kid fun in STL over xmas

[coobabysmom]

Hello,

We will be in STL for Xmas and the week following visiting my mom who is a patient at Barnes Jewish Hospital. While I will be busy helping my parents, I am seeking suggestions for fun (and frugal) ideas for my very active 6 year old son and husband to do. The Zoo? YMCA family swim? Pump it up? Holiday festivals? Any hidden gems that only a native would know? Thanks so much.  

edited to add: We are staying near the hospital and will have a car.

Edited by coobabysmom - 12/15/11 at 7:47pm

[aelinn]

We love the zoo. The main areas are free... check out the penguins! I'm not sure how much the children's area costs without a membership, but it's pretty cool. There's an indoor area and a goat pen where the kids can walk around petting or brushing a bunch of goats. I've heard of a place called Our Lady of the Snows with a free holiday light display and petting zoo, and $5 camel rides. We also always have a good time at the playground at Faust Park. Oh, and our son loves trains, so we head to the transportation museum when we can.

[pbjmama]

The art museum and science center are also free for the main areas (pay extra to see special displays) and also both in forest park like the zoo - very close to big Barnes. For the first hour the zoo is open everything is free - children's area, carousel, can't remember the other one.

[RiverTam]

The Zoo is very good and it's free. Many exhibits are indoors, so while it's a bit chilly walking from building to building, it's not too bad. It's also usually not very crowded during the winter or on holidays. I think they have the Zoo Lights going on right now, too.

Grant's Farm is a large petting zoo

The Science Center is fun and free.

The Magic House is a really great children's museum. My 6 year old loves it.

City Museum isn't really a museum, it's more of an indoor playground in the old Brown Shoe Factory. It's very hard to explain, but it's awesome. Your husband would probably enjoy it a lot, too. One person I know from out of town described it as a permanent Burning Man installation. (I'd skip the World Aquarium in that building if I could, but my kid's insist. It's sort of sad.)

City Garden downtown is better in the summer because the kids can play in the fountains, but it's worth a walkaround, even in the winter. It's an outdoor sculpture park.

Skyzone in Chesterfield is an indoor trampoline park. It's exhausting.

My 5 year old loved going up in the Arch. You can ride a tiny little tram to the top and then get out to look out the windows.

If you like cave tours and hokey roadside attractions, Meramac Caverns is about an hour away. It's a gigantic cave that Jesse James and the James Gang used as a hideout.

If you need some babysitting, COCA is running  half day and full day camps. They are arts camps. My kids take classes there. It's tons of fun. http://www.cocastl.org/

The Center of Clayton has a sort of mini-indoor waterpark. It's run by the Clayton Park District. (Clayton is very close to BJC.) 

http://www.claytonmo.gov/Government/Departments/Parks_and_Recreation/Center_of_Clayton.htm

There is also an ice skating rink in Forest Park.

http://www.steinbergskatingrink.com/

If  it snows, people sled in Forest Park on Art Hill in front of the Art Musuem.

[coobabysmom]

St Louis Moms, you do not disappoint! Thank you all for the FAB suggestions. RiverTam: the links are really appreciated! I just read the posts to my son who said, "AWESOME" and was especially excited about the cave tours and trampoline park. It's going to be a tough trip, so it was so nice to get him excited about the adventure that awaits him in St. Louis. Thanks again!

[RiverTam]

I only included links for the stuff that might be hard to find. The  rest should be easy to Google. 

You're very welcome.