There’s never a dull moment in the greatest city on the planet. Enjoy NYC with FREE holiday light shows, FREE museum admission, virtual ballet, a week of Pavorotti operas online from the Met, and New Year’s Eve in Times Square, also virtual this year.
Add these virtual and in-person events to your calendar for this holiday week, Monday, Dec. 28 to Sunday, January 3, 2021
If you need a Covid-19 test, find one by zip code or address on the official NYC location finder site, or text “COVID TEST” to 855-48.
See more daily NYC events on our
Free & Cheap Events Calendar
photo courtesy Lincoln Center
Now Underway
The New York City Ballet production of Balanchine’s The Nutcracker is a beloved holiday tradition. Because Lincoln Center stages are closed this year, NYCB is live streaming its 2019 production.
Choose a date through Sunday, Jan. 3 to be enchanted by the Sugarplum Fairy, dancing candy canes, dancing flowers, and the memorable music.
More information here, including a brief video of the performance.
NYC Holiday Trees & Lights
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is now lighted 6am to Midnight daily through Sunday, Jan. 3.
This year seeing the tree is a ticketed event, with controlled access for social distancing. Tickets are FREE.
More information here.
Best FREE holiday light shows in NYC
Holiday light shows that are not free
Extended Hours at AMNH
This holiday season, the American Museum of Natural History will be open every day the full week of December 28.
Advance timed-entry ticket reservations are required and are available on amnh.org or through the Museum’s Explorer app.
Attendance is limited to 25 percent of normal visitation to allow ample room for physical distancing, providing a unique, intimate opportunity for visitors to reacquaint themselves with such beloved Museum icons like the giant blue whale model, the Titanosaur, and T. rex and other fossils.
Other attractions and exhibitions now open at the Museum include:
- The Origami Holiday Tree, a 13-foot holiday tree decorated with thousands of origami models in the Museum’s Grand Gallery. This year’s theme is Cranes and Colors, featuring 1,000 brilliantly colored origami cranes symbolizing peace and good wishes as New York continues to endure challenges posed by COVID-19 and drawing inspiration from The Nature of Color special exhibition.
- T. rex: The Ultimate Predator, a blockbuster exhibition about the world’s most iconic dinosaur, which opened in conjunction with the Museum’s 150th anniversary and features stunning life-sized models, fossils and casts, and a shadow theater re-creating an epic battle.
- The Nature of Color, an immersive exploration of the role and power of color in nature, in culture, and in ourselves
AMNH is open from 10 am to 5:30 pm. Facial coverings are required for all staff and visitors ages 2 and up.
FREE Museum Admission
The Jewish Museum has FREE admission through Dec. 31
Tickets are required for social distancing. Make reservations here.
FREE museum admission this weekend for Bank of America and Merrill Lynch customers
For Love and Only For Love: Letters to New York
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FREE Stock Market Investing Course
The Stock Market Game
If you don’t have experience investing in stocks, bonds and mutual funds, and would like to better understand how these instruments work, this is your chance.
Start the new year with this FREE investment course, offered by the NYPL Business Center begins Tuesday, January 19, 2021 at Noon.
This program requires a 10-week commitment. Participants are expected to attend all sessions. Space is limited to 25 participants. The deadline to register is December 28, 2020.
Register for a seat in the Stock Market Game. For 10-weeks you’ll play the role of a portfolio manager with a virtual $100,000 to invest.
Learn how to set an investment strategy, make adjustments and see in real-time how your portfolio is performing compared to the portfolios of other players. Learn how to use NYPL’s resources to manage your portfolio.
The Stock Market Game is a program of the SIFMA Foundation.
Ice Skating in NYC
FREE Ice Skating in Bryant Park
The annual Winter Village has returned for the season, with holiday shops and the magical ice skating rink, now open daily .
New this year is that reservations are required for skating sessions.
Ice Skating in Rockefeller Center
The iconic rink has opened for the season. Reservations are now required for skating sessions.
NYC Museums & Attractions Now Open Include:
- National September 11 Museum at the 9/11 Memorial
- New York Aquarium at Coney Island
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
- American Museum of Natural History
- The Guggenheim
- New York Historical Society
- The Rubin Museum of Art
- The Museum of Jewish Heritage
- Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum
- All museums and attractions have advance ticketing requirements for social distancing, and mask-wearing requirements.
- FREE admission to the Jewish Museum through Dec. 31.
- See the full list here.
See more daily NYC events- on our new
- Free & Cheap Events Calendar
Ongoing Events
Shakespeare in the Park – Much Ado About Nothing
For the first time in over more than four decades, PBS Great Performances presents a Public Theater production recorded live at the free Shakespeare in the Park in Central Park.
After a highly successful, critically acclaimed run at the outdoor Delacorte Theater in New York City’s Central Park, “Much Ado About Nothing” is a bold interpretation of Shakespeare’s comedic masterpiece featuring Danielle Brooks as Beatrice.
- Streaming now
- Link to watch
Central Park Virtual Walks
These FREE virtual walks with a Central Park expert showcase some of the flowers and trees currently in bloom, share Park history, and give you the mid-week recharge that we all so desperately need.
Sign up now to access the FREE live Zoom program and learn the history of this incredibly significant site.
Wednesday, 12:30p.
Carnegie Hall Fridays
Each week for the the forseable future, Carnegie Hall is streaming a concert from its archived recordings.
Watch each week’s livestream from Friday 3am through Monday at 3 AM
Metropolitan Opera Live Streams
Every night of the week, the world-famous Met Opera is streaming a different performance from its repetoire of recorded performances, including operas by Puccini, Verdi and Mozart, and legendary stars including Luciano Pavarotti and Renée Fleming.
Each day, a different encore presentation from the company’s Live in HD series is being made available for free streaming on the Met website, with each performance available for a period of 23 hours, from 7:30 p.m. EDT until 6:30 p.m. the following day.
The schedule will include outstanding complete performances from the past 14 years of cinema transmissions, starring all of opera’s greatest singers.The streams are also available through the Met Opera on Demand apps for Apple, Amazon, and Roku devices and Samsung Smart TV.
Week 42
Pavarotti Week
Monday, December 28
Puccini’s La Bohème
Starring Renata Scotto, Maralin Niska, Luciano Pavarotti, Ingvar Wixell, and Paul Plishka, conducted by James Levine. From March 15, 1977.
Tuesday, December 29
Puccini’s Tosca
Starring Shirley Verrett, Luciano Pavarotti, and Cornell MacNeil, conducted by James Conlon. From December 19, 1978.
Wednesday, December 30
Verdi’s Rigoletto
Starring Christiane Eda-Pierre, Isola Jones, Luciano Pavarotti, Louis Quilico, and Ara Berberian, conducted by James Levine. From December 15, 1981.
Thursday, December 31
Verdi’s Ernani
Starring Leona Mitchell, Luciano Pavarotti, Sherrill Milnes, and Ruggero Raimondi, conducted by James Levine. From December 17, 1983.
Friday, January 1
Verdi’s Il Trovatore
Starring Eva Marton, Dolora Zajick, Luciano Pavarotti, Sherrill Milnes, and Jeffrey Wells, conducted by James Levine. From October 15, 1988.
Saturday, January 2
Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera
Starring Aprile Millo, Harolyn Blackwell, Florence Quivar, Luciano Pavarotti, and Leo Nucci, conducted by James Levine. From January 26, 1991.
Sunday, January 3
Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore
Starring Kathleen Battle, Luciano Pavarotti, Juan Pons, and Enzo Dara, conducted by James Levine. From November 16, 1991.
Met Stars Live in Concert
If you enjoy the Nightly Opera Streams, be sure not to miss our acclaimed pay-per-view concert series, presenting opera’s greatest stars performing live via satellite from striking locations across Europe and the U.S.
Support the Met and Protect its Future
Hundreds of thousands of people have been tuning in daily to our free performance streams, and many of them have kindly been asking how they can help the Met during this economically perilous time. In response, we have added a “Donate Now” button below. We thank you for your help.
