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

Holiday Links, Big Sale News, and How You Can Help Fund a NYC Public School Library (maybe yours)

Submitted by Anna Fader on Fri, 12/25/2009 - 10:31pm

It's Christmas. I hope you are having a wonderful day with your family and this little Christmas post will share a little bit of seasonal joy with you. I have some fun (if belated) holiday links to share, plus Swapna sent in a great tip about a huge sale at the Disney Store.

I also want to thank VTech Toys for working with me to provide some of their great toys to the children of Nazareth Houses. I'm sure that made their Christmas mornings to get such awesome gifts. And I have some news about how you can help raise money for a NYC public school library. It could even be yours.

Hip Hop Dance Classes for NYC Boys and Girls

Submitted by Anna Fader on Thu, 12/24/2009 - 10:55pm

Hip Hop dancing can be a great physical outlet for kids who might not otherwise be into sports and it is growing in popularity with children of all ages. If your child might be interested in trying out a Hip Hop dance class, here are some of the Hip Hop dance classes for kids around NYC.

Home Made Coloring Books and Recycled Crayons

Submitted by Anna Fader on Wed, 12/23/2009 - 12:19pm

Every year I try to come up with some crazy home made Holiday gift to give friends and relatives. Generally they involve figuring out a creative way to repackage pictures of our family in the form of a (very hypothetically) useful item. I've done calendars, lunch boxes, and home made photo printed cookies in recent years. This year I decided to do coloring books.

New Skating Rink in Battery Park City: We're giving away lessons and party packages

Submitted by Anna Fader on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 9:47pm

There's a brand new ice skating rink in Manhattan this winter. Battery Park City on Ice is located directly across West St from Whole Foods on the Northern edge of Battery Park City West St and Warren to be exact). We stopped by for an afternoon of skating last Monday to check it out.

Read on to learn more about this new skating rink and how you could win skating lessons or a birthday party.

Guide to The Best Holiday Gift Guides for Children's Presents

Submitted by Anna Fader on Sat, 12/19/2009 - 10:14pm

I love gift guides [Swoon]. Everything in gift guides seems so beautiful and cool. Why buy an ordinary present for the kids in your life when you can buy the much cooler and prettier presents selected by the experts of the interwebs. I scoured the web and have rounded up not just the best holiday gift guides for your green-eyed browsing pleasure, but have picked out some of the best items from their guides in case you can't deal with all that present-y goodness. You will be stumped for presents no longer with these fabulous holiday gift guides. PS. Most of them have sections for gifts for other people besides kids too.

Big Holiday Giveaway: Win Free Tickets to Wintuk!

Submitted by Anna Fader on Fri, 12/11/2009 - 5:15pm

Robert Y. won the tickets to the They Might Be Giants Concert, but you still have the rest of today (Friday) to enter to win tickets to Sesame Street Live, The Flaming Idiots and Dear Edwina. But before you click over to enter those giveaways read on to find out how you could win one of two family four-packs to see Wintuk, the fabulous Cirque de Soleil Holiday show at Madison Square Garden.

Thank you to all who made our Toy Swap and Drive such a success

Submitted by Anna Fader on Wed, 12/09/2009 - 11:03pm

Picture 56.png Last weekend we had our toy swap. Thank you to all who came with your used toys and your new gifts. We had a great turn-out, had a great time and we were able to donate tons of new and used toys to Seneca Houses where the children from 96 homeless families will be getting gifts from Santa Claus at a holiday party thanks to our donations. I know that the generosity of our readers will make a huge difference for those children who have so little this holiday season.

Big Holiday Ticket Giveaway: Chestnuts Roasting on The Flaming Idiots

Submitted by Anna Fader on Wed, 12/09/2009 - 8:53pm

There's two more days to enter to win tickets to Sesame Street Live or Dear Edwina. And on Friday we're finishing up our week of giveaways with a huge Wintuk giveaway. But today we've got another great giveaway for you. 4 tickets to see the hilarious Chestnuts Roasting on the Flaming Idiots at the New Victory Theater. Read on for our review of the show and to find out how you can enter.