Submitted by Tania Pesce on
This year the Jewish holiday Hanukkah (also known as Chanukah or the Festival of Lights) which is an eight day and night celebration began on December 8 and ends on December 16. There are many ways to commemorate with events in the area so set up your menorah or candelabra and observe the holiday with your family at one of the following kid friendly activities.
Submitted by sarah on
Sometimes you just need to pack up your over-volunteered, over-worked, very tired family and head somewhere warm and relaxing. Last minute vacations may mean heading somewhere off the beaten path to find availability. The last time we did this, we ended up in Islamorada in the Florida Keys, and it turned out to be the perfect remedy.
Islamorada makes a great family vacation spot. It's easy peasy to get to, at only a little more than an hour away from Miami International. Once there, you'll find a relaxing seaside town perfectly suited to families—the restaurants are chock full of rambunctious children, live bands, and great seafood. There is no shortage of local attractions and water sports and most of the attractions are just minutes from the beaches. But don't make too many plans, because you may find it hard to drag yourself away from the pool and beach.
Here are 15 delightful must-dos in Islamorada:
Submitted by Jeff on
Some important school news this week as InsideSchools uncovers a big deception in the already complex and stressful high school application process. Plus an update on mandatory kindergarten, a brand-new Battery Park City ice-skating rink, the reopening of the South Street Seaport Museum and class warfare at the toy store.
Submitted by Alina Adams on
About a half hour into our visit to ANN HAMILTON: the event of a thread, the brand-new interactive installation at the Park Avenue Armory, my 13-year-old son observed, "I feel like I'm trapped in modern art." My five-year-old daughter had a much less analytical reaction: "Swings!"
Indeed, there are a lot of swings in the Armory's cavernous main hall—plus hanging fabrics, fluttering pigeons and other offbeat sights. According to Hamilton, the massive multimedia piece is "made of many crossings of the near at hand and the far away." But my kids weren't concerned with its meaning; they just knew it was fun to run around and explore.
Submitted by sarah on
My 6th Annual Cookie Exchange party is coming up, and if I can manage to finish decorating the house, it should be its usual joyful, twinkly self. Good friends and kids making cookies and cheer and messes, and me being so happy for the love, the friendships and the baked goods. Here are six of my new favorites and check out last year's article for even more buttery goodness. Happy Holidays!
Submitted by Stephanie Ogozalek on
Dazzling department store holiday windows and twinkling Christmas trees aren't the only awesome outdoor sites in NYC this holiday season. As always in our culture-filled city, there are a bunch of stunning public art installations on display in parks and plazas. We've rounded up four that we think kids will really dig, including the awesome LED sculpture BUCKYBALL, which offers colorful light shows in Madison Square Park.
Submitted by Allison Tibaldi on
The December holiday season is prime family vacation time, so finding deals can be next to impossible. But Christmas vacation packages do exist and deals can be had. We searched far and wide to find winter vacation deals so you won’t need to break the bank to spend some quality time with the kids on a family getaway.
Consider alternate Christmas vacation ideas like Colonial Williamsburg and Richmond, Virginia; Lancaster and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; the bucolic Finger Lakes in upstate New York; Vancouver, Canada; sunny Phoenix, Arizona; or historic San Antonio, Texas. Read on to get the scoop on these Christmas break packages.
Submitted by Raven Snook on
If you've visited any of the Mommy Poppins sites this week, you probably already know all about our Biggest Holiday Giveaway. And if it's news to you, well, there's still time to enter. We're giving away a different prize every single day through Thursday, December 13, nice big ones like $150 gift cards to some of our favorite stores and high-end toys. See the complete list on our giveaway site.
Speaking of giving, we suspect you're doing a lot of buying these days. Our Shopping Local Holiday Gift Guide is packed with NYC spots selling unique and offbeat items, and this week we added posts about our top seasonal pop-up shops and toy stores that opened over the past year.
Holiday fun is the focus on our regional sites, too. Spectacular light displays are up all over Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut and make for great day (make that night) trips. (And if you need to stay in NYC, there's always Dyker Heights.) You can find more out-of-town seasonal fun, including cut-your-own Christmas tree farms and Santa train rides, in our New Jersey and Connecticut Holiday Guides.
Here's what else we covered on our NYC site this week:
