This is the time of year when you want to embrace your inner craft goddess and sit down with your junior craft gods and goddesses to crank out some amazing homemade gifts for family, friends, teachers and other special folks. This is also the time of year when you have less time to do this sort of stuff than you usually do and maybe, just maybe, you even wish to be the recipient of said gift.  So, what to do? Visit one of the many craft emporiums in NYC where they have everything (materials, know how, time, space, etc.) needed to make the perfect handmade gift this holiday season.  

And for more cool holiday activity and gift ideas, check out our Holiday Guide.

It’s that special time of year, when we consume about 70% more sugar and butter in one month than in the rest of the eleven months combined. Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit. But you can at least conceal your high-sweets-consumption in the guise of a family affair—there are a few nice kids/family baking classes in NJ for holiday yummies. Enjoy!

Giving gifts to New Yorkers can be  tricky. With many people living in small spaces, no one wants  more stuff -- especially families with young children. If you have a holiday party coming up and are wondering what to buy the hosts and their kids, give them something they'll really appreciate: good food. Buying local is all the rage these days, and New York City is full of top-notch artisanal treats. Adults will thank you for not showing up with yet another toy, and little ones will love digging into homemade doughnuts, hand-twisted pretzels, or a few bars of dark chocolate. Many of the foods below can be shipped around the country, so you can bring a bit of the Big Apple to Grandma in Wisconsin, too.

Holidays are here and the last thing you need are more plastic dinosaurs or toys that need batteries. Time to re-think the gifts you give. Put a new spin on gift-giving this year and try to give non-tangible items such as lessons and special outings. Experience gifts teach your children the value of making memories. Added bonus: your holidays will be “greener” (something we all can put on our list of resolutions). You can even get your kids on board with this idea by suggesting ways they can give you experience gifts like cleaning the kitchen or a nice dinner alone.

If you're looking for some good reading to gobble up after Thanksgiving, here are some interesting tidbits: a great site for children's book reviews, tips on scoring cheap tickets through Kids Night on Broadway, a peek at the upcoming hot kid flick, my latest children's music recommendation, thoughts on dealing with kids and money and more. Set up a plate of leftovers and kick back.

Give your kids mac and cheese and they get a meal. Teach your kids to cook interesting things and hopefully they’ll make dinner when they’re teenagers. While looking through cookbooks for this round-up, I discovered that a lot of them are joint efforts between family members. It’s not surprising. I love sharing cooking tips and tricks with my food-forward 11-year-old son, and visa versa. He once pronounced a dish I’d made, salmon and vegetables in parchment, "Really good, but it would be better with capers." We tried it his way the next time. He was right. His first cookbook was one of the Roald Dahl Revolting Recipes cookbooks, and it remains a favorite to peruse and use. In that vein, we offer some additional cookbooks with an extra ingredient.
 

Yeah, you might want to just lie around and digest that turkey, but why not haul yourself and the kiddos off the couch and head out to one of the many events New Jersey is offering up this weekend. There are plenty of it’s-almost-Christmas activities, plus some great interactive museum events and my personal favorite—“The Butt Book” book signing. Can’t miss that, now can you.

I love Mom's Night Out.  It’s become a time for me and my friends to get out and try something new and different, most recently a painting class.  I am not exactly an artist, but the class made it easy to pretend I was, which was great fun.  We painted and sipped wine for a couple hours and got to walk out with our own masterpiece. So next time you leave the kiddos at home, perhaps consider letting your creative side loose for the night. From painting on canvas or pottery, to making jewelry or sewing a handbag, there are lots of drop-in art classes in NYC that are great for a Mom’s Night Out.  And don’t be intimidated, these are one time, no experience necessary, just have fun kind of experiences.