Spare Times for Children for Dec. 20-26

Ebenezer Scrooge may be one of English literature’s all-time monsters, but he doesn’t have to be played like one. Damen Scranton’s Scrooge in Blessed Unrest theater company’s “A Christmas Carol” is almost mild-mannered, communicating his ill will with quiet sarcasm, a curling lip and dismissive sneers. He seems more driven and distracted than monumentally evil.

Jacob Marley surprises, too. Portrayed by Joshua Wynter in a white coat, a top hat and stilts (Summer Lee Jack designed the costumes), he looms over the proceedings like a genially disapproving M.C., addressing his former partner affectionately as “Eb.” Instead of dragging chains, he shoulders a chest of his own money, cursing heartily as he climbs Scrooge’s stairs. (Parents needn’t worry about obscenities, but there are many “goddammits.”) The joke on men like him, Marley explains, is not that you can’t take it with you, but that you must: Fail to share your wealth, and you’ll carry it around forever.

Even with these light touches, some onstage acrobatics and a hilarious dance done to Lady Gaga’s “Applause” (at Fezziwig’s ball, of course), this inspired, inventive staging is still more somber than most. Matt Opatrny, Blessed Unrest’s founding managing director, has said he wished to return to Dickens’s original intent — to criticize economic injustices — and his adaptation includes references to overburdened clinics and scarce social resources that resonate as much today as they might have in 1840s England.

Mr. Opatrny has also expanded Scrooge’s family history, giving him a spendthrift father who went to debtors’ prison, and focusing more on Fan, Scrooge’s sister (Jessi Blue Gormezano, who also plays Fred and Tiny Tim), whose early death Dickens mentions only in passing. Here, Fan has succumbed to a curable illness, and the question, answered only near the end, is whether Scrooge knew how sick she was and could have helped her.

Directed and choreographed by Jessica Burr, with a talented ensemble cast — including Nathan Richard Wagner, Tatyana Kot and Sora Baek, with Mr. Scranton — this 95-minute “Christmas Carol” should intrigue children who are at least 9 or 10. Acknowledging that regret usually accompanies late-in-life redemption, it doesn’t offer the final unalloyed joy of most adaptations. Atonement progresses slowly. The redeemed Scrooge can do, but he can’t undo.

(Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m., Interart Theater, 500 West 52nd Street, Clinton, 646-238-0829, blessedunrest.org; $18.) LAUREL GRAEBER

‘Aladdin & the Wonderful Lamp’ (Saturday and Sunday) Now this tale from “The Arabian Nights” is a daytime adventure. Nicolas Coppola, the artistic director of Puppetworks, has adapted the story for marionettes, setting it to Khachaturian’s “Gayane” ballet music. The show, for ages 3 and older, also features a vanishing castle and, of course, a magic carpet. And the genie? He’s not a puppet. At 12:30 and 2:30 p.m., Puppetworks, 338 Sixth Avenue, at Fourth Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 965-3391, puppetworks.org; $9; $8 for children; reservations are recommended.

‘The Amazing Max and the Box of Interesting Things’ (through Jan. 5) Max Darwin, a k a the Amazing Max, may come across like the M.C. at a raucous bar mitzvah party, but he does know his craft. In this hourlong magic performance, back for a six-week run, he performs feats like mind reading, making objects disappear and then reappear in unexpected places, and sending coins raining from various parts of the body. The show includes lots of audience participation. Saturday at 11 a.m.; Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at 1 p.m., Thursday at 1 and 3 p.m.; Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, 248 West 60th Street, (212) 352-3101, theamazingmax.com; $34.50 to $49.50; premium seats, at $59.50, include 25-minute preshow access to the Magic Lounge, where children will have a magic lesson and receive a magic trick to take home.

‘Angelina Ballerina: The Very Merry Holiday Musical’ (Saturday through Thursday) Very merry and very mousey: you can count on that. Susan DiLallo and Ben Morss, who created “Angelina Ballerina the Musical,” also wrote this show about the tiny rodent heroine in toeshoes. Directed toward ages 3 to 12 and based on the children’s book characters created by Katharine Holabird, this Vital Theater Company production, back for the holiday season, centers on a pageant the mice are putting on — until a mix-up interferes with the plans. (Through Jan. 5.) At 3:30 p.m., McGinn/Cazale Theater, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street, fourth floor, (212) 579-0528, vitaltheatre.org; $39.50; $59.50 for premium seats.

‘Archaeology Zone: Discovering Treasures From Playgrounds to Palaces’ (Friday, Sunday through Tuesday, and Thursday) Children will step into the shoes of an explorer like Indiana Jones in this permanent exhibition at the Jewish Museum, but the adventures will be purely scholarly. Still, there is plenty of excitement in analyzing artifacts like a jar handle, a clay jug and a bangle and figuring out the purpose behind ancient pieces like a Greek helmet and a bull-shaped vessel. This interactive show, for ages 3 to 10, also includes a recreated room from the Ottoman period (about 1900), where young archaeologists can dress in costume. From 11 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.; until 4 p.m. on Fridays and until 8 p.m. on Thursdays; 1109 Fifth Avenue, at 92nd Street, (212) 423-3200, thejewishmuseum.org. Free with admission: $15; $12 for 65+; $7.50 for students; free for under 18 and members; pay what you wish on Thursdays from 5 to 8 p.m.

Atlantic Avenue Children’s Story Reading Series (Saturday) Holiday shopping can be costly, but the entertainment is free in this new program of readings for children ages 3 through 5, to take place in stores along or near Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. The presenters are winners in the Atlantic Avenue Children’s Literature Contest, who will be reading from both their own works and their favorite picture books. Preschool fans will receive bookmarks and can vote for a Kids Choice Award among the authors. At 10 a.m., Graham Willner will read “Flight” at the Herb Shoppe, 394 Atlantic Avenue; at 11 a.m., Barbara DiLorenzo will offer “Atlantic Avenue Dragon” (the contest’s grand prize winning entry) at Table 87 Coal Oven Pizza, 187 Atlantic Avenue; and at 12:30 p.m., Kristabelle Munson will present “Miles and the Garden” at Gumbo Brooklyn, 493 Atlantic Avenue. Information: (718) 734-4219, atlanticavebid.org.

‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ (Friday through Sunday) Linus, Lucy and the rest of the “Peanuts” gang have returned to the Brooklyn Lyceum for what has become an annual tradition: the Pig Brooch Theater’s staging of the musical “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” The company’s production of this tale, in which Charlie learns the real meaning of the holidays, includes a jazz trio playing Vince Guaraldi’s score. Friday at 7 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday at 1, 4 and 7 p.m.; 227 Fourth Avenue, at Union Street, Park Slope, brooklynlyceum.wazala.com; $10; $35 for four.

Family Friday Pizza & Movie Night (Friday) A free movie and free pizza? That’s the unbeatable combination that Trinity Church offers in this monthly series, open to all. This week’s timely pick is Frank Capra’s 1946 classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” starring James Stewart as a disenchanted man who receives a second chance from a special visitor on Christmas Eve. At 6 p.m., Charlotte’s Place, 107 Greenwich Street, between Carlisle and Rector Streets, Lower Manhattan, (212) 602-0800, trinitywallstreet.org/node/2583.

‘Fancy Nancy the Musical’ (Saturday through Thursday) One of the arts’ youngest divas is back onstage at the McGinn/Cazale Theater. This musical from Vital Theater Company focuses on a little girl who wants everything to be fancy — especially herself. Based on the book series written by Jane O’Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser, the production explores the predicament that ensues when Nancy finds out that she hasn’t been cast as the glamorous mermaid she’d hoped to be in the coming dance show. With a book by Susan DiLallo, a score by Danny Abosch, and lyrics by both, the musical humorously follows Nancy’s attempts to cope with a most unfancy role: that of a tree. (Through Jan. 26.) Saturday through Monday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday at 11 a.m., Thursday at 1 p.m.; 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street, fourth floor; (212) 579-0528, vitaltheatre.org; $39.50; $59.50 for premium seats; $20 for unreserved tickets purchased at the theater 20 minutes before showtime.

Film Forum Jr.: ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ (Sunday) Film Forum, the downtown cinema, is now the proud parent of Film Forum Jr., a series introducing classic movies to children. This week it shows “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944), starring Judy Garland as a young girl smitten with the boy next door. Her life becomes complicated when her father seems ready to take a job in New York, which would take her away from her beloved and the 1903 World’s Fair. At 11 a.m., 209 West Houston Street, west of Avenue of the Americas, South Village, (212) 727-8110, filmforum.org; $7.

‘The Gazillion Bubble Show: The Next Generation’ (Friday through Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) Children love bubbles, and this interactive show promises not just a gazillion but also some of the largest ever blown, along with light effects and lasers. The stars are the members of the Yang family: Fan and Ana Yang and their son Deni and others, who rotate as M.C.’s for the production. Audience members may even find themselves in bubbles of their own. (The run is open-ended.) Friday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Monday and Thursday at 2 and 4:30 p.m., with an extra show on Saturday at 11 a.m.; Sunday at noon and 3 p.m.; New World Stages, 340 West 50th Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200, gazillionbubbleshow.com; $55 to $75; lap seats for ages 2 and under are $20, cash only, at the box office.

‘Gingerbread Lane’ (Friday through Tuesday and Thursday) This is a much better deal than Hansel and Gretel had: There’s no nibbling, but there’s also no witch. But what you will find is a 300-square-foot village made entirely of gingerbread, which the chef Jon Lovitch creates each year. In some ways a sweeter version of New York, this display at the New York Hall of Science includes Peppermint Central Park and an underground candy subway station, as well as 152 gingerbread houses. Related activities will include a gingerbread workshop on Dec. 28. (Through Jan. 12.) Hours: daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; 47-01 111th Street, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, (718) 699-0005, nysci.org. Free with admission: $11; $8 for students and ages 2 through 17 and 62+; free for members.

‘The Greatest Pirate Story (N)ever Told!’ (Saturday, Monday and Thursday) It’s supposed to be the greatest because the authors include young audience members. Created by Christopher Leidenfrost, this musical concerns a hapless crew of shipmates, led by Capt. Henry Martin, whom a sea witch sends to the future to stage a great pirate spectacle. But when their script fails to survive the trip, the seafarers have to improvise — and look to the crowd. (The run is open-ended.) Saturday, Monday and Thursday at 11 a.m.; Snapple Theater Center, 210 West 50th Street, Manhattan, (212) 921-7862, greatestpiratestory.com; $39 to $59. (The $39 tickets are available only by calling or visiting the box office; there is a $17 discount on premium seats purchased through the box office by using the code “Pirate.”)

‘The Grinch’s Holiday Workshop’ (Friday through Tuesday and Thursday) You have to cherish the holidays, especially when someone is lurking who wants to take them away. This exhibition at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, based on the Dr. Seuss book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!,” recreates the Seussian town of Who-ville and the characters who teach the Grinch that the holiday spirit is about more than gifts. New to the show this year is an indoor rink with artificial ice, where children can “skate” comfortably in their socks. Throughout the run, the exhibition will offer special activities at different times, including making Who-ville cards and flip books; playing Who-ville Mad Libs; and, of course, meeting the Grinch. (Through Dec. 31.) Daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; to 7 p.m. on Saturdays; Tisch Building, 212 West 83rd Street, (212) 721-1223, cmom.org. Free with admission: $11; $7 for 65+; free for under 1 and members.

Gustafer Yellowgold (Sunday) The friendliest of space aliens is back in town. Hailing from the sun and looking like an animated drop of butter, Gustafer Yellowgold is the creation of the illustrator and award-winning composer Morgan Taylor, who has returned for another multimedia show — incorporating hand-drawn images and music — about his hero. This one, which was rescheduled after last week’s snowstorm, includes the full Gustafer Yellowgold band and will feature songs from all five of Mr. Taylor’s Gustafer DVD/CD sets. At 2 p.m., Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue, at 92nd Street, (212) 423-3337, thejewishmuseum.org/familyconcerts; $18; $13 for children; $15 and $11 for those with family-level memberships.