Experience a Christmas like no other.

Enter today to win four tickets to A Magical Journey Thru Stages' production of Pippin, onstage at Stages (the Auditiorium's 3rd floor theater) December 13 at 7:30pm, December 14 at 2pm & 7:30pm, December 15 at 2pm. See instructions...

Help make the someone’s holiday a little sweeter. Please consider taking an Angel, with a present suggestion on the back and returning the gift donation back to us by December 19. Angel Tree donations will be provided to our Lewis Street Child Care Branch to support their families and those in their community in need.

Rochester, New York’s annual holiday festival bringing magic downtown for people of all ages. Roc Holiday Village 2019 will present 14 days of enchanting festivities on weekends from December 6 to December 31 including free visits with Santa, free ice skating, free crafts for kids, petting zoo, Nativity, a shopping village, food trucks, Santa’s workshop, free photos with Santa, shop hand-crafted goods, pop-up restaurants, free live music performances, and more!

Join us as we give back to our community. Pull an angel from our tree, and give a gift to a child in our community. Each angel will give you the child’s gender, age, clothing size, and some of their favorite things to help you in your search for the perfect gift.

Get into the holiday spirit of giving. Join Pirate Toy Fund founder Gary the Happy Pirate to mark the end of this year’s toy drive. The Pirate Toy Fund is the only non-profit organization in the country dedicated to distributing new toys all year long to children in need throughout the Greater Rochester region.

Join us for this special performance of Holiday Laser at a quiet time of day for families who prefer to enjoy the Planetarium as a lights-up, music-down, doors-open environment.

Rock n Roll is a high-energy and stimulating music and movement class for toddlers and their grown-up. This seven week program contains a variety of music and movement based activities with age-appropriate themes and musical selections. Children will experience the developmental benefits of music in a setting that makes it fun for them as well as for mom, dad or caregiver!

Rochester City Ballet brings its annual favorite “The Nutcracker” to Canandaigua Academy for special performances December 7-8, 2019. December 7 at noon & 4 p.m., Dec. 8 at 4 p.m.

Breakfast with Santa at the Zoo

Each year our craft fair, Crafts for a Cause, features 90+ vendors, each unique in their own way. All products sold at this event are handmade locally. This event is free and open to the community! Door prizes, raffles, and concessions are available throughout the day. Crafter’s booth fees benefit the YMCA’s Annual Campaign, which provides a Y experience to families who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford services such as summer camp, swimming lessons, preschool programs, and membership.

Visit Ganondagan’s 2019 Native American Winter Arts Festival to experience the wide array of Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) living culture, but with a new and unusual twist. In addition to Iroquois Social Dancers in regalia, storytelling, traditional foods, a silent auction, and a Native American holiday market, a new collaboration with Airigami—the artists who create large-scale installations entirely of balloons—provides a unique visual, educational, and participatory storytelling element.

November 2019–January 2020: 50 minutes / For all ages: The Planetarium's family holiday spectacular returns with an even more immersive experience via our new Digistar projection system! Favorite holiday songs play back-to-back, choreographed with dancing laser light among the stars of the Planetarium sky. Produced at the Strasenburgh Planetarium, it's a Rochester tradition for family, friends, and out-of-town visitors.

Grab your last minute holiday gifts from The Wearhouse! They will be set up in the Westside Family YMCA lobby! Enjoy a large selection of: Sterling Silver Jewelry Purses Scarves Wraps Hats Local Rochester Love and Skyline shirts and hoodies and more! 20% goes to support the Westside Family YMCA Annual Campaign for Financial Assistance.

Come enjoy the sounds of the Bright Light Youth Chinese Orchestra as they perform a free concert in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre on Thursday, December 12 at 1:30 pm. Members of the orchestra study traditional Chinese music at the high school connected to the China Conservatory in Beijing, and the group is regarded as one of the premier classical music ensembles in China.

IN THE HEIGHTS tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood – a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It’s a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you, and which ones you leave behind.

A Magical Journey Thru Stages presents Pippin (rated PG). The winner of four 2014 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival, this updated circus-inspired version of Pippin continues to captivate and appeal to the young at heart throughout the world. Heir to the Frankish throne, the young prince Pippin is in search of the secret to true happiness and fulfillment. He seeks it in the glories of the battlefield, the temptations of the flesh and the intrigues of political power (after disposing of his father, King Charlemagne the Great). In the end, though, Pippin finds that happiness lies not in extraordinary endeavors, but rather in the unextraordinary moments that happen every day. Performances are December 13 at 7:30pm, December 14 at 2pm and 7:30pm, and December 15 at 2pm.

We are so excited to be hosting a Bach to Rock Penfield Battle of the DJ's at the Bill Gray's Regional Iceplex during their Skate with Santa on Saturday, December 14th from 11am-3pm! Bach to Rock Penfield's student DJ's will battle it out, mashing, mixing and scratching to show the crowd what they've got! There will be a panel of judges reviewing the DJ's in each of our battle categories and awards will be presented at the end of the event. Don't miss out on this awesome family-friendly event!

Young singers in Hochstein’s choral program perform a free holiday concert. Hochstein Singers and Youth Singers - directed by Maryellen Giese - and the Hochstein Little Singers - directed by Grace Adams - will be featured in this free afternoon concert.

During this popular ice skating event, families will have an opportunity to hit the ice to holiday music and festive holiday decor. Santa Claus will be on the ice skating alongside all guests, providing all children an opportunity to give him their holiday wish list, and take photos with him (Santa loves selfies!).

Join the Northwest Family YMCA for a home style breakfast of unlimited pancakes, juice and more! We don’t just have food, there will be plenty of fun too. Enjoy our inflatable, a holiday craft, special children’s gift, reindeer games and an appearance by Santa himself. All proceeds benefit the Northwest Family YMCA Annual Campaign for Financial Asssitance.