Erin is the newest contributor to Mommy Poppins. She writes a blog about the Bronx, called BoogieDowner, and will be keeping us up to speed with all the great goings on in her borough.

We have already given you the lowdown on the Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden up in the Bronx. Families travel from all over to check out the replicas of major New York landmarks made entirely out of plant parts. It's a truly magical exhibit that appeals to both the young and old. Another bonus? The Train Show is held in the snug warmth of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory glasshouse, therefore it's a perfect holiday attraction no matter how cold it is outside.  

The only possible drawback to this amazing annual exhibit? The holiday crowds of course. So, if you're looking for an alternate plan to spend a festive day out and about in the Bronx with your family, you've come the right place. Read on for some attractions that are a nice back-up plan if the line for the Train Show is dampening your holiday spirit.  

What's more magical than the Cirque de Soleil? And what would make a better family Holiday outing than to go see Wintuk, the Cirque de Soleil's special Holiday family show? And what could possibly make going to see WIntuk better, but to have gotten your tickets for free?

We're giving away 4 tickets to Wintuk for the Saturday, Dec. 20 performance at 11am.

Location: Madison Square Garden, WaMu Theater

Wintuk runs through Jan, 4, 2008.

This is the second of five pairs of New York Shop tickets we are giving away:

New York Shop: Best Bets for the Whole Family is an event designed to make your  Holiday Shopping easy, fun and on budget even with kids in tow. There will be 40+ exhibitors featuring great deals on clothing, accessories, beauty products, books, toys, home décor and more - up to 60% off - creating a one-stop destination for holiday shopping.

New York Shop: Best Bets for the Whole Family is an event designed to make your  Holiday Shopping easy, fun and on budget even with kids in tow. There will be 40+ exhibitors featuring great deals on clothing, accessories, beauty products, books, toys, home décor and more - up to 60% off - creating a one-stop destination for holiday shopping.

While grownups deal-hunt, hip little ones can enjoy fun activities including cupcake decorating with FreshDirect, science experiments with apple seeds, sing-alongs with Music Together, and the opportunity to have holiday photos taken, plus appearances by Clifford the Big Red Dog and WordGirl.

Exhibitors include: american terry co., Baby Bean Vintage Daywear, dominique rouzier, DwellStudio, egg + avocado, flora and henri, Heroes Will Rise, Igloo Island, kicokids, Kiteya, Love is Organic Denim, milk on the rocks, Nest Children, Pluto, Sense of Wonder, Triple Sweet, Twinkle by Wenlan, Urban Tots, Wonderboy and many many more.

Just two days left in our week of Holiday Giveaways and we're finishing it off with a bang. For the next two days we have a huge number of tickets to some of NYC's best family events: We're giving away two family packs to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Plus four tickets to Wintuk. Four tickets to the Big Apple Circus. And ten tickets to New York Shop, which I'll be giving away in pairs. That's nine giveaways in the next two days. That's over $1500 in prizes!

Here's the trick, the giveaways are going to start at random times and end at random times, so keep checking back to catch one. There's lots of tickets to win, so send the links to your friends and you can all go to one of these events together. You can enter as many of the guiveaways as you like and you can also win more than once.

I'll also be announcing the beginning of each giveaway on Twitter, so if you are on Twitter, follow me and you can keep tabs on the situation from there.

My son, Roan, has reached the age of forced ambivalence. I didn’t see it coming, at age four, yet here it is. When I asked him on Sunday to accompany me to a concert by the band Milkshake, he acted cavalier and stipulated that his cousin, Boone had to go as well. I invited Boone, nine years old, who is the king of cavalier. I think his mother threatened or bribed because he eventually was on board. I mention this because I did not expect these boys to dance, sing or frolic during the concert. I was wrong.

How do we accumulate so much stuff, when, I swear, we never buy anything? We do our best to follow the one-in, one-out rule. My kids are actually pretty good about giving up their old toys (they have a knack for expressing contempt and disdain for most of the things in their lives). And yet, my closets look like booby traps for unsuspecting fools who might attempt to open them. They are so packed with...I don't know what.

Cleaning up, to us, means moving everything from the surface of the place we want to be clean to some other surface that is as far from that one as possible. I dream of making it my life's work to make our home a sanctuary where every place you rest your eyes is a perfect picture of tranquility and beauty. Hahahhaha. Well, maybe in another life, the one where I'm not scrambling from one thing to the next every waking minute of the day.

But wouldn't it be nice to have someone just come in and take care of these things. Even just a little facelift before our homes are over-run and picked over by relatives over the Holidays. A little nip here and a tuck here to get our apartments organized. I Thought so.

Buying local is the hip new thing, but beyond just being trendy and "supporting local businesses," buying local is important to us because it builds community and sustains what we love most about NYC: its cool, eclectic mix of unique, small shops and walkable city streets.

There are several Holiday shopping events that make shopping locally into fun, outings. Plus we've got a round-up of sample sales.