All Weekend:

3rd Annual Lyceum Holiday Marketplace-Park Slope
Indie craft shopping with over 70 local vendors, photos with Santa, safe cracking and batting some balls (all free with marketplace purchase).  Great snacks, too, yummies like Lime Rickies and Brooklyn’s own egg creams.  Check out the live Charlie Brown Christmas show while you are there.  FREE admission, Charlie Brown tickets are $10.
 

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Saturday Family Program: The Rainbow Fish – Park Slope
Families can delight in a live performance of the classic children’s favorite about the shiny fish who learns to share.  FREE

Winter Nature Art – Central Park
Get creative with nature to make some beautiful yet temporary pieces of art outside of the striking Belvedere Castle. FREE

Robbi K and Friends: An All Ages Kwanzaa Celebration – Flushing
Sing and dance with Robbi K and her two lively percussionists (who play a lot more than just drums!) while learning all about the guiding principles of Kwanzaa.  FREE

Amahl and the Night Visitors – Upper West Side
The single most popular American opera brings the magic and excitement of Three Kings Day alive for families with a brand new, contemporary full scale adaptation by the Little Orchestra Society.  Recommended for children ages 6 to 12 years old. Tickets are $12 to $50

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Solstice Party – The Bronx
Celebrate the longest night of the year and the start of winter by lighting the night with your own candle luminaries made from paper bags and placing them around Van Cortlandt Lake. Keep the chill away by dancing to festive concertina music and finish up with a ranger led night hike along the old railroad tracks on Putnam Trail.  FREE

100th Annual Reading of ‘Twas the Night before Christmas – Washington Heights
Get into the holiday spirit at this annual reading of Clement Clarke Moore’s ode to Christmas, this year it will be read by Malik Yoba followed by caroling and a lantern lit procession that leads to Moore’s gravesite for a wreath laying and cocoa. FREE

Special Holiday Nutcracker Performance by The Brighton Ballet Theater – Brooklyn
The perfect first Nutcracker experience for kids not yet ready for the big one at Lincoln Center.  Watch as one of Brooklyn’s esteemed cultural organizations dances excerpts from the ballet – especially all the fun ethnic ones.  FREE with museum admission.

The Dirty Sock Funtime Band – TriBeCa
The best kiddie rock band in NYC!  Let the kids get their sillies out dancing and singing along to their favorite songs.  Tickets are $15.

This is the time of year when park rangers and environmentalists take their annual survey of birds in the parks. If you want to get out and do some birding and help tally up our feathered friends, here is where you can do it this weekend:

Fort Greene Park will be holding their Christmas Bird Count on Sunday.  No experience required.

The Prospect Park Christmas Bird Count is an annual tradition for many New Yorkers.  Groups meet at the Audubon Center in the Boathouse twice on Saturday.

Meet at South Pump Station of the Reservoir for the 111th Annual Central Park Christmas Bird Count to be put into groups. When you’re done with your counting convene in The Arsenal to turn in your data and have a snack.
 

Outside of NYC:

On Long Island’s north shore visit the free model train display set up in the Stony Brook Village Education Center on Sunday--a nice stop off if you are headed out east to cut down your tree.

If you are Jersey bound this weekend head to the Turtleback Zoo in West Orange for a cool Christmas light display on both Saturday and Sunday nights for free! Just bring an unwrapped toy or some non-perishable food for charties with you. 

Look for more great goings on every day of the week in The  Mommy Poppins Calendar of Events.

If you are planning an event, don’t forget to let us know.  Enter it into our calendar.

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