(12/30-1/6) Each week, City Guide's Things To Do in NYC brings you the best in special NYC events, the newest exhibits, sightseeing activities, fun for kids, concerts, nightlife, and more. The holiday season is at full throttle in New York, with perennial favorites like The Nutcracker, the Rockettes, New Year's cruises, and much more.
THIS WEEK IN NEW YORK: THE BIG EVENT
There is no minute of the year quite as exciting as 11:59pm on December 31st in Times Square. The Times Square New Year's Eve Celebration and Ball Drop. This year's NYC entertainment lineup includes Demi Lovato, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift unveils a new video, Maluma, and more!
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(now-1/18/16) Get lost in a winter wonderland at The Holiday Train Show at New York Botanical Garden
(now-1/3) Final days! Perennial holiday favorite George Balanchine's The Nutcracker with the New York City Ballet returns, bringing holiday enchantment for all ages.
THIS WEEK IN NEW YORK: EXHIBITION OF THE WEEK
(ongoing) New York has had a fascination with the treasures of King Tut since archaeologist Howard Carter unearthed them nearly a century ago. Visitors to Premier Exhibitions 5th Avenue can walk in Carter’s footsteps in the remarkable recreation The Discovery of King Tut. Click here for a discount coupon.
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(now-Jan. 3) Final days! Hunger Games: The Exhibition at Discovery Times Square features hundreds of authentic costumes and props, high-tech and hands-on interactives and detailed set recreations. Here is a Discovery Times Square coupon!
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is in theaters now! The Force is strong in New York! Visit Star Wars and the Power of the Costume: The Exhibition, now at Discovery Times Square. The interactive exhibit features 70+ costumes, including seven from the new film!
(ongoing) Agitprop! at Brooklyn Museum connects contemporary art, social change, and historic moments in creative activism.
(now-2/21/16) Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of Style opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
(ongoing) Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008 opens at the Brooklyn Museum.
(ongoing) Celebrate New York's role in the tech revolution at Silicon City at the New-York Historical Society.
(ongoing) The Secret World Inside You provides an incredible tour of the trillions of micro-organisms living in and on the human body at the American Museum of Natural History.
(now-1/31/16) Ernest Hemingway: Between Two Wars, the first-ever full exhibit on the author's life and works, now at the Morgan Library & Museum.
(ongoing) Alberto Burri and the Trauma of Painting at The Guggenheim presents a major retrospective of the Italian artist known for his work with non-traditional materials such as burlap, wood, tar, and plastic.
(now-2/28/16) Flavor: Making It and Faking It at the brand-new Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) in Brooklyn.
(now-2/7/16) Emerging artist (and New Yorker) Rachel Rose at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
(now-2/21/16) Superheroes in Gotham at the New-York Historical Society explores the origins, influences, and culture of beloved NYC-based comic book phenomenons, dating back to the 1930s.
(ongoing) On The Line: Intrepid & The Vietnam War has opened at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. The Intrepid made three tours of duty in Vietnam between 1966-1969. Here's a coupon!
(ongoing) The Butterfly Conservatory is back at AMNH.
(ongoing) Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism presents vintage furnishings, housewares, and graphics to explore how Jewish émigré and American-born designers and architects helped spark America's embrace of midcentury modernism—forging a bold new direction in design and thought. The Museum of Jewish Heritage.
(ongoing) Saturday Night Live: The Exhibition is open at Premier Exhibitions 5th Avenue. Get your discount coupon here!
(ongoing) Pixar: The Design of Story is now open at the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
(now-1/10/16) Final weeks! Folk City: New York and the Folk Music Revival at the Museum of the City of New York explores Bob Dylan and the explosion of folk music, esp. in Greenwich Village.
(now-12/31) A campground becomes an adult playground in the multisensory Splendor in the Grass at the Museum of Sex. Take $3 off here!
THIS WEEK IN NEW YORK: COMEDY
(1/1-2) Pete Correale at Gotham Comedy Club
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(12/31) Lynne Koplitz takes over the stage at Gotham Comedy Club for two special New Year's Eve performances, at 8pm and 10:30pm.
(12/31) 30 Rock's Judah Friedlander will be helping Stand Up NY welcome 2016. Stand Up NY is offering admission for two guests FREE!
Enjoy an evening of great comedy on the Upper East Side at legendary venue Dangerfield's.
THIS WEEK IN NEW YORK: KIDS
(now-1/3/16) Final week! Pedal Punk at the New Victory Theater.
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(now-1/3) Final week! The Radio City Christmas Spectacular is back!
(now-1/16/16) The Holiday Train Show is open at the New York Botanical Garden.
(now-1/10/16) Big Apple Circus: The Grand Tour! at Lincoln Center in Damrosch Park.
(now through 1/3/16) Hunger Games: The Exhibition and Star Wars: The Power of the Costume are both open at Discovery Times Square!
(Permanent) Connected Worlds is now open at the New York Hall of Science.
THIS WEEK IN NEW YORK: SIGHTSEEING
(1/1) Embrace the new year in style, with a New Year's Day Cruise with Bateaux New York
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(now-12/31) Last chance! A Slice of Brooklyn’s Christmas Lights Tour runs every night in December (except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day). The 3 1/2-hour tour highlights the festive homes of Dyker Heights, the Italian-American section of Brooklyn made famous in the PBS documentary Dyker Lights and seen on TLC’s Crazy Christmas Lights. If you've never seen it, you won't want to miss it.
(now-12/31) Last chance! Enjoy a Holiday Lights Cruise with Spirit Cruises.
(1/1) A new year, a new you! Welcome the new year with a dip in the ocean with Coney Island's Polar Bear Club!
(now-1/3) Final days! See New York City as if it were your own private theater! Take THE RIDE: Holiday Edition! Here's a coupon!
(ongoing) The Rockefeller Center Ice Skating Rink is open!
Check out the new "tour about nothing" When Harry Met Seinfeld with On Location Tours.
The One World Observatory is now open. Click here for a free collectible pin!
Explore NYC's financial district with Wall Street Walks.
Check out the hottest spots to eat and drink in the Flatiron District and Williamsburg with Like a Local Tours.
Take a selfie with Taylor Swift, One Direction, Ed Sheeran, and countless other famous celebs at Madame Tussauds New York! Here's a coupon!
THIS WEEK IN NEW YORK: NIGHTLIFE & MUSIC
(12/31) Jimmy Buffett & Huey Lewis & the News ring in the new year together at Barclays Center
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(12/30) Michael Feinstein at Feinstein's/54 Below.
(12/30-1/2) Phish at Madison Square Garden
(12/31) Marin Mazzie & Annaleigh Ashford and the Whiskey Five ring in the new year at Feinstein's /54 Below
(12/31) New Year's Eve on the Zephyr with New York Water Taxi!
(12/31) An Evening with They Might Be Giants at Music Hall of Williamsburg
(12/31) Deer Tick at Brooklyn Bowl. Click here for more New Year's Eve ideas!
(1/2, 1/8) Bar Car Nights at New York Botanical Garden
SNEAK PEEK, NEXT WEEK IN NYC
(1/7) Jerry Seinfeld at Beacon Theatre
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(1/6) Dancing with the Stars Live! Dance All Night at Beacon Theatre
La Bohème at Metropolitan Opera
(1/7) Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden
(1/8-9) Madeleine Peyroux at City Winery
For more things to do in December, click here. Working on your holiday shopping? Check here for gifts for her, him, and NY-centric gift ideas.
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