Anna Fader

Founder & CEO of Mommy Poppins
Anna was born in Park Slope, spent her early years in the West Village. By the time she graduated high school, she had lived in 4 of the 5 boroughs. Growing up in NYC in the '70s meant the streets were her playgrounds. Museums and avant garde music venues were the kid-friendly activities. And living downtown taught her the importance of creating community for families in NYC.

Now, raising her own two children in the city, she tries to create the same sense of magic and community she felt growing up, despite today's more commercialized version of kid-friendly New York.

She started Mommy Poppins in 2007 to share a more artsy, educational, uncommercial, community-oriented vision of raising kids in New York City. Today Mommy Poppins is relied on by millions of families as the authority on the best things to do with kids beyond New York City: from Boston to Philly, Los Angeles, Houston and travel guides for dozens more cities and destinations.

Latest posts by Anna

Santa Letter 2.0: How Technology is Bringing Santa to Life for Kids

Submitted by Anna Fader on Wed, 12/17/2008 - 9:36am

Santa and technology are not two things that immediately seem to go together. Santa has been the ultimate luddite; 1500 years old and he never even upgraded to a motorized vehicle, for pete's sake. But this year Santa is getting his geek on with some fun hi-tech tools and social media solutions that bring the jolly old elf to life for kids.

Check out how technology has upgraded Santa Claus this year:

Recent Press: Spending less on the Holidays, Family Travel and Favorite Charities

Submitted by Anna Fader on Fri, 12/12/2008 - 9:00pm

I've been quoted in a couple of cool articles recently that I think you might find interesting. Two of them are about saving money during the Holidays or when traveling, and the third is about Holiday charities. Check out what other people are writing about on some topics near and dear to me:

Free Play December 12-13, 2008: Free Indoor Play, Sinterklass and Festival of Lights

Submitted by Anna Fader on Fri, 12/12/2008 - 8:09am

Some of my favorite holiday events are this weekend: All those wacky events in our Off-Beat and Multicultural Holiday Events post are all this weekend. So if you missed that check it out here. And if you haven't taken a look at our round-up of the best Nutcracker performances for kids, find that post here.

Below we've picked out just the cream of the crop of other cool events for this weekend, where we think you'll find something new and interesting for the whole family.

Great Gift Idea: A Night at the Museum Sleepover

Submitted by Anna Fader on Wed, 12/10/2008 - 7:27am

This site is dedicated to helping parents find all the amazing, cool, once-in-a-lifetime events that you don't have to spend a fortune to take advantage of, but there are some events that are worth the splurge. A Night at the Museum Sleepover is one of them and would make a terrific Holiday Gift.

The American Museum of Natural History invites families to spend a night exploring the museum after everyone else has gone home and camp out in one of the exhibit halls. My daughter was lucky enough to be invited to do this with a friend who received the sleepover as a gift. What an amazing present! And they had such a great time.

Help Others By Helping Yourself to Some Free Knitting Lessons for Kids

Submitted by Anna Fader on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 7:09am

I recently wrote about how to find charity activities you can do with your kids. I like the fact that there are some organizations that make volunteering fun and feel not that different than any activity you might do with your children, but for a good cause. I just found out about one such event this weekend: A charity knit-off for teens and tweens.

Spectacular Holiday Giveaway Winners

Submitted by Anna Fader on Sun, 12/07/2008 - 11:54pm

Wow! This was a really fun and super popular giveaway event. We gave away over $2000 worth of prizes, my inbox is completely jammed with all of your entries and I've gotten lots of nice comments from your friends, who are happy to have learned about the site, so thank you for sharing it with them. And, welcome to our new readers.

But here's what you really want to know... Who won!

Last minute weekend activities: More school fairs and shopping events

Submitted by Anna Fader on Sat, 12/06/2008 - 4:15pm

I asked and you delivered. Here are three more school fairs with rummage sales and other inexpensive shopping opportunities going on this weekend, in addition to the ones we already have in our events calendar.

Also read below about another Brooklyn Holiday shopping event with free activities and discounts.

Some last minute events, I thought were to good to skip.

Spectacular Holiday Giveaway: Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular Tickets 2

Submitted by Anna Fader on Fri, 12/05/2008 - 10:45pm

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For some it's a traditional, for some it's a dream. Whether you've ever been to NYC's most famous Christmas show or not, you can win four free tickets to the show right here, today, on Mommy Poppins.

We're giving away a family pack of tickets to The Radio City Christmas Spectacular performance on Sunday, December 14 at 9am.

Check out our other giveaways for Big Apple Circus Tickets, Wintuk Tickets and New York Shop Holiday shopping event.

TO ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY: