Holidays

Family holiday traditions often seem to revolve around food: cooking special meals, baking holiday cookies and creating gingerbread houses. These family moments create those warm memories that children will look back on with nostalgia. But if your inner Martha is on vacation, consider taking your kids to a holiday cooking class instead.

Several kids' cooking clubs are offering holiday-themed classes in November and December, teaching staples like fresh cranberry sauce and gingerbread house construction. Classes for toddlers through tweens could whet your child's appetite for culinary greatness—or just a really good sugar cookie. Instruction doesn't come cheap: the classes range from $40 to $95 per child. Then again, every holiday host knows eager kitchen help is priceless.

One of the things on our list of 100 things to do with your kids in NY before they grow up is to watch them inflate the giant balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. If you want to go this year, here's some tips for seeing the balloons, plus the best place to find a spot for the actual parade and news about the new parade route:

Enough worrying about holiday pageants, shopping, parties and what-the-heck-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-kid-over-break. Get into the holiday spirit with a live performance in celebration of the season!  New Jersey's theaters bring you everything from ballet performances of the Nutcracker and theatrical productions of “A Christmas Carol” to Chanukah concerts and Kwanzaa fests.

The Nutcracker ballet, as beautiful as it is, can be a bit much for little kids to take in. To get them to experience the magic and wonder of this timeless classic, or for a different twist for the kid who's seen the Nutcracker a bunch of times, opt to attend a less traditional version of the show—there’s a whole bunch happening in the city. They are usually shorter, less expensive and more fun, but still have that Nutcracker charm that will keep adults wide-eyed, too.
 

There are many benefits to buying handmade goods this holiday season. It makes for more meaningful giving, it supports local craftsmen and is overall better for the environment. The accumulating effects of mass production are a major cause of global warming. If buying with a conscious is high on your list of things to do this holiday season, where do you find high quality handmade goods? The internet is crawling with items that claim to be unique and handmade but it is almost impossible to discern the junk from the gems. Here is the 411 on where to get unique handmade goods in NYC.

Mommy Poppins is teaming up with A Child Grows in Brooklyn to host two great events and we hope you can come!

RSVP NOW!

Right before the Holidays is a great time to clean out the toy chests and make room for the new incoming toys while encouraging the spirit of giving.

Bring your gently used toys to our Toy Swap.

Find new treasures to take home.

Bring a new, unwrapped toy for out Holiday Toy Drive.

Everything left over at the end of the day will be donated to charity.

Kidville will be providing children's activities
and free open gym time.

Enjoy healthy snacks from Susie's Supper Club
while you browse and chat with friends new and old.

Door Prizes! Space is limited. First to RSVP will win an item from our swag table: video games, dvds, cds, toys, books and more.

This holiday season, New York families might find it more difficult than ever before to open up their wallets to those in need, as they struggle to stretch even their own dollars. As we all know, volunteering is a wonderful way to give back by donating your time, and it can be truly extra-special when the kids join in. Since there are an abundance of opportunities around the city, here are some resources and websites to get you started before you start feeling overwhelmed. No matter where you live, how old your children are, or what your family is interested in, there is bound to be a program to fit your holiday volunteering desires.

We've written about Fall Farms, Pumpkin Farms, Pick Your Own Apple Farms, Spring and Summer Berry Farms, and even Christmas Tree Farms out here on Long Island. But what about the Turkey? Whether you just want to pay homage to your Thanksgiving feast or pick up a fresh, local or even organic turkey, Long Island has many poultry farms where you can get up close (or snap a photo from far away) with Thanksgiving's most popular mascot. Stop by and say hi, or for you serious locavores, pick up a fresh local turkey to eat and save yourself a trip to the frozen foods isle. Here are some of the local farms to check out:

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, the time is right to get kids thinking about how thankful they are for what they have... and teaching them to give back to the community.  The younger the kids, the harder it seems to find meaningful, hands-on volunteer opportunities.  Here are some ideas to put a little more meaning (and some fun!) into your kids’ volunteering....

Halloween last year I was astonished at the amount of candy my kids got, especially when i counted up the total calorie count. It really made me think twice and we ended up taking 5 pounds of candy and selling it to the dentist the week after Halloween. This year we found a healthier alternative to giving away candy for Halloween and it seems like there are lots of people feeling the same way because I keep reading about all kinds of things to do with your left over Halloween candy besides eat it, from donating it to soldiers in Afghanistan to using it to make a gingerbread house. Read on for some of the best ideas of what to do with all that left over Halloween candy.