The weekend before Christmas is a crazy time in the City—tourists are flocking in, folks are doing last-minute shopping, stores are open ridiculous hours, and kids are anxiously awaiting Santa’s arrival. This perfect storm of holiday cheer has also created a weekend bursting with unimaginable events (a hot chocolate crawl!), and we promise you won’t even have to look at Rockefeller Center to take part in all the festivities. 

Read on for info on where you can dine with the jolly man in red, shop for hand-made crafts while your kids are entertained (for free), see the joining of cultures at Little Italy’s and Chinatown’s East Meets West Christmas Parade, and for even more wonderful and surprising events.

Selecting good kids holiday music is a lot like going into a giant candy store--there are simply way too many choices and there is always the risk of selecting (and paying for) something way too sweet or worse discovering that a pretty wrapper may cover an outright dud.  With all that in mind, here are some fantastic selections that will get you in the holiday spirit for Christmas, Hanukkah, Chrismakkah or whatever you celebrate. Feel free to share your favorite Holiday music in the comments.

Robert Y. won the tickets to the They Might Be Giants Concert, but you still have the rest of today (Friday) to enter to win tickets to Sesame Street Live, The Flaming Idiots and Dear Edwina. But before you click over to enter those giveaways read on to find out how you could win one of two family four-packs to see Wintuk, the fabulous Cirque de Soleil Holiday show at Madison Square Garden.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas--and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa--here in NYC and there's tons of stuff to do this weekend. But before we get into the events here are some last minute news bits:

Tonight, (Friday) you can get pay-what-you-wish babysitting at Kids for a Cause.  Kids for a Cause hosts monthly date night drop-off evening childcare events run by NYU and Columbia University students to raise money for Baby's First Home, a charity that helps provide shelter for NYC homeless teen mothers. See our original post about Kids for A Cause for more information about this great organization.

Also, we're wrapping up our week of giveaways. Tonight is your last chance to to win tickets to Sesame Street Live, The Flaming Idiots and Dear Edwina and we're posting a Wintuk giveaway later today. So watch out for it.

Now on to caroling, a Swedish Christmas, a Santa rescue, an 80s style boom-box un-silent night celebration (talk about only in NYC), Menorah-making, a sweet way to watch Sunday's meteor shower and much more.

Last weekend we had our toy swap. Thank you to all who came with your used toys and your new gifts. We had a great turn-out, had a great time and we were able to donate tons of new and used toys to Seneca Houses where the children from 96 homeless families will be getting gifts from Santa Claus at a holiday party thanks to our donations. I know that the generosity of our readers will make a huge difference for those children who have so little this holiday season.

There's two more days to enter to win tickets to Sesame Street Live or Dear Edwina. And on Friday we're finishing up our week of giveaways with a huge Wintuk giveaway. But today we've got another great giveaway for you. 4 tickets to see the hilarious Chestnuts Roasting on the Flaming Idiots at the New Victory Theater. Read on for our review of the show and to find out how you can enter.

Dear Edwina is a show about a girl who performs a musical advice column out of her family's garage. Praised for its wonderful musical numbers, the Drama Desk Award-nominated Dear Edwina's creators just won the prestigious Fred Ebb Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre Songwriting. Dear Edwina is recommended for all ages from 5 and up. Shea saw the musical  last year and she and her boys loved it. You can read her full review here.

We're giving away a family four-pack of tickets to see Dear Edwina. We also have a promotion to share.

Tim Burton is most known for his films like Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice, but the new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art takes you beyond the films to see the art and inspiration of the man from this childhood in California to the present. The Tim Burton exhibit at the MoMA is a great show for children as Burton has claimed the art museum and taken it over with his creativity, fantasy and whimsy. This massive exhibit contains hundreds of drawings, paintings, sculptures, videos and movie memorabilia from Burton’s life and career. From the moment you step through the gaping jaws of a fantastical Tim Burton-designed creature, you are entering his world and Burton's world is a child's world (not often found at our great art institutions).

Read on for a preview of the exhibit and some tips for visiting with kids, plus read to the end to also find out how to see Tim Burton's work for free.