Meghan Rose
Before becoming a parent, Meghan Rose worked at pioneering internet companies like AOL, eToys.com, and eBay. After having twins, she shifted her focus to literacy, co-authoring Home is Where the Books Are (Choice Literacy, 2013) and launching LitforKids.com. Now based in Los Angeles, Meghan is all about finding fun things to do with kids. Please send her ALL your ideas and suggestions for national parenting and travel articles, or drop a note just say hi: meghan@mommypoppins.com
Latest posts by Meghan
While my family will happily bake and eat cookies any day of the year, we really ramp it up for our Christmas cookie baking. We have hosted an annual Christmas cookie party every year since the kids were born, and it’s a tradition they look forward to almost as much as opening their stockings. Because they love to be part of the cookie baking process, we have amassed a ton of Christmas cookie recipes. They range from super easy Christmas cookies the kids could help make and decorate when they were tiny, up to more sophisticated Christmas cookie recipes their tween tastebuds love. We’ve tested out dozens of Christmas cookie recipes over the years, and these are our top ten: including our favorite never-fail, best ever Christmas sugar cookie recipe.
We’ve got more kid-friendly holiday treats, like these yummy Hot Chocolate Bombs, in our Guide to Easy Recipes for Kids, plus loads more Christmas fun for the whole family in our Ultimate Guide to Holiday and Christmas Activities.
Dodger fans must have been very, very good this year, because Santa has a surprise: for the first time ever, there will be an ice skating rink for the public to skate on out in center field! The Los Angeles Dodgers are hosting a holiday festival with music and entertainment, the ice skating rink, holiday and Christmas light displays, holiday-themed snacks, photos with Santa (and the elves), and more. Read on for the scoop on this exciting new holiday festival in Los Angeles.
For more Christmas light displays, holiday festivals, ice skating rinks in Los Angeles, and more check out our complete Guide to Holiday and Christmas Activities in Los Angeles in 2021.
The holidays approach as visions of Christmas gifts, supply chain problems, Thanksgiving travel, early Hanukkah planning, and more all fight for real estate in the forefront of our minds this November. So the things we are loving this month are an interesting mix of new items we’re stocking up on for the holidays, new entertainment that will keep everyone from toddlers to Grandpa entranced at Thanksgiving gatherings, and a couple of products that just make life easier. Read on to find out what the Mommy Poppins editors are obsessed with this month.
Usually at Mommy Poppins we recommend things that get you out doing, experiencing, and exploring. But every month a few fantastic products, movies, books, and shows pop up—and we just want to share them with you all. From holiday products you need to order before they sell out to a Halloween special that looks like an instant classic to a little something that will keep your kids hydrated at school, these are the things our editors are loving this October. We hope you love them, too.
Summer Shakespeare is the norm and as summer passes into fall, much of our outdoor theater also fades away. However, that's not the case at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum in the Forest of Topanga (I know it’s a canyon, but it reminds me of the Forest of Arden!). Here Shakespearean actors tread the boards (and Shakespeare's fairies flit through the trees) into November. The annual production of A Midsummer Night's Dream is perfect for even young kids—there were kids as young as two in the audience when we saw it—running a tight 80 minutes, with plenty of singing, slapstick, and even animals. Read on to discover why everyone from tots to teens delights in this production filled with mistaken identities, naughty fairies, unrequited love, and an Amazon queen.
Kids' eyes shine with glee as they climb aboard the Grand Canyon Railway’s magical Polar Express Christmas train. This 1930s vintage train is a ringer for the one in the Chris Van Allsburg children’s book of the same name (yep, the one they turned into a classic holiday movie). Every year families can celebrate the Christmas season with a trip to the North Pole to visit Santa Claus, via the Grand Canyon. That makes two childhood “must-do” outings completed with one amazing holiday trip.
This train sells out fast every year—some families book a year in advance—so the sooner you can get tickets, the better!
As the national editor for Mommy Poppins, a lot of kids' stuff comes across my desk (well, kitchen table). I mean, a lot. And some of it is pretty ridiculous (like high heels for babies and diaper-changing gloves—really?). But one of the perks of the job is watching events and activities pile up in my inbox that I just can’t wait to do, see, and experience with my kids. Because that sense of discovery—of finding something that leads to new interests and passions for my kids—that’s what parenting is all about. And if I discover something that makes my life a little easier along the way...all the better!
Check out the stuff I’m super excited about in September 2021, and discover a few things that will make this month of back-to-school and pumpkin spice lattes even more fun for families.
It’s time to brush up your Shakespeare! Shakespeare is set free in Griffith Park this summer once again, as the Independent Shakespeare Company’s production of The Tempest is now playing. Think Shakespeare is too high falutin for your wee one? Fear not! ISCLA goes back to Shakespeare’s roots as entertainment for the common folk, which translates to lots of slapstick humor and music. While the show is still fabulous and free, many things have changed for this summer’s production. Read on for a quick overview of the show and what’s new (for brevity is the soul of wit).
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