Handmade Gifts
Children 2 and older looking to make their own gifts for Mom, Dad, Grandpa, or anyone else on their list will have a chance on Saturday when the Children’s Museum of the East End’s “master crafters” head up the Bridgehampton museum’s first D.I.Y. Holiday Gift Faire. There will be stations for making aromatherapy room spray, teabags, sachets, candleholders, granola, and sugar scrub. The cost is $25, $10 for museum members.
In case you missed it here last week, CMEE will have a Holiday Kids Club for ages 4 to 7 daily from 9:15 a.m. to noon during the school break, with the exception of Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day. Each day will bring a new theme and activity, from ceramics to latke making to quill-and-ink art to bread making. The cost is $65 per day, $50 for museum members.
Finally, New Year’s Eve may seem a long way off, but next Thursday is the time to make reservations for the museum’s daytime ball drops for families. They take place from 10 a.m. to noon or 1 to 3 p.m. and often sell out. The cost is $15 per person, but members get in free and can register before next Thursday.
Holiday Break Fun
With the prospect of two full weeks off for the holiday break, kids (and parents) will be relieved to know there are some fun options for active time out of the house.
Sportime in Amagansett is offering four half days of camp — on Friday, Dec. 27, Dec. 28, Dec. 30, and Dec. 31, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be games like soccer, gaga ball, dodgeball, and basketball as well as arts and crafts. The cost is $85 per day or $295 for all four, including lunch. Kids attending local schools will get a 25-percent discount. Registration is at 631-267-2267.
The Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter has a school break camp for ages 4 to 14 on weekdays, excluding the holidays, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for $36, or from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for $46. Advance registration is required.
East Hampton Indoor Tennis is also offering programs on weekdays over the break, excluding Christmas, for kids 7 and older. From 10:30 a.m. to noon, kids will be at the Clubhouse for bowling, arcade time, and lunch, and from noon to 2 p.m. they take part in tennis clinics. The cost is $100 per day for everything, or $70 for just the afternoon tennis. Registration is required.
“Perishable” Puppetry
The Goat on a Boat Puppet Theater will welcome “Itty Bitty the Marzipan Bunny” to Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor on Saturday at 11 a.m. Described as a “partially perishable puppet show,” it is best for kids 8 and older. Tickets cost $15 in advance at goatonaboat.org or $18 at the door.
Family Time at the Parrish
Family activities at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill this week and next include a seasonal craft box workshop tomorrow at 5 p.m. and a screening of the animated feature “Ernest and Celestine” on Friday, Dec. 27, at 6 p.m.
At tomorrow’s workshop, families will decorate a holiday cottage that doubles as a craft box. The cost, which includes materials and light refreshments, is $10, or $5 for museum members. Children get in free.
The film next week was directed by Benjamin Renner, Stephane Aubier, and Vincent Patar and is based on a classic Belgian book series about an unexpected friendship between a mouse and a bear. It has been nominated for an Academy Award for best animated feature. Admission is free, but reservations are required.
The Parrish has art workshops for kids 6 and older next Thursday and Friday, Dec. 27, from 1 to 3 p.m. The first is on winter landscape painting, the second on holiday still-life drawing. The cost is $40 each, $30 for members, and signing up ahead of time is required.
Get Outside
The South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton will have free programs for kids of all ages Monday, next Thursday, and Friday, Dec. 27, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Monday’s focus will be on winter birds of Vineyard Field behind the museum. A “listening walk” is on the schedule next Thursday, and winter plants of Vineyard Field will be the focus on the final day.
On Saturday, the museum’s Young Birders Club for ages 8 to 18 will meet up at 10 a.m.
“Nightmare” Escape Room
An escape room game for high school students in the spirit of Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” will happen on Saturday at 5 p.m. at the East Hampton Library. Pizza will be served.
For kids 4 and older, there’s a winter wonderland painting workshop planned for next Thursday at 2 p.m., and on Friday, Dec. 27, also at 2, there will be a chance to make and decorate a New Year’s musical shaker. A Jan Brett story time for ages 3 and up takes place today at 4 p.m.
High school students can decorate ugly sweater cookies next Thursday from 3 to 5 p.m. at the library. And this afternoon, they can join their friends in teams to vie for the prize in a gingerbread house competition from 3:30 to 5.
Nearby at the Amagansett Library, kids 3 to 6 have been invited to a winter story and craft time on Saturday at 11 a.m. Materials for ornaments will be on hand in the children’s room on Sunday, and kids can drop in to make some from 1:30 to 3:30. On Monday, kids 8 to 12 can decorate a gift box in a workshop at 2 p.m.
A self-hardening clay workshop for all ages with Joyce Raimondo, an artist and educator, will be offered at the Montauk Library on Saturday at 2 p.m. Next Thursday, kids 5 and up can stop by the library at 1 p.m. to make hot cocoa and stuffed pretzel bites. Registration is required.
Cake Pops and Duct Tape
The Hampton Library in Bridgehampton will break out the duct tape for a wearable-art workshop for ages 8 to 12 next Thursday at 4 p.m. A noisemaker and streamer launcher workshop for all ages is planned for Friday, Dec. 27, at 4 p.m. Tomorrow kids can trace themselves on paper and turn their likenesses into giant gingerbread people at 4 p.m. At 6:30 tomorrow evening, the library will show “The Nightmare Before Christmas” for grades six and up.
In Sag Harbor at the John Jermain Memorial Library, spots are still available in a snowman cake pop session with the Baking Coach tomorrow at 3 p.m. This one is for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade. Note that a gingerbread house workshop at the library on Saturday is all filled up. There is still space, however, in an Imagination Playground session that day at 10:30 a.m. in which children 2 to 5 will get to build with big blocks.
John Jermain will show “Home Alone” on Saturday at 2 p.m. Popcorn will be served, and kids have been invited to supply their own beverages.