East Village with Kids: Top 40 Things to Do for Families

Even though I was raised on the Upper West Side, I feel like I grew up in the East Village. From the day I first turned the Astor Place Cube back in the early '80s, I knew the neighborhood was my kind of place. I loved all the cool street art and performers, funky second-hand and punk-rock shops, old-world eateries, community gardens blooming with flowers and sculptures, and the fact that its scary reputation freaked out my uptight uptown parents.

Like much of New York City, the East Village has undergone a drastic transformation over the past few decades. Today the only thing scary about the area is the never-ending influx of chain stores and NYU students. But you can still find traces of the old neighborhood if you know where to look. Plus new businesses and amenities like the beautifully renovated Tompkins Square Park, and listservs like East Village Parents and Bowery Babes make the nabe decidedly more kid-friendly than it was back in the day.

Throughout September, we'll be highlighting everything the East Village has to offer families. For the purposes of our posts, our boundaries are Broadway to the East River between Houston and 14th Streets. We have lots of posts coming up about the best places to eat, shop and play in the area but we're kicking off our coverage with the top 40 things to do in the East Village with kids.

1. Gawk at glitter platforms, spiked jackets and backpacks, and frequent famous shoppers at two-floor punk mecca Trash and Vaudeville—there is a small selection of baby and toddler clothes and shoes, but tweens can usually fit into anything that comes in an adult extra small
2. Sadly this store closed in August 2014 Buy your kids' first pair of silver skull earrings at family-owned and operated jewelry store C'est Manifique—they do repairs, too
3. Peruse a mind-blogging array of pop-culture playthings at Toy Tokyo
4. Romp in two playgrounds, picnic on the grassy lawn and hit the kiddie pool at Tompkins Square Park
5. Celebrate the creative history of the neighborhood with art projects and performances at the Great Howl! Out Loud Kids' Carnival in Tompkins Square Park every spring
6. Gather your friends and try to spin the Astor Place Cube, a.k.a. Tony Rosenthal's Alamo sculpture, which has been turning since 1967
7. Check out handmade educational toys, adorable little kid clothes and other analog wonders at the carefully curated Dinosaur Hill
8. Turn your kids' outgrown clothes into cash or new outfits at beloved neighborhood consignment shop Jane's Exchange
9. Check out a wide variety of enriching kids' programs at the 14th Street Y, including a drop-in play space for tots that's open to nonmembers
10. Catch a kid-friendly FringeJr show, the family theater arm of the grown-up New York International Fringe Festival every August
11. Browse high-end designer kids' clothes and shoes at the well-stocked Ibiza Kids
12. Find funny T-shirts and gifts at novelty shop Alphabets
13. Sift through unique gifts and home items, small pieces of art, trinkets and baby clothes at Pink Olive
14. Attend a traditional Japanese tea ceremony or just try some sushi at one of the many Japanese restaurants that make up East 9th Street's Little Tokyo
15. Celebrate the Hispanic festival of Day of the Dead with Mano a Mano's big multiday bash at St. Mark's Church in early November
16. Learn how to craft your own impressive puppet from the pros at Puppet Kitchen
17. Going stir crazy with your baby? Catch a grown-up movie with your infant in tow at Landmark Sunshine Cinema's Rattle & Reel screenings aimed at parents and tots
18. Indulge in cannoli, pignoli cookies and other Italian sweets at a pair of old-school pastry shops: Veniero's Pasticceria and Caffe (opened in 1894) and De Robertis Caffe (opened in 1904) Sadly De Robertis closed in December 2014
19. Go on a carb binge with pierogi, potato pancakes and other Ukrainian staples at Veselka—kids love the funky murals and the waiters will give you Wikki Sticks if you ask
20. Get kid-friendly Indian faves like samosas and mango lassi at one of the restaurants festooned with Christmas lights year-round on East 6th Street's Indian Row
21. Introduce the brood to avant-garde theater at the La MaMa Kids series on select Saturday mornings, which includes live performances and interactive family workshops
22. Or catch an offbeat Off-Broadway show like wordless performance art masterpiece Blue Man Group and cacophonous dance-theater spectacle Stomp
23. See a live alfresco performance or just hang out in the lovely 6th & B Garden
24. Keep your eyes peeled for cool murals, graffiti and other street art—we're particularly fond of the nature mural on 5th Street and First Avenue, the Joe Strummer from The Clash mural on 7th Street and Avenue A, anything by Chico and the awesome mosaics by Jim Power on St. Mark's lampposts
25. Visit the turtle or marvel at the waterfall in the 6BC Garden
26. Bite into a knish that would make your bubbe kvell at the century-old Yonah Schimmel
27. Or walk a few blocks east to grab a pastrami on rye at Katz's Delicatessen, the comfort food spot that was immortalized in When Harry Met Sally
28. Meet the residents of cat sanctuary/adoption center Ollie's Place—the volunteers are super-friendly and encourage kids to play with the felines (and hopefully take one home, too)
29. Get your geek on at St. Mark's Comics and Forbidden Planet, which both overflow with graphic novels, action figures and other nerdy wares
30. Go for the sampler platter at the East Village location of S'MAC , a sliver of a restaurant with an all mac-and-cheese menu
31. Find goofy get-ups year-round at New York Costumes Halloween Adventure, which has two floors of outfits and accessories and a nice kids' selection
32. Give in to your chocolate cravings at Max Brenner where the "secret chocolate menu" includes chocolate pizza and a chocolate syringe
33. Play a game of pool during the day at Amsterdam Billiards, which offers small cues for little hands
34. Browse brainy high- (robots, Arduino) and low-tech (puzzles, models) toys or play a free game of Space Invaders at the recently opened Tinkersphere
35. Step back in time at the Merchant's House Museum, a mid-19th-century family home that is intact inside and out, there are even original furnishings
36. See how the other half died at a pair of historic East Village cemeteries: the New York City Marble Cemetery on East 2nd Street and the similarly named New York Marble Cemetery on the Bowery, which offers monthly tours April through October
37. Catch eclectic family shows at the Theater for the New City—while most offerings are aimed at adults, the theater hosts annual kid-friendly performances by the Bread & Puppet Theater and the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, and produces all ages street theater and the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts Street Festival the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend
38. Grab a homemade scoop at the soon-to-open Davey's Ice Cream parlor
39. Get the exact amount of pizza you want at Pie by the Pound, which looks like an Apple store and has board games to play while you wait
40. Unfortunately this restaurants has closed Chow down on simple fare like salads and sandwiches in the delightfully kitschy Yaffa Cafe—there's a much less garish back garden, but my daughter and I prefer the drag queen decor