St. Patrick's Day may be officially on March 17, but the festivities span at least a week in Westchester and the Hudson Valley. Our Event Calendar is just jigging with family-friendly activities for all ages! From leprechaun crafts and bodhran-making to Celtic music and Irish step dancing, there’s a satisfying array to choose from—not to mention the many St. Patrick’s Day parades of all sizes.

Below we've rounded up our top 10 picks (excluding parades) to help you hone in on how best to celebrate your Irish heritage (or just pretend you're in the tribe). Added bonus? Most of these are FREE!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

All parents are busy, but there’s something about parenting in New York City that makes things feel even more hectic. Luckily, there are plenty of city-founded family-friendly services here to take some of the load off from an online baby gear subscription service to a class sampling "passport" to a family meal-delivery service.

We’ve rounded up five newcomers, all founded here in NYC, to help you to start crossing things off your to-do list now. 

Have you ever dreamed about enjoying a hot cup of coffee while the kids were engulfed in creative play? You know, a cup that you don’t have to reheat 3 times? Get caffeinated while the kids burn energy at Giggles, a brand new indoor activity center in Cranford, NJ that offers both a multi-faceted play arena for little ones and an adjacent coffee bar for grownups. The cafe’s seating is in direct view of the enclosed play area, allowing kids up to age 6 to run free while adults chill out. Open play is pay-as-you-go, with no membership fees. Check out why Giggles is an ideal venue for playdates, mom meet-ups, parties or a little sanity break.

If you've never been to a place where dinner attire is a mixture of pajamas, swim suits, and furry wolf ears, then it sounds like you've never been to a Great Wolf Lodge. Until this past weekend, I was one of those uninitiated, having only heard second hand of the popular indoor water park hotels. But this past weekend, Great Wolf opened its newest location here in Southern California, and I was invited (along with oodles of other press with progeny) to attend the opening and take the plunge. (Yes, that was a pun, and there may be more.)

If you have a child in your household, chances are Disney's animated romp Zootopia is on your must-see list. What kid can resist a movie about adorable, anthropomorphized animals? The good news for grown-ups is that these creatures, cute and cuddly as they are, are never cloying, and neither is the movie. Zootopia is a fast-paced and funny (or is that furry?) tale of tolerance—a buddy detective story that touches on timely societal issues and champions our ability to evolve and get along, regardless of what kind of mammals we are.

Not that young kids will care about most of that. They'll be too busy laughing at the adventures of Judy Hopps, the cosmopolitan city of Zootopia's first-ever bunny cop (voiced with perpetual optimism by Ginnifer Goodwin). Fate throws her together with Nick Wilde (the wonderful Jason Bateman), a fox con man who helps her crack the case of the missing predators. Although they dislike each other at first, they inevitably bond. These two have much more in common than they initially realize, including fighting against being stereotyped and childhoods scarred by taunting.

Those bullying flashbacks, especially Nick's, are two of the scariest scenes in the film, which is rated PG with good reason. Worried your preschooler might not be up for it? Here's what you need to know before you book tickets (or a babysitter), and what treats await if you splurge on seeing it at El Capitan.

Lacrosse is a popular sport on Long Island for both boys and girls. Whether your child has never picked up a stick before or is looking to take his or her game to the next level, there are a number of programs in both Nassau and Suffolk counties to fit any child's needs, offering specific clinics, ongoing classes and even summer camps. And for other enrichment programs in the area, be sure to check out our Classes Guide.

A pole and aerial dance studio does not sound like the most G-rated spot for a Sunday morning kids class. As a parent, a visit to Body & Pole’s website certainly didn’t instill optimism: the color scheme, the photos, the skimpy outfits all seemed to translate into a not-so-kid-friendly vibe—but boy was I wrong.

 We’ve written about circus arts, trapeze classes for children and even rhythmic gymnastics, but we’ve yet to review a kids aerial class, where the session next-door might be adults-only Hammock Fluidity or Aerial Contortion. With my brave 9-year-old in tow, we decided to give it a whirl.

It can be hard to find things to do with tweens in New York City. They're too old for little kid activities, but not really into the culture that older teens tend to favor. Our tween only begrudgingly participates in most family outings, so I decided to design a day totally focused on his interests, which, not surprisingly, are pretty much limited to video games, computers and comic books. What was surprising was how much fun we had.  

Within a few blocks of the Astor Place 6 train stop, in a section of the East Village dubbed Japantown or Little Tokyo, are a number of over-the-top fun spots for kids. Packed with funky Japanese-themed collectible stores and awesome eateries, plus some old-school video game and comic spots, we found tween utopia all within a few blocks. We rounded the day out with Japanese snacks for an itinerary that had our usually picky kids over the moon and was just as much fun for the grown-ups.