Family Activities For Veterans Day

This Veterans Day, take the opportunity to delve into our local and national history with these family-friendly events and activities.

Veterans Day Parade
Tuesday, November 11
11:25am-3.30pm
5th Avenue, from 26th to 52nd Street
The United War Veterans Council invites you to the largest Veterans Day event in the nation. The parade is predicted to draw more than 600,000 parade spectators. This year’s theme is “Land of the Free/ Home of the Brave.”

Soldiers Through History Scavenger Hunt at the New-York Historical Society
Sunday, November 9 & Tuesday, November 11
11am-5pm
170 Central Park West
Come to the New-York Historical Society for a fun and educational scavenger hunt. Search the museum to find soldier-related objects, documents and paintings. It will be a great learning experience, and the kids will encounter artifacts like Civil War Muskets and the items a Civil War soldier would have carried.

Veterans Day at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan
Tuesday, November 11
212 West 83^rd Street
Visit CMOM for some kid-friendly Veterans Day activities. Create a pinwheel with words of gratitude for US troops to be displayed on CMOM’s installation of pinwheels, and check out a special Veterans Day story telling session.

Veterans Day at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
November 11
3.30pm
Pier 86, West 46th Street, 12th Avenue
Come honor American veterans at the Interpid Museum’s Veterans Day Ceremony at Pier 86. The tribute will include the presentation of the National Colors and the annual commemorative wreath laying in the Hudson River. In addition to the ceremony, there will also be a variety  of activities and tours available for families all day long. There will be free tour guide talks on  Tours range  from Veterans Spotlight Tour to Tour Guide Talks, where you can learn about WWII aircraft carriers and major events.

NYC War Memorials
Various locations
There are over 270 war memorials in New York City. If you’re spending family time at the park this Veterans Day, check out some of these local monuments and share some historical knowledge. The  iconic Maine Monument, marking Central Park’s Merchants’ Gate at Columbus Circle, commemorates the 260 American sailors who died in the USS Maine which exploded in the Havana, Cuba harbor in 1898. The bronze figure is created out of the guns from the Maine itself, and the names of those who had died on the Maine are inscribed on the pylon above the ocean. The Financial District’s Vietnam Veterans Plaza honors  250,000 New Yorkers who served in the United States armed forces from 1964 to 1975. The memorial features a “Walk of Honor” flanked by the names of New Yorkers who died fighting in Vietnam, a memorial wall and reflecting fountain. Click here for more on NYC memorials and their history from the Parks Department.