Hi everyone,
More fun events happening this week since winter break starts for NYC public schools Thursday. Remember to check with venues to see if the regular weekday singalongs are happening this week.
This week take the kids and enjoy Spellbound Explores: Winter Lights at The Birth Day Presence, Make Music Winter, Urban Stages presents Tales of Snow at the Crown Heights Brooklyn Public Library, Pedal Punk at The New Victory Theater, Special Holiday Sing Along with Lucy Kalantari at ELK Cafe, Christmas Eve Family Service at First Unitarian Congregational Society, Stop, Drop & SHOP! at Chocolate Works Brooklyn Heights, Caroling Christmas Eve at Washington Square Park, Gingerbread House Workshop at Taste Buds Kitchen and Santa Claus Is Coming To The City Reliquary.
Also be sure to check out the ongoing events such as Ballerina Swan at Theater 3, Holiday Train Show at The New York Botanical Garden, Shadow Box Theatre Presents: Little is Big at PS 3 The Bedford Village School, Gingerbread Lane at New York Hall of Science, The 3 Bears Holiday Bash at Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre and the 14th Annual Holiday Train Show at Grand Central Terminal.
There are more events so check out the calendar for all of the things happening this week in NYC! Also remember to like us on Facebook for last minute news and event reminders.
Have a great week!
~ Deirdre (mom to O & C)
Monday December 21st
Spellbound Explores: Winter Lights at The Birth Day Presence (Park Slope)
Monday December 21st 11-1145a. All Spellbound Explorer classes are drop-in – you can pay by cash or credit card in person at class. Single classes: $15/one child, $22/siblings 8-class pack: $100/one child, $146/siblings. Explore one story a week through song, story, and play. Children will have a chance to socialize, develop pre-literacy and imaginative skills, and learn new stories. Grown-ups will have a chance to learn stories and songs that they can do at home. Each week is a new story and theme, explored through art-based play. This week theme is winter lights
Spellbound Explorers is a mixed-age class. Classes are designed to engage a wide range of ages and developmental stages, but are most enjoyable for ages 9 months through 3 years. We encourage a mix of ages to allow for multiple methods of exploration and problem-solving, and to welcome families with siblings of various ages. All children over 4 months must be registered.
Santa Claus Is Coming To The City Reliquary (Williamsburg)
Monday December 31st 3-6p. Free. We’ve just confirmed with the North Pole: Santa Claus is coming to The City Reliquary! He wants know what all the nice children (and adults!) of New York want for Christmas. Write your list, come meet Santa and stay for seasonal treats.
Make Music Winter: Bell by Bell (DUMBO)
Monday December 21st he parade begins at 6:00 pm at the DUMBO Archway and ends at Brooklyn Bridge Park (at Old Dock Street). All are invited to join. Free. Make Music Winter, now in its fifth year, is a free, outdoor musical event each December 21st that turns audiences into music makers. Inspired by Phil Kline’s annual boombox parade Unsilent Night, Make Music Winter transforms New York’s cityscape with a dozen participatory musical parades on the winter solstice. Bell by Bell | Tom Peyton: Artist Tom Peyton distributes seventy color-coded bells to the crowd, one color per note. At the front of the parade, a team of conductors waves corresponding colored flags to lead the group in slowly moving music, written by a variety of composers. When the conductors raise their red and green flags, everyone with red and green bells start ringing, and so on for each color, creating a sonorous, atmospheric soundscape in DUMBO’s cavernous spaces. There will be additional events all over NYC at various times. See website for all the details.
For more Monday events please click here!
Tuesday December 22nd
Hopalong Andrew Sing-a-long at SuperFrench Studio (Bedford Stuyvesant)
Tuesday December 22nd 11a-1145. $10/child. Hopalong Andrew’s sing-a-longs are geared towards all ages, singing the great folk songs, fireside ballads, and cowboy favorites of the silver screen. Think Roy Rogers meets Pete Seeger and Jesse Fuller – a 1-man band, with guitar, banjo, harmonica, and vintage Samsonite suitcase drum. He’ll get you to sing along, dance along, play along, and have an all-Americana good time. This Hopalong Andrew’s last sing-a-long for 2015 at SuperFrench Studio and per his email he will be away all of January. Check his facebook for any outdoor sing-a-longs that may pop up with the mild weather.
Urban Stages presents Tales of Snow at the Brooklyn Public Library (Crown Heights)
Tuesday December 22nd 330-430p. Free. Join us as we travel to snow country with masks, puppets, song, and dance. Our travels will include lands of the north, magical characters made of icicles, wondrous winds, and of course lots of snow! Although these stories embrace the cold, they will be sure to warm your hearts this winter!
Pedal Punk at The New Victory Theater
Tuesday December 22nd 7p & Wednesday December 23rd 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 fun Tuesday events click here!
Wednesday December 23rd
Movies @ the Library: Hercules at the Marcy Brooklyn Public Library
Wednesday December 23rd 330-5p. Free. The son of the Greek Gods Zeus and Hera is stripped of his immortality as an infant and must become a true hero in order to reclaim it.
Stop, Drop & SHOP! at Chocolate Works Brooklyn Heights
Wednesday December 23rd 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.
Gingerbread House Workshop at Taste Buds Kitchen (Chelsea)
Wednesday December 23rd 430-530p. For ages 2-10y with caregiver. $75 per parent/child pair. Celebrate the Season with family bonding and gingerbread fun at our signature December Workshop. Parent and child pairs work together to design and decorate their very own gingerbread house. Enjoy the endless decorating options, from frosted candy roofs to pretzel picket fences, and cheerful holiday tunes while sipping hot chocolate and experiencing quality family time. Spread the Holiday spirit by inviting friends to join you for this special event! See website for additional dates/times for workshops.
For more fun Wednesday events click here!
Thursday December 24th
Special Holiday Sing Along with Lucy Kalantari at ELK Cafe (Windsor Terrace)
Thursday December 24th 10-1035a. $5/per family. Lucy sings and plays Ukulele! It’s a wonderful sing along for kids and caregivers alike.
Christmas Eve Family Service at First Unitarian Congregational Society (Brooklyn Heights)
Thursday December 24th 4p. Free. Join us for a fun and family-friendly Christmas Eve Service in the Chapel! We’ll have hot cocoa and animal crackers, sing familiar carols and hear classic Christmas readings. This is a magical service for young and old! All Are Welcome! The Chapel is accessible (one tiny step) for strollers, walkers and wheelchairs. See the website for all the details.
Caroling Christmas Eve at Washington Square Park (Greenwich Village)
Thursday December 24th 5p. Free. Christmas Eve is the traditional time to celebrate the holiday with carols at the Washington Square Arch. The Rob Susman Brass Quartet, song leader and the revelers from all over the city will lustily sing out the familiar tunes. The words are in the songbooks distributed compliments of the Washington Square Association, but many will know them by heart. “Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men” will ring out to remind us all of the true meaning of the holidays.
For more fun Thursday events click here!
Ongoing
Ballerina Swan at Theater 3
Mondays-Wednesdays 11a until December 30th. Also Saturdays & Sundays 11a & 1p until January 3rd. Tickets $25-$45. Best for ages 3-8. Back by popular demand! Ballerina Swan blends dance, theater and puppetry to tell the story of Sophie, a Central Park swan who dreams of becoming a ballerina. Based on the children’s book by former NYC Ballet prima ballerina Allegra Kent, Ballerina Swan features a five-foot dancing swan puppet that wowed children and adults alike during the show’s 2013 run.
Shadow Box Theatre Presents: Little is Big at PS 3 The Bedford Village School (Bedford Stuyvesant)
Weekdays until Wednesday December 23rd. For individual tickets $10 in advance/$15 at the door. Group: $8. For more info and reservations call 212-724-0677. Recommended for pre-K to 3rd grade. In an enchanted landscape beneath the sea, the little fish Spinny and his friends face up to a big bully of a fish – and find courage, tolerance, and the true meaning of friendship. Following the puppet show, the audience joins in an inspiring “Sing Out for Peace”.
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 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.
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!
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)
Daily 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.
To see all the events click here for the calendar!