The December holiday season is prime family vacation time, so finding deals can be next to impossible. But Christmas vacation packages do exist and deals can be had. We searched far and wide to find winter vacation deals so you won’t need to break the bank to spend some quality time with the kids on a family getaway. 

Consider alternate Christmas vacation ideas like Colonial Williamsburg and Richmond, Virginia; Lancaster and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; the bucolic Finger Lakes in upstate New York; Vancouver, Canada; sunny Phoenix, Arizona; or historic San Antonio, Texas.  Read on to get the scoop on these Christmas break packages. 

If you've visited any of the Mommy Poppins sites this week, you probably already know all about our Biggest Holiday Giveaway. And if it's news to you, well, there's still time to enter. We're giving away a different prize every single day through Thursday, December 13, nice big ones like $150 gift cards to some of our favorite stores and high-end toys. See the complete list on our giveaway site.

Speaking of giving, we suspect you're doing a lot of buying these days. Our Shopping Local Holiday Gift Guide is packed with NYC spots selling unique and offbeat items, and this week we added posts about our top seasonal pop-up shops and toy stores that opened over the past year.

Holiday fun is the focus on our regional sites, too. Spectacular light displays are up all over Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut and make for great day (make that night) trips. (And if you need to stay in NYC, there's always Dyker Heights.) You can find more out-of-town seasonal fun, including cut-your-own Christmas tree farms and Santa train rides, in our New Jersey and Connecticut Holiday Guides.

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

Hanukkah starts this weekend, and Long Island is in full celebration! You'll find menorah lightings all over town, menorah parades, and parties, parties, parties: There's a Chanukah Wonderland in Merrick, a Chanukah Spectacular in Plainview, and the Hanukkah Happening in Huntington, just to name a few. Check out our guide to the Island's Hanukkah happenings for even more lighting events and celebrations. There are also a few Nutcracker productions this weekend, and the Vienna Boys Choir is performing in Westhampton. What a festive weekend!

As parents, we instinctively want to make things easy on our kids, but making sure they are faced with appropriate challenges is one of the best things we can do for them. Tackling a challenge builds self-esteem and teaches new skills, resilience and perseverance.

This past summer, I organized a challenge-a-day project for my son that turned out to be really great. Not only were the challenges fun, they exposed him to new experiences and helped him learn new skills. By the end, he was doing all kinds of things that he didn't think he was capable of and, by repeatedly tackling challenges, he internalized the idea that he can, in fact, achieve things that seem hard. A challenge-a-day program can also be great for kids with sensory issues, anxiety or other struggles since it allows them to slowly build up tolerance to desired tasks.

If you'd like to try a challenge-a-day project like my family did, here's what you need to know:

Our December calendar continues to fill with free and fun holiday specials, craft fairs, winter festivals, and your pick of wintertime events. The Mass Horticultural Society's Festival of Trees continues through Saturday, and the Concord Museum is decked out for the holidays with its annual Family Trees exhibit. The first night of Chanukah is this Saturday, so get in the spirit with the lighting of the Menorah on the Boston Common, a Family Chanukah Celebration at the Boston Synagogue or the Chanukah Cantata at the Central Reform Temple of Boston.

Those are just a few of the great things going on this weekend. Read on for all of our picks. You can find additional options in our Event Calendar and our Winter Holiday Fun Guide.

If you’re still looking for good camp options for December Vacation Week or need some structure for your little one during the time off from preschool, we’ve rounded up more December vacation week camps to consider. And for those of you with winter birthdays in the family, read some ways we’ve overcome the challenges of a winter birthday party.

Our first ever Biggest Holiday Giveaway offers up the hottest gifts of the season, with a different prize each day. Each prize is available for 24 hours only, so be sure to check in every day.

Enjoy!

Yay!  Saturday is the first night of Hanukkah! That means lots of dreidel spinning, menorah lighting, and latkes!  (Eight crazy nights of it, to be exact).  And there’s no better place to get your Maccabee on than Los Angeles, the city with the 4^th largest Jewish population… in the world! (somebody say Challah!) Whether you like your Menorah by the sea, in the Valley, or in the heart of downtown, or even put together with LEGOs, our handy dandy Hanukkah guide can help you get your candles lit.

While 8 nights of presents is simply awesome when you’re a kid, it can be a bit of a challenge when you’re the one doing the providing. Luckily, Mommy Poppins is here to help with that, too. Our first ever Biggest Holiday Giveaway offers up the hottest gifts of the season, with a different prize each day. Each prize is available for 24 hours only, so be sure to check in every day!

Keep reading for some of our favorite picks for this weekend...

This past weekend my family headed out for our annual tradition of cutting down our Christmas Tree.  We've been cutting down our own tree for the past four years.  I must confess that I was intimidated by the process the first time we set out to try it.  When I pictured heading out with two young children and a saw to cut down a nine foot tree, I imagined disaster.  But it has proved to be one of my favorite family events and is not quite as challenging as I had imagined.  If you're considering cutting down your own tree this year we've got the scoop on some great farms in Litchfield County,  Hartford County and Fairfield County. For all things Holiday, including light shows, events, entertainment and so much more, make sure to check out our CT Holiday Fun Guide.

Don't miss our Biggest Holiday Giveaway! Every day for the next two weeks, we're giving away a different great prize. Today's prize is a $150 to spend on Customized Holiday Cards at Minted, where you can design and order cool, fun holiday cards. Click here to visit our Biggest Holiday Giveaway page and enter to win. And check back each day for more prizes. Happy Holidays!

I don't know about you, but I can remember getting all gussied up as a kid for my great aunt to take us to see the Nutcracker.  It's just one of many memories that combine to define the Christmas season for me.  Understandably, not all kids are into dancing sugarplums, but that doesn't mean there isn't a special night at the theater in store for them, too.  This year, central Connecticut has everything from a Handel's Messiah Sing-Along to a kooky Christmas beauty pageant -- ample material to make new family memories!