'Tis the season to get the gang all dressed up to see some holiday shows. While there are plenty of extravaganzas to splurge on, like the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and all those beautiful Nutcrackers, if you've got young children you may not want to blow all of your bucks on theater tickets.

That's why our roundup of Christmas-season family theater includes a range of productions, from inexpensive, low-key offerings perfect for fidgety preschoolers, to over-the-top spectacles that are worth the investment.

From live stage adaptations of classics such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Christmas Carol, to seasonal musicals based on popular picture books, to amazing circus feats and offbeat experiences, here are our top 18 holiday shows for NYC families for the 2019 holiday season.

If you haven't obsessed over whether or not to lug your kid's car seat to the airport, are you even a parent?? Getting everyone to and from a flight safely can be a total headache—as if flying with kids isn't already overwhelming enough—but the folks at Kidmoto have made it their mission to make the trip simple. With a fleet of professional drivers and safety-inspected livery vehicles equipped with pre-installed convertible car seats, the family-friendly service provides transportation to and from a number of major airports, and cruise piers, too. Plus, now the stress-saving airport car service has expanded to serve Philadelphia, Orlando, Tampa, and Charlotte, in addition to New York City. Read on to find out how Kidmoto works and why it's one of the safest and most reliable options out there for your whole crew.

Sure, you can snap a picture with Santa in hundreds of spots around Chicagoland at this time of year. But at a few select locations, kids and adults both naughty and nice can dine, cruise, or even bowl with Santa. From a casual Santa sing-a-long to a decked-out Santa suite at the Swissôtel, here are the best Santa breakfasts, brunches, and experiences for Chicago families this holiday season.

If you're looking to see America's melting pot reputation in action, take a family trip to the Lower East Side. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the neighborhood's tenements housed waves of immigrants from a variety of backgrounds, notably Germans, Italians, and Eastern European Jews. Although this Manhattan neighborhood has undergone a major transformation in recent years, with spots for knishes and cannoli being replaced by craft cocktail bars and boutique hotels, there are still remnants of its multicultural history that are great fun to discover with kids.

The Tenement Museum and the Museum at Eldridge Street both offer engaging peeks at the area's past, along with frequent family programming. Sara D. Roosevelt Park hosts celebrations for Asian holidays in honor of the nearby Chinatown community. The neighborhood's restaurants reflect the area's diversity with dim sum houses, delicious delis, pizzerias and the oldest candy store in NYC all vying for your appetite.

Of course there are cool, new kid-friendly attractions, too, including a pair of cat cafés, the New Museum, which offers FREE admission for children under age 19, and much more. Stretching from Houston Street to Canal Street and East Broadway between the Bowery and the East River, the Lower East Side is small enough for families to explore on foot in one day, and boasts lots of places to play, both indoors and out. Read on for 40 places to explore in this culturally rich, uniquely New York neighborhood.