Family holiday traditions often seem to revolve around food: cooking special meals, baking holiday cookies and creating gingerbread houses. These family moments create those warm memories that children will look back on with nostalgia. But if your inner Martha is on vacation, consider taking your kids to a holiday cooking class instead.

Several kids' cooking clubs are offering holiday-themed classes in November and December, teaching staples like fresh cranberry sauce and gingerbread house construction. Classes for toddlers through tweens could whet your child's appetite for culinary greatness—or just a really good sugar cookie. Instruction doesn't come cheap: the classes range from $40 to $95 per child. Then again, every holiday host knows eager kitchen help is priceless.

I’ve always found the weekend before Thanksgiving to be exciting, since the whole family is starting to get in the holiday spirit and kids know vacations (and presents, of course) are coming. But before you start thinking about gifts or prepping food before the big cook-off, take some time to enjoy the pre-Rockefeller Tree-d city—it won’t look like this again until mid-January. This weekend there’s an incredible array of free and cheap art events, live music and food at El Museo del Barrio, a scarecrow making contest, circus fun, a gross (but awesome) icky festival and more.  

One of the things on our list of 100 things to do with your kids in NY before they grow up is to watch them inflate the giant balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. If you want to go this year, here's some tips for seeing the balloons, plus the best place to find a spot for the actual parade and news about the new parade route:

Dressing with style in one of the most fashionable cities in the world is a tough thing to do especially when you are a tween. I have allowed my daughter some freedom when it comes to clothing, letting her choose her clothes and then put them together into outfits good or bad. What we have discovered is that she consistently wants all new trendy clothing to impress her friends.

There is no need to spend a fortune on trendy items that are going to be ruined or out of style in less than a year. Kicks, rocker tees, patterned scarves, funky bags. All of these items are in high demand and easily found in multiple at many secondhand vintage stores. Tweens will also have a blast rooting through racks for that perfect t shirt so take some cash and go on a vintage shopping spree. Here are some tips on how and where to buy Vintage and Secondhand with your tween:

Wanda contacted me via twitter looking for recommendations of where to eat before going to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular with her family. Since I've been meaning to write about family friendly restaurants in Midtown for ages I figured I'd just answer her here.

For over a decade I worked right across the street from Rockefeller Center and, like anyone who works near there knows, the food choices can be down-right depressing. (Oh, wait, maybe that was just my job.) But there are some good choices if you know where to look for them, from special occasion restaurants to quick and inexpensive eats.

Here are my top picks for kid-friendly places to eat near Rockefeller Center:

Every once in a while I find something that I think is the absolute perfect holiday gift and want to give it to everyone on my list. This year my singular obsession is the new DVD created in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street.

The Nutcracker ballet, as beautiful as it is, can be a bit much for little kids to take in. To get them to experience the magic and wonder of this timeless classic, or for a different twist for the kid who's seen the Nutcracker a bunch of times, opt to attend a less traditional version of the show—there’s a whole bunch happening in the city. They are usually shorter, less expensive and more fun, but still have that Nutcracker charm that will keep adults wide-eyed, too.
 

There are many benefits to buying handmade goods this holiday season. It makes for more meaningful giving, it supports local craftsmen and is overall better for the environment. The accumulating effects of mass production are a major cause of global warming. If buying with a conscious is high on your list of things to do this holiday season, where do you find high quality handmade goods? The internet is crawling with items that claim to be unique and handmade but it is almost impossible to discern the junk from the gems. Here is the 411 on where to get unique handmade goods in NYC.

Since we've become parents we've grown used to the period between Thanksgiving and New Years being a big blur of activity. The Holidays are a wonderful time in New York City and we try to enjoy its magical moments, whether it's with out of town guests or just with our own children. One thing we know is that there's always too much to do.

We hope our Holiday Guide will help you a little bit by providing you with lots of information organized and in one place, whether it's how to get a Christmas tree or where to volunteer with your children, and lots and lots of fun Holiday activities which we'll keep posting as the information becomes available. One event we hope you'll make time for is our Holiday Toy Swap and Drive.

These weekend events post are so hard to write. Not because it's hard to find cool things to recommend, but because it's hard to pick which ones to include. We've some cool, free events for this weekend that we think should be on your radar, but if you're not checking the calendar for other events, you're really missing out. Below you'll find stuff like the Commemoration of the 233^rd Anniversary of the Battle of Fort Washington (which looks really cool!), a Lenape Indian Hike, a pop-up book celebration, free Sesame Street fun, a jamboree and more.