25 Ways To Spend Your Days

We
have some exciting days ahead of us. You’ve been buzzing around
preparing for guests and tying the perfect bow. On top of everything else you have
planned with the fam, we’ve done our own holiday prep: 25 ways to spend the days between now and New Year’s. Enjoy! (And let us know what you choose, please!)  —

1. Pump a giant heart, get groovy in a laser
   dance room and play a foosball game complete with sleep-deprived players
   at the Children’s Museum
   of Manhattan’s new interactive exhibit, EatSleepPlay™.
   

2. Share a Sweet & Salty Pizza (decked out in
   potato chips and shredded coconut) at the new Dylan’s Candy Bar café, which boasts bright cupcake booths for
   cute-as-can-be snacktime.

3. The New York Botanical Garden’s annual Holiday Train Show is a wondrous trip through old New York with charming model trains and incredible wooden replicas of New York landmarks.  
   

4. Channel your inner Fozzie Bear and head to FAO
   Schwarz to design your very own Muppet Whatnot Puppet. Or make a beeline
   to the nearest AMC and catch those loveable guys (and gals) on the silver
   screen.  

5. Walk through a diorama of the Martian surface
   and explore a full-size recreation of a lunar habitat at the
   out-of-this-world exhibit, Beyond
   Planet Earth, at the American Museum of Natural History. (And while you’re there,
   spend a few minutes at the origami tree!) 

6. Share Chip Shop‘s ultimate fried food
   experience (from mac ‘n cheese to Snickers) with the kiddos in Park Slope.
   Still room for more? Head to Lulu’s for a toy of their choosing—or maybe
   even a trim. 

7. You might find yourself at MACY*s for a few
   reasons over the next couple days: last minute buys, a pic with Santa or
   to check out the Make A Wish Foundation windows. But we have another
   idea—on December 23 and 24, head to the MACY*s Puppet Theatre and catch a
   30-minute performance of Miracle on
   34^th Street, brought to you by the marionette magic of
   Puppetworks.

8. Visit the Children’s Museum of the Arts
   glorious new digs in Hudson Square. They’ll be running workshops like Clay
   Creatures, where kids can mold their own model of Jack Frost, all throughout
   the holiday break.

9. Take a winding stroll through Central Park without an end destination. With the weather
   on our side (for now, at least) and the leaves nicely tumbled from the branches—it’s
   the perfect mid-afternoon activity to reflect on the past year and prepare
   for a new one! 

10. Dress up the little ones in a
    sparkly-something and go see The
    Nutcracker. The American Ballet Theatre will be performing at the BAM
    Opera House while the New York City Ballet will be pirouetting their way around Lincoln Center.

11. Tour the expansive grounds (83 acres!) and
    second oldest music hall in New York City at Staten Island’s
    Snug Harbor—open every day over the next week, except Christmas and New Year’s, from dawn
    until dusk.

12. Be the ultimate tourist and catch a high-kick
    flying performance of The Rockettes Christmas
    Spectacular at Radio City—new costumes, new choreography! While you’re
    in the area, do a figure-eight at The Rink at Rockefeller Center or you can outsmart the crowds and color
    coordinate your next creation at the LEGO store.

13. More Gaga, please. Seems like we can’t live
    without her these days! To get your fix, stroll by the windows
    at Barney’s for her oddball (but strikingly beautiful) display. And don’t
    forget about the rest of the stores which currently rock everything from
    carousels to a jelly bean dress.

14. Speaking of carousels, take a $2 spin around
    the recently restored (and glass-enclosed) Jane’s Carousel in DUMBO. Keep
    the momentum going with some retro sweets from Dewey’s Candy—be sure to
    look up at the lollipop chandelier!

15. Avoid the big-name Christmas trees (and the
    crowds that come with them), by stopping at tiny Dante Park in front of Lincoln Center. There perches a 25-foot Norway Spruce with
    up-cycled candy wrapper ornaments, hailing all the way from India.  

16. Who can argue with a night on Broadway? Family
    favorites like Billy Elliot and The Addams Family will be closing
    within the next two weeks—so get tickets before they’re gone! Or if
    Off-Broadway is more your style, head to the Gazillion Bubble Show (where lasers
    and light effects abound), which has a 7pm performance on Christmas Day.

17. In case the weather catches a cold (get it?),
    perfect your granny bowl at any of these fine 10-pinned establishments:
    300 New
    York,
    Bowlmor (newly added mini-golf!), Lucky Strike or Sunset Park’s Melody Lanes.

18. It
    seems like there’s a Hanukkah concert for kids in every part of town this
    weekend—from The Museum At Eldridge StreetThe Jewish Museum—so come
    get your fill of latkes and celebrate the rest of Hanukkah in good company.
    to

19. If you’ve yet to see Santa (and can’t stay
    awake to see him snagging a few of your homemade shortbread)—we’ve always
    found the jolly man at ABC
    Carpet to do the trick in all the right ways.  

20. All next week, the Bronx Zoo will be a-buzz
    with winter wonders! Catch an ice sculpting demo, take a Hess Clydesdale
    carriage ride or glide down a 6-foot ice slide.

21. Join Ebenezer Scrooge and his three ghosts of
    Christmas past, present and future at Literally Alive’s version of A Christmas Carol at The Players
    Theatre. No Christmas Eve or
    Christmas performances. 

22. Get your cozy on by sipping a sweet, warm
    treat known as gianduja calda
    from Otto’s Pizzeria. This hazelnut hot chocolate is topped with cinnamon
    whipped cream!

23. Located right below the High Line, the
    Standard Hotel’s pop-up ice rink is sure to bring merriment to the most
    novice of skaters.

24. The Museum of the Moving Image will host a
    daily workshop, Magic and Movies, for creative tweens interested in
    animation and live-action. Afterwards, make a pit stop for pierogis.   

25. Our fine-freckled friend has triumphantly
    returned to the Manhattan
    Movement &
    Arts Center. The whole family will laugh at Freckleface
    Strawberry‘s loveable charm at she does anything (and everything) to remove her dots in this upbeat musical.
    

    The Big Bonus Tip: The contortionists, aerialists and gymnasts known as The Cirque Shanghai,
    the world’s premier company of Chinese acrobats, will be performing their mind-blowing, jaw-dropping daredevil stunts through the holidays at the New Victory.

    Photo Credit: Reza Nader