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You are here: Home / Free and Cheap / 101 FREE & Cheap Things to Do This Week
← Good Riddance Day 2020 in Times Square
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101 FREE & Cheap Things to Do This Week

POSTED BY
Evelyn Kanter

things to do in new york city this weekThere’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.

free and cheap events in NYC

See more daily NYC events on our

Free &  Cheap Events Calendar


New York City Ballet livestreams The Nutcracker

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.

 

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree_nyconthecheapNYC 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

virtual field tripsExtended 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

 December 22 through January 10
12:00-4:00 PM

Join Make Music New York in a special program presented in partnership with the New York Botanical Garden: the World Premiere of Pete Wyer’s immersive choral installation “For Love and Only for Love: Letters to New York,” a musical response to the pandemic addressed to all New Yorkers.

Visitors are invited to explore the NYBG’s Native Plant Garden pathway, at their own pace and safely distanced, as the prerecorded music – performed by choirs of up to 72 voices projected over 24 independent speakers – inspires reflection on themes of love, gratitude, acceptance, and our connection with nature.
 
Access to the program is included with any NYBG timed-entry ticket, available at NYBG.

Use the promotional code NYBG20 for a 20% discount.

 

 
 

nyc on the cheap

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. 

 

nyc free ice skating

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.

More information here.

Ice Skating in Rockefeller Center

The iconic rink has opened for the season.   Reservations are now required for skating sessions.

More information here.

 

NYC Museum Mile festivalNYC 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.

  • dicount ticketsSee 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 guided tours

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.

free streaming concerts from carnegie hallCarnegie 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

Watch here on medici.tv

Every DaySummerStage Anywhere

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.

Buy Tickets

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.

Donate Now

Supplementary content—including synopses, articles, and more—is available here.

 

See more daily NYC events on our

Free &  Cheap Events Calendar

 

Virtual

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Posted by Evelyn Kanter on December 28, 2020 | Updated January 3, 2021 Filed Under: Arts & Culture · Central Park · Dance · Exploring NYC · Family Fun · Free and Cheap · Frugal Over Fifty · Jewish New York · Music · NYC Free · NYC Museums · NYC Parks · Virtual Events Tagged With: Bryant Park Winter Village· Carnegie Hall· Central Park· Jewish Museum· Metropolitan Opera· NYPL· NYU Brennan Law Center· Rockefeller Center· Temple Emanu-el Streicker Center

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Evelyn Kanter is a former consumer reporter for WABC-TV Eyewitness News and WCBS Radio Newsradio 88, the author of several NYC travel guidebooks and mobile apps, and zillions of newspaper and magazine articles, including for the NY Times, NY Post, NY Daily News and New York Magazine. Nobody  can match those NYC credentials.

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