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It's easier than you'd think to turn a simple paper lunch bag into a festive piñata!
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Trader Joe's how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: for being inexpensive, gourmet and friendly.
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Take a spin around the lazy river at Mandalay Bay.
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SingleCare offers major savings on more than 10,000 prescription drugs through its free app.
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These funny jokes for kids will have them laughing in no time!
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Things like having a children's museum with a view like this make it easy to leave your heart in San Francisco. Photo courtesy of the Bay Area Discovery Museum
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This Week: Best Things to Do Thanksgiving Weekend with NYC Kids, Where to See Santa, Cut Your Own Christmas Trees in LI and NJ

11/28/13 - By Raven Snook

There's a lot going on this holiday weekend in NYC beyond Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Our Thanksgiving and Holiday Guides are packed with plenty of ways to celebrate the season including the best places to see Santa like Macy's must-see Santaland; festive Christmas tree and menorah lightings such as the big Friday night shindig at the South Street Seaport and the kickoff weekend for the jaw-dropping Dyker Lights displays in Dyker Heights.

There's lots of holiday fun in New Jersey, Westchester, Long Island and Connecticut, too. You can cut your own Christmas trees on LI and in NJ, see amazing holiday displays in Hartford, CT and check out tips for having an eco-friendly holiday from our Boston site, some specific to the area but easily adapted for families everywhere. Our giveaway this week is also good for families everywhere: one-year subscriptions to the meal-planning service Relish. Since we're giving away 20 of them, your odds of winning are pretty good.

Here's what else we covered on the NYC site this week. We hope you and your family have a happy Thanksgiving, Hanukkah or whatever you're celebrating!

OUR LATEST VIDEOS

We kicked off the week with a sneak peek at the floats making their debut in this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

We started overhauling our Holiday Shopping Gift Guide for the season by publishing roundups of awesome seasonal deals like discounted tickets for the New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show, and online retailers who donate proceeds to charity.

Meanwhile, we added posts about NYC's best Christmas tree illuminations and places to see Santa to our Holiday Fun Guide.

Wondering what to do after your Thanksgiving feast? We've got the scoop on what's open on Thanksgiving in NYC, and if you're reading this on Friday, you may want to bookmark it for next year.

Our biweekly links roundup includes news about a 2-for-1 ticket deal to Newsies on Broadway, the death of Queens graffiti mecca 5 Pointz and a new early deadline for kindergarten applications.

Best bets for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend include Jim Henson's Dinosaur Train—Live, retro rides on the MTA Holiday Season Nostalgia Trains and a handful of Hanukkah fetes on Sunday.

About the Author

Raven is a writer, editor, performer and mom, who was born and bred in NYC, just like her husband, her mother and now, her daughter. As a writer, she's contributed articles to New York Magazine, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, the New York Post, TV Guide, Better Homes and Gardens, iVillage, AOL TV and Moviefone, Parents.com, and worked as an in-house editor for ParentsConnect.com and TimeOutKids.com. As a performer, she's appeared on many downtown stages (sometimes even for pay!), a couple of obscure films and TV shows, and The Maury Povich Show as a female drag queen. She's also the founder of Hot Mama Burlesque, the world's only all-moms burlesque show. After being the NYC editor from March 2011-March 2015, she is now happy to just be a blogger as she pursues additional writing opportunities.

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