Yes, we’ve been wearing t-shirts, but it’s officially the holidays, nonetheless. Make special memories with your kids by taking them to a holiday show in NJ! Nutcrackers and Christmas Carols abound, but there are other options as well, and we will do our best to find the fun ones out there, starting with “The Toymaker’s Apprentice” at Hudson Theater Ensemble’s Children’s Series “Silly on Sixth”.

Here we are at the last sane weekend before the holiday season officially begins. We adore the holidays of course, but we also love to savor NYC at this time of year, when it still belongs to us and not the tourists.

Even though Thanksgiving marks the start of the season, you can enjoy a bit of early holiday fun this weekend. The New York Botanical Garden unveils its annual train show on Saturday and a handful of department stores have put up their holiday windows. (Look for our slide show of all of the big ones soon.)

Of course there's lots of non-holiday fun too, including the Children's Museum of Manhattan's fabulous new installation Eat Sleep Play and the American Museum of Natural History's new Beyond Planet Earth exhibit, which opens on Saturday. Also this weekend, Music for Aardvarks rocks the preschool set, the Brooklyn Children's Museum's annual Icky Fest and live stand-up comedy for kids by kids.

And that's just a few of the great things going on this weekend. Read on for all of our picks and remember, you can find additional options in our Event Calendar.

Even if you lead a media-challenged life (and if you did, you wouldn't be on this website), you probably know that the new Muppets movie is coming out next week. I can't remember the last time I was so psyched about seeing a film—and not just because I happen to like dressing up as Miss Piggy (yes, that's me in the pic). The Muppets is one of the few family flicks coming out this holiday season that I'm as excited to see as my daughter. (Alvin and the Chipmunks 3... not so much.)

Ever since they came to international fame on Sesame Street, New York City has been the unofficial home of the Muppets. Not only does the iconic PBS series film here in Queens at Astoria Kaufman Studios, its urban set was clearly inspired by the Big Apple, so it's not surprising that we love celebrating the Muppets in this town.

Here are eight fun ways families can get their Muppet on in NYC, besides going to the new movie.

Thanksgiving Day is just around the corner and as you prepare for the grand feast with your family there are also many events to help celebrate. With a list of craft events, physical activities and ways to give back in Hartford County you’ll be able to find something to keep the kids busy during the holiday break. Many of the events are free so while you're still entertaining your child you can save some cash for the upcoming holiday shopping season!

So far this month as part of our focus on the Upper West Side, we've rounded up cool things to do and awesome toy stores. Now we're rounding up indoor places to play on the UWS.

While the UWS is bookended by Riverside Park and Central Park, their playgrounds clear out when it's cold or rainy. But there are plenty of inside neighborhood spots where kids can run around and have fun. We're not just talking about the usual pay-to-play places like CMOM or AMNH, or members-only play spaces like NY Kids Club; there are also lots of unusual destinations, many of which are free. Here are our top 23 UWS spots where kids can play (or at least hang out a bit) indoors.

In October we launched Little Lions, a series of monthly posts featuring kids' book recommendations by New York Public Library (NYPL) librarians. For November, the theme seemed obvious: books for families to share over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Kristy Raffensberger, a children's librarian at the Webster Library on the Upper East Side, has compiled a lovely list of titles that capture the essence of the holiday, even if none of them are about Thanksgiving itself. All of these stories feature characters who are grateful, generous, helpful or selfless (or some combination thereof). Regardless of whether you celebrate with mashed potatoes, parades, Native American history or football, these books will help you give thanks for all you have.

The holiday season without a performance of "The Nutcracker" would be very sad indeed--you might as well forget the tree and the decorations and tell your kids the real deal about you-know-who. That's why we'd like to make sure that two of our readers' families get a chance to see this very special show at one of our favorite venues--South Orange Performing Arts Center. Read on to find out how to enter to win one of two family 4-packs of tickets!

The weather is crispy, the evenings are long and dark, but the winter holidays are upon us. Why not get into the holiday spirit by curling up with your little ones on the sofa of the brightly lit, warm living room, with hot chocolate and a good, sweet, colorfully decorated holiday book? This Thanksgiving season you can read about silly turkeys, pay a visit to the Pilgrims, their Native-American neighbors or a fellow American family preparing for their Thanksgiving.