North Pole - various times
Virtual - various times
North Pole - various times
Virtual - various times
North Pole - various times
Virtual - various times
North Pole - various times
Virtual - various times
North Pole - various times
Virtual - various times
North Pole - various times
Virtual - various times
North Pole - various times
Virtual - various times
Gift Ideas: 10 Experience Gifts for New York City Kids

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.
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Author in the Making — Give your kiddo the chance to be an author, complete with bound book to show family and friends. Head to the Upper West Side Make Meaning to create your very own book. Classes are available as well.
Broadway Tickets and Shows —Mary Poppins, The Lion King, and Billy Elliot are all great kid picks for Broadway. If you think they can wait until February to go to the show, buy Kids Night on Broadway tickets and get their ticket free. Or if a Broadway show doesn't fit in your budget, check out off Broadway shows at the New Vic, New World Stages or Symphony Space or a Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center Kids show.
Trapeze School — If you want some heart-stopping action for you and your child, check out a private class at the NYC Trapeze School.
American Girl Place — AG Place is not just a store, it is a restaurant and a theatre as well. You can give a girl the day of her dreams if you take her to see the American Girl Show, eat at the restaurant with her doll and even get the doll’s hair done, all without a shopping bag.
Makeover – Give your tween the gift of beauty, like hair braiding and make-up at Dimples Kids Spa, 91 Montague Street in Brooklyn.
Tea for tots – Head to the Plaza or The Carlyle for an afternoon your little girl will never forget. Every Saturday, there’s the Madeline Tea at Bemelmans Bar, which features a sing-a-long and buffet. Eloise at the Plaza offers tea as well as fun rooms in the shop bound to please every girl’s inner-Eloise. See our picks for more places to have a fancy afternoon tea in NYC.
Scuba Lessons – Kids ages 10 and up can try scuba diving and work toward their licenses. The classes are given in a pool in midtown west by PanAqua Diving.
The Arcade — Put as much money as you like on a Dave and Buster's card and your kid can go ga-ga for games.
Rock Climbing — At Manhattan Plaza Health Club, you can do a day of climbing on over 5000 square feet of climbing surface. We also love Brooklyn Boulders which has special family climbs on weekend mornings.
Do It Yourself —This is a classic, but give your kids coupons for special allowances like a night up past bedtime, a movie of their choice, etc. My daughter loves to use these all year long.
For more gift ideas check out our NYC Shopping Local Gift Guide, and for holiday fun see our Holiday Guide.
About the Author

Heather Chaet - Writer
Heather hates bios. She started this bio about 23 times, and that's about as many former lives as she’s had (Air Force brat, actress, stand-up comedienne, Saks Fifth Avenue perfume chick, editor on Wall Street, you get the idea). She enjoys jazz, TV and McD's French fries. When she’s not writing about cool things for Mommy Poppins, she's blogging for CafeMom’s The Family Piggy Bank and The Stir, freelancing for New York Family magazine and working oh-so-slowly on a book. On Heather’s to-do list: Learning how to cook without using the microwave, fixing her sagging triceps and finding the best apps for her iPhone. You can follow her progress on Twitter @motherhoodlist.
More About Heather
What's your favorite place to hang out with kids in NYC?
We hit the American Museum of Natural History at least twice a month, and love heading to Central Park to watch Abe, our doorman, deejay for the roller-skaters.
What do you do when you are kid-free?
I would love to say that I hit the gym or a cool dance class or catch a show at Jazz at Lincoln Center, but really, I catch up on errands and write. I should really go back to bed and sleep.
What's your best parenting moment?
When I told my kid that we can give MetroCards and sandwiches to the monsters at bedtime to make them go away, and she thought that was a great idea. We've done that every night for more than two years now.
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