How to spend Christmas in NYC with kids

The Rockefeller Christmas Tree (NYC’s pride and joy) is a beaming and brilliant symbol of the holiday season. Tourists and native New Yorkers alike sure do love this towering tree.

The tree will be lit daily from 5am to midnight daily after a special light-up night ceremony on Wednesday, December 4. On Christmas Day, the tree is lit for 24 hours and on New Year’s Eve it is lit from 5am to 9pm.

More than 50,000 multi-colored LED lights wrap around the branches. It's topped with a three-dimensional Swarovski star that weighs 900 pounds and sparkles in 3 million crystals. Architect Daniel Libeskind designed the stunning star in 2018.

The Brooklyn neighborhood is home to the most over-the-top Christmas light decorations with life-sized Santas, sleighs, snowmen and some houses even bump Christmas carols from loudspeakers. Crowds of all ages flock to the Kings County neighborhood to wander down the multiple blocks and avenues. 

Most houses are decorated starting the weekend after Thanksgiving through early January. You can walk through on your own, but a tour might be a little easier. Bus tours are back from A Slice of Brooklyn, Dyker Heights Christmas Lights and many more. There's even a Spanish language tour—vamos!

Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s gorgeous, after-dark illuminated spectacular is back through January 5, 2025. Lightscape, an illuminated trail of art from local and international artists, features the iconic Winter Cathedral and a larger Fire Garden—all set to over a million lights, color and music. 

As always, a curated playlist of music brings the light art to life, and there will be food concessions along the trail that will still offer seasonal treats like hot cocoa, hot cider, as well as light bites, cookies and sweets.

In NYBG's wildly popular diorama, more than a dozen model railway trains traverse an incredibly detailed New York City scene, including such landmarks as the Empire State Building and Radio City Music Hall, made of natural materials such as leaves, twigs, bark and berries.

Each year, artist Laura Busse Dolan and her team at Applied Imagination work on the awe-inspiring structures using plant materials to build "botanical architecture." It's been a beloved tradition since 1992.

The destination is ideal for children. This year's holiday train show will take place from November 16 through January 20, 2025, starting at 10am until 6pm, at the Bronx destination.

The Winter Village at Bryant Park is back in all its holiday glory. On the grounds you can peruse more than 180 shopping and food kiosks—all at one of the best NYC parks. Expect loads of handmade, unique and New York City-specific gifts for your family and friends. Work up an appetite at the 17,000-square-foot ice-skating rink and then fill up at the rinkside pop-up restaurant called The Lodge for festive cocktails and hearty food beside the tree.

Festooned with more than 1,000 meticulously hand-folded paper ornaments, this year’s 13-foot-tall tree at the American Museum of Natural History is inspired by the theme "Jumping for Joy" in honor of our 2024 Leap Year. The tree features specially crafted origami creations inspired by the museum's hopping, pouncing, and leaping creatures.

Some of the pieces decorating the greenery include rabbits, kangaroos, grasshoppers, frogs, squirrels, and cicadas, along with those depicting iconic museum exhibits like the Blue Whale and Tyrannosaurus rex.

You can see the tree with museum admission starting on November 25, 2024. Find it in the Ellen V. Futter Gallery on the first floor. 

Before you even see these gingerbread creations, you’ll smell their sweet-spicy aromas wafting through the halls. Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off has taken over the Museum of the City of New York once again bringing holiday cheer with 20 stunningly beautiful gingerbread structures.

Each one emulates an iconic part of the city, from the Wonder Wheel to the Prospect Park Boathouse to a bodega (complete with a bodega cat, of course). Feast your eyes upon them this holiday season.

Christmas has come early to Broadway this year. Previous productions of the family-friendly comedic yuletide fable Elf The Musical, though pleasant enough, have seemed short on the very Christmas spirit—an ineffable sense of animating joy—that the musical is about. Its current revival, however, is another story entirely. This show is really elfin’ good. 

Broadway needs a little Christmas, right this very minute, and it’s a pleasure to take off for a while on Elf’s magic ride. 

The Bronx Zoo's sparkling seasonal outdoor celebration featuring animated lights and LED displays of animals from around the world is back.

Expect the zoo to dazzle with 400 wildlife lanterns representing 100 species spread across an expansive area of the zoo. This year, the display spreads across six different trails, focusing individually on wildlife from North America, Africa, Latin America, and more. 

The zoo is introducing an interactive lights section this year with bright stepping stones and sparkling lights. Also don't miss the park’s holiday train, new snacks like apple pie nachos and warm spiked apple cider, and ice carving demonstrations. 

Holiday Lights will run at the Bronx Zoo on select dates through January 5.

It's time to lace up your skates—the best ice skating rinks in NYC are waiting for you. As one of the most beloved cities to spend the holidays in, NYC has plenty of indoor and outdoor rinks where you can glide and practice your toe jumps. To help narrow down your options, we’ve ranked the top places to go, from the renowned Rink at Rockefeller Center to the iconic Wollman Rink in Central Park.

You’ll get a kick out of this holiday stalwart, which still features Santa, wooden soldiers and the dazzling Rockettes. In recent years, new music, more eye-catching costumes and advanced technology have been introduced to bring audience members closer to the performance.

In the signature kick line that finds its way into most of the big dance numbers, the Rockettes’ 36 pairs of legs rise and fall like the batting of an eyelash, their perfect unison a testament to the disciplined human form. This is precision dancing on a massive scale—a Busby Berkeley number come to glorious life—and it takes your breath away.

Within Grand Central Terminal, find the New York Transit Museum's 20th annual Holiday Train Show, an ode to all kinds of locomotives. You'll feel positively giant while wandering around the 34-foot-long display, festooned with miniature versions of city landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building. Watch as Lionel model trains depart from a miniature replica of Grand Central. Then they travel over the river (the East River, to be exact) and through the wood to reach their final destination, the North Pole.

The Holiday Train Show will be on view at Grand Central Terminal through February 2025. The free show is open Monday-Friday, 10am-7:30pm; Saturday-Sunday, 10am-6pm; and closed major holidays. Find it in the shuttle passage on 42nd Street and Park Avenue, adjacent to the Station Master’s Office.

George Balanchine's magical 1954 production, set to Tchaikovsky's timeless score, includes the full New York City Ballet company, two casts of School of American Ballet students, scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska and lighting by Mark Stanley, after Ronald Bates's original concept. 

The show is a magical occasion: Along with a one-ton Christmas tree that grows from 12 to 40 feet, there's a snowstorm of blizzard proportions and a Mother Ginger with a nine-foot-wide skirt. In the end, however, Balanchine's choreography is what holds it all together. It's enchanting, and it never grows old.

Jamaica, Queens' annual three-day celebration is back for its 10th year, running from December 6 through 8. Expect food vendors, an artisan holiday winter village, Christmas displays, the largest Christmas tree lighting in Queens (on Friday night) as well as Santa and toy giveaways (on Saturday), live musical and dance performances and much more. 

The Parade on Rockaway—the biggest parade in the whole borough—will take place on Sunday, stretching from 130th Street to 143rd Street on Rockaway Boulevard. 

Perhaps one of the most conveniently located holiday markets is the Grand Central Holiday Fair. Running now through December 24, Vanderbilt Hall, the destination will highlight the work of 36 local food and craft vendors and small businesses known for their quality craftsmanship and products made within the state of New York or the U.S.

Goods will range from home décor and jewelry to abstract art and perfumes. Look for a pop-up from Uncommon Goods as well as a bevy of Grand Central Terminal-branded gifts.

The Holiday Fair will operate seven days a week from 10am to 7pm Monday-Saturday; and 11am to 6pm on Sundays. The space will be closed for Thanksgiving. For more information regarding specific vendors and hours, click here.

Dances Patrelle offers its annual performance of Francis Patrelle's The Yorkville Nutcracker, set in 1895 New York and featuring adorable child dancers alongside the professionals. This year's edition stars New York City Ballet soloist Miriam Miller as the Sugar Plum Fairy, joined again by NYCB principal Jared Angle as her Cavalier.