiday Party with Vin Vogel, Paul Zelinsky and David Ercolini plus a special visit from Santa! Join the holiday festivities as POWERHOUSE’s favorite kids books illustrators battle each other in a fast-paced and good-natured drawing competition based on holiday-inspired suggestions from kids in the audience! Santa will join for a visit and photo op.
Lighting of the Brooklyn’s Largest Hanukkah Menorah at Grand Army Plaza (Prospect Heights)
Sunday December 6th 6p (every day until Sunday December 13th at various times). See website for schedule. Free. All ages. At the World’s Largest Menorah every night of Chanukah is celebrated with live music, hot latkes and gifts for the children.
For more Sunday events please click here!
All Weekend
Pedal Punk at The New Victory Theater
Friday December 4th 7p & Saturday December 2p & 7p. Ongoing until January 3rd. See website for additional showtimes. For ages 5+. Tickets start at $19. Performance is 2 hours including one intermission. This holiday season, the spectacular Cirque Mechanics (Boom Town, New Vic 2011) rolls into town with moxie The New York Times calls “exceptional, evocative, eye-catching, ear-catching and, to keep the list short, engrossingly entertaining!” In the steampunk-styled PEDAL PUNK, featuring a 20-foot-high, pedal-powered mechanical masterpiece, the powerful performers amaze with a heart-pounding pole drop, awesome aerial acts and high-flying tricks (on a trampoline!). With every spin of a sprocket and rattle of a wrench, the quirky cast of characters transform a bevy of bikes into an astounding assortment of acrobatic apparatus in this adrenaline-fueled circus for the whole family.
Pilobolus’s Shadowland at NYU Skirball Center For The Performing Arts (Greenwich Village)
Friday December 4th 8p, Saturday December 5th 2p & 8p Sunday December 6th 2p. Duration: 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.
LOS KIDS presents Dvořák: Exploring the New World at The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College
Saturday December 5th 10a & 1130a and Sunday 1130a & 1p. LOS KIDS is a brand new music offering for the whole family, featuring scripts by Muppets writer Craig Shemin and incorporating humorous and zany storylines that audiences will love. “Exploring the New World” is the theme for the Dvořák show, which will feature excerpts from his “New World Symphony,” among other compositions.
New York Theatre Ballet: Keith Michael’s The Nutcracker at Brookfield Place (Battery Park City)
Friday December 4th 7p & Saturday December 5th 1p & 7p. Free. Perfect for ages 3 and up. This one-hour version of the beloved holiday ballet performed to Tchaikovsky’s cherished score is set Art Nouveau-style circa 1907 with innovative choreography by long-time NYTB choreographer, Keith Michael.
Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas at The Theater at St. Jean (UES)
Saturdays-Sundays at 1p November 28th-December 27th. For ages 2-7y. Tickets: $49.50-$59.50. What could be fancier than Christmas? Presents with elegant wrapping paper, festive decorations, Christmas cookies with sprinkles – and who could forget the tree? After all, there is no such thing as too much tinsel. Ooh la la! This year, Nancy is especially excited. After selling some of her old gowns and accessories, Nancy has enough money to buy a brand-new sparkly tree topper. She can’t wait to decorate the Christmas tree. But when things don’t turn out the way Nancy planned, will Christmas still be splendiferous?
Holiday Train Show at The New York Botanical Garden (Bronx)
Ongoing until 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)
Ongoing 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.
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.
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!