To show our appreciation for our readers (you) and add a little excitement into your Holiday celebrations, we are doing a week of giveaways this week. Starting today, we will be giving away one big ticket item each day this week. Each giveaway will only last one or two days, so don't blink. We're kicking this event off with tickets to the Big Apple Circus! And we've got other great prizes coming too: more great tickets and prizes, including a Best Buy gift card.

This weekend, the last weekend before Christmas, has something for everyone! Fun shopping events, live holiday music and dance, arts and crafts programs, bird counting and a very cool sounding Winter Solstice Party.  Plus, down at the Seaport Museum you can check out some old fashioned theater in the form of a magic lantern show or visit one of the city’s zoos to watch the animals go crazy ripping open their gifts.  For a nice early holiday celebration head to an elegant yet family friendly high tea service or you could try to catch one of those nostalgic trains the MTA is running before they put them back in the shed till next year.

There is a ton of fun waiting for you in our events calendar or in the Mommy Poppins Holiday Activity Guide.  Read on for our best bets for the weekend and we hope you make it a great one.

Only one week left until Christmas!  Keep the kids busy with free festivals like the Kwanzaa Festival at NJPAC with everything from dance classes to crafts, or the free Maplewood Dickens Village Holiday Event with a petting zoo, face painting, horse and wagon rides and holiday crafts.  Grinch lovers can enjoy a Whoville Feast at Liberty Hall Museum with real Roast Beast.  Santa will also be making an early appearance at local ice skating rinks in West Windsor, Roselle, Secaucus and Jersey City.  Finally, check out some holiday lights, either the old fashioned kind in the form of a candlelight tour of the Historic Allaire Village, or the more modern kind at the Turtleback zoo and the Planetarium.

And for more great holiday fun, see our Holiday Guide.

So they say science is falling by the wayside with today's kids. Not in NJ!  Home to geniuses like Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison, New Jersey offers tons of opportunities to expose kids to the sciences.  No need to commit to a series of expensive classes.  Whether it's kids' chemistry experiments, a visit to a planetarium, or exploring for fluorescent minerals, you can pick and choose among these fun science finds.
 

On January 7, 2011 it will be exactly 4 years from the day that I posted my first post on Mommy Poppins. As the site has grown, I have asked myself what can I do, now that Mommy Poppins is read by hundreds of thousands of parents every month, to make a real, immediate difference in the lives of other New Yorkers. The answer that I came up with was to start a new site that would be dedicated to raising money for NYC schools. Education has always been a passion of mine and I have been a dedicated advocate of NYC public schools, which are struggling more than ever with terrible budget cuts.

So I am very excited to announce the launch of my newest website, Poppins Perks, which will offer great deals for NYC families with 40-90% off of products and services we love, plus each Perk will be targeted to fund an important project for one NYC classroom through a partnership with DonorsChoose.

I hope that Poppins Perks will enable you to try out more of the best things in New York City for families at unbelievable prices. Read on to hear more about Poppins Perks and our first Perk, a great Holiday gift for a friend, relative (or yourself!)

One of the coolest things about living and raising children in New York City is that you can experience so many different cultures up close and first hand without ever really leaving home.  This month Carnegie Hall kicks off a huge two part, city-wide festival celebrating the art of Japan, JapanNYC.  The whole thing starts this week and will be taking the city by storm with 65 different events in 22 venues around town, featuring the best of Japan’s art and culture in the form of orchestras, films, visual arts, drumming, Noh theater and pop art.  Read on to find out our family friendly picks for the festival.

Lots of festive stuff to get you into the holiday spirit this weekend: Santa sightings, special live holiday performances like the Pushcart Players version of Peter and The Wolf or The Yorkville Nutcracker. Brave the cold and experience some fun at one of the city’s zoos as they celebrate the holidays, visit a dazzling Christmas Tree, do the department store windows walk or check out these merry and bright homes decked out for the holidays. Tons more holiday merriment can be found in the Mommy Poppins Holiday Activity Guide.

You can check a few to-dos off your list this weekend. Gifts, by hitting Wave Hill’s holiday gift making workshops, shopping, a Holiday Craft Fair, Holiday Market or the new Disney Store; tree, buy one in town or chop one down on Long Island or New Jersey.  Our best bets for the weekend are below, so read on or visit the Mommy Poppins Events Calendar for more ideas on how to spend your weekend.

Have a great weekend.