Check it out!
All aboard!
Head to the New York Botanical Garden for its 27th-annual Holiday Train Show. Watching those miniature locomotives zip a half mile down tiny tracks past teensy replicas of the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central and more than 100 other NYC landmarks, re-created in bark, leaves and other natural materials, brings out the kid in us all. New this year: One World Trade Center and the Battery Maritime Building, complete with two vintage ferry boats. Through Jan. 21 (closed Mondays). Tickets from $23 for adults, $10 for kids. New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Blvd., The Bronx; NYBG.org
Post-turkey trot
Feeling stuffed? You’re not alone. Luckily, NYC’s Shorewalkers hosts its annual WOTT — that’s short for “Walk off the Turkey” — on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Perfect for rookies as well as seasoned walkers, the jaunt starts at 10 a.m. at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in the Battery, and will snake up the West Side of Manhattan all the way to the Little Red Lighthouse, under the George Washington Bridge. The 12-mile walk takes five to six hours. Bring water and lunch. Saturday at 10 a.m. $3 suggested donation for nonmembers. Meet at the South Ferry stop of the 1 train. Shorewalkers.org
Perfectly on pointe
From the Sugar Plum Fairy to its sprouting tree and gorgeous Tchaikovsky score, George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” is a holiday classic by which all other renditions are measured. No wonder the New York City Ballet’s annual production has become such a hot ticket, with its 90 dancers, 62 musicians and 125 children. Through Dec. 30. Tickets from $40. 20 Lincoln Center Plaza; NYCBallet.com
Visiting aliens
There’s nothing like a brush with extraterrestrial life to make you think about what it means to be human. That’s what made Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” from 1977, such a hit. Part of the ongoing Film Forum Jr. series, it’s approved for young critics and their parents, too. Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. $9. Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St.; FilmForum.org
Guthrie & guitar
It’s a Thanksgiving tradition that rivals a roast turkey on the table. We mean Arlo Guthrie’s annual Thanksgiving weekend concert at Carnegie Hall. He’s been doing it since 1969, and has said that next year, the 50th anniversary show, might be his last. Catch him while you can. Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets from $12.50. Carnegie Hall, Seventh Avenue at 57th Street; CarnegieHall.org
Kings for a day
The sixth-annual Brooklyn Holiday Bazaar promises “the best of Brooklyn under one roof” — in two Gowanus locations. Peruse locally made ceramics, jewelry and other crafts made for holiday gifting. Then refuel with tacos, ginger elixirs and artisan chocolate bars. Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free admission. 452 Union St. and 501 Union St., Gowanus; BrooklynHolidayBazaar.com