free things to do in New York City
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Free Events, Free Things to Do in New York City! Read More
Where else but in New York City can you listen to a world-class musician, discuss a book with a famous author, take a part in poetry reading, have a glass of wine at an art exhibition opening, and all that on the same day, and all that free of charge, and all of that on any day of the year, whether it's December or July, April or November!
The trick is to know about those free events, free things to do BEFORE they happen, not after the fact. That's where Club Free Time comes in handy! Become a Club Free Time member and start using these unique New York City (NYC) opportunities today, December 8, 2025!
Join the Club!
Club Free Time is your perfect guide to Free Entertainment and Free Culture in the City That Never Sleeps.
Join the Club!
In addition to providing information about free events, free things to do in New York, Club Free Time offers its members complimentary tickets to classical music concerts, dance performances and theater: when a producer wants that special buzz of the 'full house' - Club Free Time members are welcomed for their enthusiasm and sophistication!
Join the Club!
Get a taste of free culture and free entertainment in New York City (NYC)!
Join the Club!
Experience an entirely new perspective on New York. 'Open up a whole new cultural world... in one of the most vibrant capital cities in the world, sampling cultural delights beyond anyone's wildest dream.' Rupert Parker, journalist, photographer, cameraman, and TV producer
December 8, 2025. Free shows, concerts, movies, tours are New York (NYC) best kept secret! New York City never ceases to amaze you with quantity and quality of its free culture and free entertainment whether it's day or night, weekday or weekend, summer or winter, spring or fall, January or June, May or September. If you are looking for inexpensive things to do and where to go in Manhattan today, tonight, tomorrow, or any other time, or any other day of any week - you came to the right place: just click on any day on the calendar dispayed on the every page of our site and you will see how many events you can attend in Manhattan free of charge on that very day.
New York's cultural scene is at its busiest in October and March (and the same goes for free events, free things to do), but other months of the year still offer incredible amount of high quality, off the beaten path, unique free events, free things to do which will take your breath away! So if you looking for something to do in April or November, December or February, you will find tons of free things to do, free events to go to. (In June, July and August lots of those free events take place outdoors, of course).
So do not wot till tomorrow, start using these unique New York City opportunities today, December 8, 2025!
Where else but in New York City can you listen to a world-class musician, discuss a book with a famous author, take a part in poetry reading, have a glass of wine at an art exhibition opening, and all that on the same day, and all that free of charge, and all of that on any day of the year, whether it's December or July, April or November!
The trick is to know about those free events, free things to do BEFORE they happen, not after the fact. That's where Club Free Time comes in handy! Become a Club Free Time member and start using these unique New York City (NYC) opportunities today, December 8, 2025!
Join the Club!
Club Free Time is your perfect guide to Free Entertainment and Free Culture in the City That Never Sleeps.
Join the Club!
Free things to do, free events that take place in the City every day of the year are truly amazing. So if you're looking for something interesting to do today (December 8, 2025) or on any other day of the year don't miss those free-of-charge opportunities that only New York provides! You can find lots of high quality, off the beaten path, unique free events, free things to do which will take your breath away!
In addition to providing information about free events, free things to do in New York, Club Free Time offers its members complimentary tickets to classical music concerts, dance performances and theater: when a producer wants that special buzz of the 'full house' - Club Free Time members are welcomed for their enthusiasm and sophistication!
Join the Club!
Get a taste of free culture and free entertainment in New York City (NYC)!
Join the Club!
Experience an entirely new perspective on New York. 'Open up a whole new cultural world... in one of the most vibrant capital cities in the world, sampling cultural delights beyond anyone's wildest dream.' Rupert Parker, journalist, photographer, cameraman, and TV producer
Join the Club!
The quality and quantity of
free events,
free things to do
that happen in New York City
every day of the year
is truly amazing.
So don't miss the opportunities
that only New York provides:
stop wondering what to do;
start taking advantage of
free events to go to,
free things to do in NYC
today!
The quality and quantity of
free events,
free things to do
that happen in New York City
every day of the year
is truly amazing.
So don't miss the opportunities
that only New York provides:
stop wondering what to do;
start taking advantage of
free events to go to,
free things to do in NYC
today!
Let New York City surprise, stimulate, entertain and excite you! Read More
Don't miss the opportunities that only New York provides:
- free concerts in NYC
- free movies in NYC
- free jazz in NYC
- free poetry readings in NYC
- free tours/hikes in NYC
- free city walks in NYC
- free Yoga /Tai Chi in NYC
- fairs and parades in NYC
- free theater in NYC
- free tickets to concerts, theater and dance performances in NYC
'New York is abuzz with so much culture that they're giving it away.' (The New York Times article about Club Free Time).
Editor's Picks
30 free things to do in New York City (NYC) today:
Monday, December 8, 2025
All events are free unless otherwise noted.Workshop | Start the Day with Morning Meditation
Start your day by balancing your mind, body, and spirit during instructor guided meditation. This renowned practice lowers blood pressure, reduces stress, and strengthens the immune system.
New York City, NY; NYC
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9:45 am
Free
Free
Tour | Discover One of New York's Most Famous Parks
Discover how Bryant Park Corporation successfully transformed "Needle Park" of the 1970s into Manhattan's Town Square of today. The guides are loaded with expertise on the park's rich history, award-winning design, distinct amenities, and ongoing maintenance efforts. Tours will continue as scheduled in light rain, but will be cancelled in heavy rain or inclement weather. Bring an umbrella if needed!
New York City, NY; NYC
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11:00 am
Free
Free
Fair | Holiday Market Featuring Local Artisans and Seasonal Gifts
Explore a festive holiday market known for its inviting atmosphere and curated selection of local makers. Visitors can browse aisles filled with handcrafted art, jewelry, home goods, and seasonal treats, offering a lively destination for gift shopping and winter strolling.
New York City, NY; NYC
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11:00 am
Free
Free
Concert | Holiday Caroling With Broadway Carolers
Enjoy festive pop-up performances by the Broadway Carolers. From December 3 to 23, Mondays through Thursdays, the carolers spread holiday cheer with midday songs. Check additional listings for times, locations, and artist details.
New York City, NY; NYC
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12:30 pm
Free
Free
Party | Fiber/Textile Arts Meetup
Are you a knitter? Do you like to crochet? Maybe you like a different type of fiber art? Whichever it is, bring your supplies and lose yourself in the meditative world of creating art with fiber. Invite your friends, or make new connections there. This is a meet-up, not a class.
New York City, NY; NYC
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1:00 pm
Free
Free
City Walk | Photowalk: Hudson Yards
Hudson Yards has become one of NYC's fastest developing neighborhoods, making it a great location to photograph the pulse of the city. From art and architecture to the thousands of tourists and commuters winding their way through the streets, there is no shortage of great images to capture. Sony Artisan of Imagery Tony Gale will lead a trek through the streets, showing the group how to turn Manhattan's everyday details into beautiful images to remember. There will be no route map, so please arrive early as the group will leave promptly at 1pm.
New York City, NY; NYC
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1:00 pm
Free
Free
Workshop | Vogue-Featured Fashion Photographer Gives Photography-Career Advice
Enjoy a candid and practical discussion with Enrique Vega, a self-made photographer who broke into the hyper-competitive New York fashion industry and has been featured in Vogue over 50 times. This talk provides the blueprint for a standout career, moving beyond technical skills to focus on the strategic mindset and business decisions that led to global success. Learn how to:
Cultivate a portfolio that demands attention.
Navigate the industry's gatekeepers in major markets.
Scale your passion from a local market to an international brand.
This is your unfiltered roadmap to turning passion and persistence into a career that spans continents.
New York City, NY; NYC
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4:30 pm
Free
Free
Lecture | Art Historian Discusses the Impact of Choreographer Mary Glass
Carol Mavor, Professor Emeritus of Art History at the University of Manchester and writer, provides a lecture in celebration of her new publication, Like the Sea: Dancing with Mary Glass. Mary Glass (1946–2021) was an innovative modern dancer and choreographer, quietly instrumental to the San Francisco Bay Area art scene of the 1960s and 70s—barely known today—admired for her experimental movements based on sounds and images of the Pacific. Mary Glass’s lifestyle, her anxieties, and her dance reflect the human geography of Northern California: Happenings, Zero Population Growth (ZPG), feminism, same-sex love, civil rights, Vietnam, environmentalism. Cascading in the waves of the politics of the time was Mary Glass’s anorexia, an unexpected pregnancy and her life-long love with the Black painter Eliza Vesper. Today Mary Glass is remembered by an increasingly diminishing handful of devotees. The lecture will be followed by a reception.
New York City, NY; NYC
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5:00 pm
Free
Free
Workshop | Zumba: Latin-Inspired Dance Fitness
Get your heart pumping with Zumba, a dynamic workout set to Latin, international, and popular music. This fun, easy-to-follow class combines fast and slow rhythms for aerobic interval training that challenges both heart and muscles. Perfect for all fitness levels.
New York City, NY; NYC
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5:15 pm
Free
Free
Author Reading | Book Launch & Classical Music Concert with Troubadour and Trouvère Songs
This event combines an early music concert with the launch of L’auteur retrouvé by Julien Stout, French medievalist at Princeton University. The program features lutenist and singer Kerry Bursey, who will perform troubadour and trouvère songs carefully selected to echo the central themes of the book. Together, the launch and the concert invite the audience to experience medieval authorship not only as an idea on the page, but as a living practice shaped by sound, voice, and performance. In his study, Julien Stout reexamines a key chapter in literary history: the so-called “birth of the French author.” Rather than retelling the common story of a transition from anonymous oral song to the authoritative, “subjective,” and written book during the medieval period, L’auteur retrouvé shows how, between the 12th and 14th centuries, vernacular authorship was at once collectively constructed and undermined in a nascent, transnational French-speaking book market.
New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free
Free
Open Studios | Explore Fine Arts
Fine art students will open their studios for public viewing, along with other exhibition spaces throughout the building.
New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free
Free
Concert | Gramercy Brass Quartet Performs Holiday Favorites
Experience a traditional holiday concert, where your favorite songs and carols will be performed by the Principal Quintet of the Gramercy Brass Orchestra under the direction of Trumpeter John Henry Lambert Jr., who founded the Gramercy Brass Orchestra, an ensemble that has won numerous awards, including the First Place Winner of the North American Brass Band Competition. Enjoy the glorious sounds of holiday brass amidst the seasonal finery of Gramercy Park.
New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free
Free
Workshop | Learn & Practice Chess with an Expert
Learn to play chess or develop your strategies with chess expert Tamar Chanadiri from the Marshall Chess Club. Participants are encouraged to attend all sessions, as each one builds on the previous. Bring a friend or join on your own--all levels and ages are welcome! Chess sets are provided but you're welcome to bring your own. From 6-7 PM Tamar will provide instruction for beginner-level players. From 7-8 PM there will be open play for all levels.
New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free
Free
Workshop | Low Impact Bodyweight Circuit Training
Build strength and endurance with this full-body circuit workout using only your bodyweight. This low-impact class combines resistance and conditioning exercises for an effective, easy-on-the-joints session. Perfect for all fitness levels.
New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free
Free
Classical Music | Original Compositions & Theater Works Based on Performing Arts Archives
In this performance, emerging musicians from The New School peerform original compositions and theater works inspired by and incorporating the Library for the Performing Arts' archives.
New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free
Free
Film | The Gay Divorcee (1934): Musical Romantic Comedy with Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
In this fabulously choreographed musical comedy, fed-up woman journeys to England to seek a divorce from her absentee husband, meeting a dashing performer along the way. Director: Mark Sandrich Cast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton As a dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter for stage, film, and television, entertainer Fred Astaire was known as a "paragon" (New York Times) entertainer. Over the course of his nearly seven-decade spanning career, Astaire received an Honorary Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award. Ginger Rogers was an actress, dancer and singer during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in Kitty Foyle (1940), and performed during the 1930s in RKO's musical films with Fred Astaire. Her career continued on stage, radio and television throughout much of the 20th century. Rogers's nine films with Fred Astaire are credited with revolutionizing the genre. Rogers was recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors and she ranks number 14 on the AFI's "100 Years...100 Stars" list of female stars of classic American cinema. She made 73 films in total.
New York City, NY; NYC
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6:00 pm
Free
Free
Workshop | Cuisine Journey Shaped by Black Diaspora (Discussion & Light Bites)
Experience an unforgettable evening with acclaimed chefs Carla Hall and Alexander Smalls as they return to the place that inspired their latest culinary explorations. Both chefs spent time researching in the Schomburg’s vast collections—studying rare cookbooks, historic menus, and Arturo Schomburg’s unfinished gastronomica, a remarkable project that blends memoir and food encyclopedia. Together, they will share their discoveries, stories, and reflections on Black foodways, revealing how history, culture, and storytelling come alive through cooking and cuisine. Following the conversation, guests will enjoy tastings and light bites inspired by the chefs’ research—a flavorful journey shaped by the global Black diaspora. Together, attendees will tackle the ultimate question: What’s the best way to eat grits—sweet or savory? Come savor the history, flavors, and joy of storytelling through food as two friends invite you into their conversation.
New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free
Free
Book Discussion | Former Congressman Shares His New Novel: The Einstein Conspiracy (+ Q&A and Signing)
Former U.S. Congressman Steve Israel to celebrate his book The Einstein Conspiracy: a gripping historical thriller, rich with haunting reminders of a moment in American history when the line between foreign enemy and domestic threat was perilously thin. After a conversation with Bradley Tusk and an audience Q&A, Israel will be signing books. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
$5, tickets required
$5, tickets required
Discussion | Mathematics, Equity, and Education (Online!)
Join Dr. Arthur Benjamin for a conversation with Dr. Dave Kung, a leader in mathematics education and equity. From modernizing math pathways in high school and college to directing national teaching initiatives, Dr. Kung shares insights on how to make math accessible and engaging. The discussion highlights his decades of work as an educator, policy leader, and advocate for inclusive math learning
New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free
Free
Discussion | NYTimes Best-Selling Author Clint Smith on Immigration and American History (Online!)
Join Clint Smith for a discussion on immigration, Black history, and the contested meaning of being American. Through personal stories and historical insight, the conversation will explore how immigrant, migrant, refugee, and Black communities have shaped the nation's identity. Smith's books will be available at a special price.
New York City, NY; NYC
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6:30 pm
Free
Free
Book Discussion | The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto: Five Young Women Who Led the Resistance (Online!)
Holocaust historian Elizabeth R. Hyman tells the untold story of five courageous young women who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, sabotaging Nazis, aiding Jews in hiding, and leading the resistance. Known as "the girls" by fellow fighters and "bandits" by the Nazis, they were central to the Jewish resistance as fighters, commanders, couriers, and smugglers.
New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free
Free
Classical Music | Immersive, Renaissance Enemble Works
Columbia University's early music ensemble, Columbia University's Premier Early Music Ensemble, performs a special evening of Renaissance music promises a rich and immersive experience.
New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free
Free
Book Discussion | Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author & Physician Discusses His Book, The Emperor of All Maladies (In Person AND Online!)
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and physician Siddhartha Mukherjee discusses the updated edition of his groundbreaking book on cancer, The Emperor of All Maladies, with physician Dhruv Khullar. Originally published in 2010, The Emperor of All Maladies is a humane "biography" of cancer, tracing the disease from its first documented appearance thousands of years ago through the 20th century's battles to cure, control, and understand it. Siddhartha Mukherjee expands on his Pulitzer Prize-winning book in an updated edition, including four new chapters that illuminate extraordinary developments in cancer detection, prevention, and what the future may hold in the fight against this complex disease.
New York City, NY; NYC
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7:00 pm
Free
Free
7:00 pm
Regular: $20
Member: $0
Regular: $20
Member: $0
Join the Club!
Classical Music | Choral Works by Haydn & Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana will be performed with orchestra, alongside the New York City Children's Chorus and shorter works by Haydn and Boulanger.
New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free
Free
Classical Music | Diverse Works by Emerging Composers (In Person AND Online!)
Musicians perform works written by students in the Manhattan School of Music's compositional program, coordinated by Reiko Füting.
New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free
Free
7:30 pm
Regular: $75
Member: $0
Regular: $75
Member: $0
Join the Club!
Workshop | Vinyasa Yoga Flow (Online!)
Join this online yoga community for a Vinyasa flow that includes warm-up, balance poses, gentle inversions, and final relaxation. Designed to promote empowerment and self-affirmation, this class leaves you feeling refreshed, centered, and connected to a supportive community. Mats and props are recommended but not required.
New York City, NY; NYC
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7:30 pm
Free
Free
Concert | Award-Winning Pop/Rock Ensemble
The DownBeat Award-winning NYU Pop/Rock Ensemble offers a night of dynamic performances by emerging artists. Featuring: Sienna Feldman Jocelyn Knorr Raha Rahmati Samara Mehta Vyas Gavin Bermudez Ethan Chase Phil Kadet Holly Pantero
New York City, NY; NYC
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8:00 pm
Free
Free
Classical Music | Ensemble Works by Kati Agócs
The NYU Contemporary Music Ensemble, under the direction of Jonathan Haas, concludes its fall season with a portrait concert of composer Kati Agócs, presenting three of her most compelling works: Immutable Dreams, Crystallography, and the striking Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra. Also featured is Suns and Moons of a New World by NYU Percussion Program faculty Javier Diaz, whose composition style bridges global traditions and contemporary innovation.
New York City, NY; NYC
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8:00 pm
Free
Free
Join the Club!
Complimentary Tickets
to shows, concerts ... (CFT Deals!)
Classical Music | Two of Today's Most Adventurous and Acclaimed Artists: Cello and Piano
Regular Price: $55CFT Member Price: $0.00
Jazz | Christmas Concert with Groundbreaking Musician at Legendary Jazz Club
Regular Price: $65CFT Member Price: $0.00
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