Warm up those little fingers and little toes at KidzArt while we get excited to see the Cherry T-Ball Drop! $5 per person includes food, hot cocoa, games, projects, music, and more! Each family will create their very own calendar to take home and use all year long. We'll make our own hats & noise makers to take with us as we walk to the T-ball drop to ring in the new year together! So come downtown early to find your parking space and join us at KidzArt as we celebrate together!

Delightful and imaginative working model train layouts fill several rooms at the History Center of Traverse City at 322 6th St.

The Festival of Trains will be held from December 14-January 2nd. Hours are 10am-7pm Monday-Saturday and noon-4pm on Sundays, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve & New Year's Day (Closed on Christmas Day). For more information, call the History Center of Traverse City at 231.995.0313

Location: History Center of Traverse City
Contact Address: 322 6th Street
Link: www.gtheritagecenter.org

Playing at 10 am – 25 Cent Kids Matinee

2011/USA/PG/91 min
Director: Jennifer Yuh
Cast: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan

In “Kung Fu Panda 2,” Po is now living his dream as The Dragon Warrior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, The Furious Five. But Po’s new life of awesomeness is threatened by the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu. Po must look to his past and uncover the secrets of his mysterious origins; only then will he be able to unlock the strength he needs to succeed.

Festivities begin at 10 pm with live music.

A GIANT cherry will drop at the stroke of midnight in front of the big Christimas Tree at the corner of Cass and E. Front St.

The CherryT Ball Drop is a benefit for Goodwill.

A donation of non perishable food or person hygiene items for Goodwill are much appreciated.

Location: Downtown Traverse City: Corner of Cass and E. Front St.
Web Address: www.cherrytballdrop.com

Playing 9:45 pm SHARP! – New Year’s Eve Special, Regular prices include party favors

1989/USA/PG-13/97 min
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Cast: Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Beverly D’Angelo

It’s a State Theatre tradition to ring in the new year with a feel good family friendly sing-along movie, complete with party favors. After the movie, you can go outside and watch the Cherry Drop downtown, or stay warm inside and watch the New York Times ball drop on our big screen. Party favors are included in the regular admission price.

Set against the anti-war protests, rock & roll revolution, and mind-expanding psychedelia of the 1960s, Julie Taymor’s hallucinogenic musical follows the arduous journey of star-crossed lovers Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) as they and a small group of musicians are swept up in the raging waters of the volatile counterculture movement. Guided through their journey by a pair known only as Dr. Robert (Bono) and Mr. Kite (Eddie Izzard), Jude and Lucy are eventually forced to find their way back to one another after being split apart by powerful forces beyond their control. The music in the film consists exclusively of songs made popular by the Beatles during the time period depicted in the movie.

Playing at 12:00, 2:20, 4:45 and 7:15 pm

2011/USA/R/123 min
Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard, Nick Krause, Amara Miller, Mary Birdsong, Rob Huebel, Patricia Hastie

From Alexander Payne (“Sideways”), set in Hawaii, “The Descendants” follows George Clooney playing a busy husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell his family’s reserve land, handed down by Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.

“It’s one of the year’s most pleasurable American movies. It’s lovely – funny and sad and funny/sad in ways you can’t always pinpoint, capturing both the perpetual Pacific island breezes and the unsettled interior lives of Hemmings’ characters, chief among them the attorney played by George Clooney.”
- Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

“Payne’s low-key approach only deepens the film’s intimate power. Want a movie you can really connect with? ‘The Descendants’ is damn near perfect.”
- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

“Expertly mixing tears and laughs with the sort of alchemy not seen since ‘Terms of Endearment,’ this superbly written, directed, acted, and yes, Oscar-friendly movie perfectly captures the blackly comic insanity that can overtake a family forced to confront an impending death.”
- Lou Lumenick, New York Post

“To call ‘The Descendants’ perfect would be a kind of insult, a betrayal of its commitment to, and celebration of, human imperfection. Its flaws are impossible to distinguish from its pleasures.”
- A.O. Scott, The New York Times