The Long Island Children's Museum has posted its winter plans, and the synthetic ice is staying down for months. The Garden City museum's sock-skating rink, currently dressed up with skeletons for Halloween, converts to its winter form on November 7, and a traveling Curious George exhibit arrives on January 16 for a four-month stay.

Skeletons first, snowflakes next

Through November 1, the museum's indoor rink runs as Skeleton Sock Skating, a Halloween version of the exhibit where kids slide across a synthetic ice surface in their socks alongside a crew of skeleton figures. No skates are involved, which is the point: the special surface lets children glide and twirl in socks, indoors and warm.

On November 7 the rink reopens as Snowflake Sock Skating and keeps that form through January 3. Around the rink the museum builds Snowflake Village, where kids can serve pretend treats in a holiday shop, step inside a giant snowman, pour pretend hot cocoa, staff the rink's ticket booth or gather around a make-believe fire pit. The museum says the rink is open during regular hours and is free with admission.

Curious George arrives January 16

The bigger arrival comes after the holidays. Curious George: Let's Get Curious!, a hands-on exhibit built by the Minnesota Children's Museum around the storybook monkey, will be in residence from January 16 through May 16, 2027.

The exhibit puts early science, math and engineering concepts inside George's world. Children can build and move materials at a construction site, sort and weigh fruits and vegetables at a produce stand, experiment with ramps and force on a miniature golf course, explore wind power on a farm and climb aboard George's space rocket. The museum frames it as early STEM learning through play: counting, sorting, measuring, cause and effect, and the habit of finding things out by trying them.

Planning a visit

The Long Island Children's Museum is at 11 Davis Avenue in Garden City, on Museum Row near the Cradle of Aviation, and is closed Mondays. Nunley's Carousel, the restored 1912 carousel the museum operates next door, makes the usual companion stop. Hours, admission and tickets are at licm.org.

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