This Week: Hanukkah Celebrations, the Nutcracker Ballet for Kids, Amazing Pics of the Inifity Rooms, Retro Thanksgiving Recipes

11/21/13 - By Raven Snook

Already feeling some seasonal stress? We hear you. I had a panic attack the other day when I saw that El Museo del Barrio already put its three kings out when Three Kinds Day is in January! While we can't do your holiday shopping for you we can tell you about the best ways to celebrate Thanksgiving, Hanukkah (which overlap next week) and Christmas with kids in NYC, New Jersey, Westchester, Long Island, Connecticut and beyond.

A big thank you to all of our readers who attended our Holiday Photo Event last weekend. (That's my daughter looking deceptively innocent in the Santa pic by Big Apple Portraits above.) If you didn't make it, that's okay since St. Nick is flying into town in just a week on the tail end of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Speaking of the parade, you can get a fantastic sneak peek at the brand-new floats debuting this year on our Facebook page. We've got great pics of Bloomingdale's recently unveiled holiday windows, too.

Outside of NYC, our Boston site posted a wonderful list of picture books about Boston inspired by the one we did a while back about our favorite NYC children's books. The site also has an excellent primer on how to start a babysitting co-op in your community. Closer to home, our Westchester site rounded up the top 25 things to do with kids in Scarsdale and our New Jersey site continued its series on Great Small Towns with a profile of Clifton, NJ. Both destinations make great day trips for NYC families.

Here's what else we covered on the NYC site this week:

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We added quite a few posts to our NY Holiday Guide this week, including our top 8 Hanukkah celebrations for families (many of which take place this Sunday before the holiday starts); a dozen different productions of The Nutcracker ballet and some seriously retro recipes for Thanksgiving that are so easy to prepare your kids can help.

Our month-long focus on Brooklyn Heights finished up with a slide show of the awesome New York Transit Museum and a roundup of the best places to play in the area, including some indoor romping spots.

Dance on over to the New Victory Theater to see the invigorating new tap extravaganza Feet Don't Fail Me Now!—finally a show that earns its exclamation point!

As you can see from our photos, you don't want to miss Yayoi Kusama's immersive infinity rooms, which are currently on view for FREE in a Chelsea art gallery.

Planning on doing Black Friday? Our post is filled with important tips like the best deals and the times the big chains open.

Best bets for the weekend include two November Go List picks—the Brooklyn Museum's FREE Children's Book Fair and the Little Orchestra Society's lavish Firebird—plus a slew of early Hanukkah celebrations.

Photo by Big Apple Portraits