A few years ago I went w/my in-laws driving around some 'hood in Brooklyn looking at the crazy lights people put up. I felt more American somehow waiting on line to see the craziness of other people...However, I choose to be an equal opportunity hypocrite. Caroline Kennedy recently said on the Today Show that Christmas is a patriotic holiday. I won't get all political but are you f-ing kidding me!? Church and State anyone? ANYONE?
I remember going to see a 100 foot tall Christmas tree in FL when I used to visit my grandparents. There was a HUGE train set and all sort of other fun kids stuff. I just liked flying all the way there alone. That was when the airlines still gave kids wing pins.
THE LIST: I found this on a website with a name that HONESTLY doesn't have anything to do with me right now. MommyPoppins.com has round-ups of great things to do with kids (and adults) in NYC. You can find the complete list here.
Lincoln Center Holiday Tree Lighting
The Lincoln Center Christmas Tree Lighting event is a spectacle befitting the epicenter of performing arts with performances of The New York City Ballet’s The Nutcracker, excerpts from the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Hansel and Gretel and seasonal songs by folk/pop singer Dar Williams and the New Orleans Hot 8 Brass Band.
Of course, what your kids will really care about is that Mickey and Minnie Mouse will be there to help light the 50 foot tree Wedgewood decorated tree.
The tree lighting is just the beginning of this evening though. After the Lincoln Center Christmas Tree is lit, begins Winter’s Eve, the largest Winter Holiday festival in New York.
Winter’s Eve is a neighborhood celebration with free food, entertainment and family fun that begins at Lincoln Center, The Time Warner Center and stretches up Broadway into the Upper West Side. This event is huge with tons of great stuff including children’s musical performances, circus performers, ice sculptors, Santa Claus, story reading, and a scavenger hunt hosted by Watson Adventures Scavenger Hunts. [I think Watson Scavenger Hunts are the greatest, A and I did one once of the Brooklyn Museum]
Area restaurants will be offering tastings in front of the Time Warner Center either for free or just a few dollars and Starbucks will be giving away free peppermint hot chocolates and gingerbread lattes. Many of the shops will also be having special offers and Jacadi is doing a giveaway of a $250 shopping spree.
All of this starts at 5:30PM on Monday, November 26th at Lincoln Center and Winter’s Eve starts at 6PM.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Creche
I find the Met’s Christmas tree to be one of the most magical holiday sightings in New York. I don’t know if it is the sublime surroundings of the Museum or the hushed atmosphere or just the fact that I always seem to stumble on it and the sense of discovery of this wonderful tree is like stumbling upon a beautiful flower in the middle of a forest.
The tree is 20 feet high and placed in front of the 18th Century choir screen from the Spanish Cathedral of Valladolid. The tree is adorned with 18th Century Neapolitan cherubs and angels and at its base is an exquisite nativity scene.
There is a spectacular tree lighting ceremony every Friday and Saturday at 7PM starting Friday, November 23th.American Museum of Natural History Origami Holiday Tree
Okay, this one doesn’t actually include a tree lighting per se, but with 500 origami Fantastic Creatures both Mythic and Real, who needs lights? In the theme of the Mythic Creatures exhibit, the Holiday Tree will be ornamented with mythic creatures such as dragons, mermaids, unicorns, as well as real animals like narwhals and peacocks.
Members of Origami USA started in July to create all the animals for the tree and there will be members on hand to teach visitors of all ages origami when they come to see the tree. November 19 through January 1, 2008.
Grand Army Plazas Hanukkah Menorah Lighting
Christmas trees don’t get to have all the fun. Hanukkah is, after all the celebration of lights, and there will be two giant menorah lightings. Both take place in Grand Army Plaza (both the one in Manhattan and in Brooklyn, where the world’s largest Menorah stands).
Every night of Hanukkah, beginning December 6th, but on the first night there is usually a celebration with dancing. Grand Army Plaza Manhattan (59th Street and Fifth) and Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn.
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