Touch

Photograph: Beth Levendis

Sew with Alpaca yarn
If you’re going to molest something in the knitting café at the Point NYC, make sure it’s the wool skeins in the back and not the pastries up front. The shop owners dye their own yarn in the middle of the store, but your fingers will be happiest petting the supersoft Misti Alpaca variety ($15). “It feels like a kitten,” says manager Patty Lyons. “When people come in and ask for something soft, we point directly to it. People touch it and it’s the Homer Simpson response of ‘uhhhhhhaaaaaa.’ ” Score a hat or scarf pattern to create a touchable holiday gift. 37A Bedford St between Carmine and Downing Sts (212-929-0800, thepointnyc.com)

Make Ukraine ornaments
If you’ve had enough of soft and cuddly, give your fingers something prickly to feel by making traditional Ukrainian tree ornaments at the Ukrainian Museum. These Eastern Europeans put spiders on their pine, among other, more familiar motifs. “We use beads, walnuts, paper and wire,” says director and teacher Maria Shust. “This is the stuff people had in the villages—nuts, straw—they may still do it now. And it’s very sensory: the walnuts are rough, the beads are smooth and the paper is crinkly.” Sat 15, Sun 16, 2–4pm. $5–$15. 222 E 6th St between Second and Third Aves (212-228-0110, ukrainianmuseum.org)

Slice and dice
The Grinch carves the holiday roast beast at the end of his tale, and your guests won’t expect any less. Take a knife-skills class at Camaje—no one’s ever lost a finger. “Uh-uh. People are concentrating so much,” says owner Abby Hitchcock. You’ll slice veggies and fruit in the very fine brunoise style—“the point being if you can hold a knife perfectly and use it well, you can then do a larger dice.” So, young warrior, prepare yourself for Masaharu Morimoto greatness: “If you have a callous on the index finger,” says Hitchcock, “you’re doing something right.” Tue 18 6:30–9pm. $65. 85 MacDougal St at Bleecker St (212-673-8184, camaje.com)

Find snow
With the year’s first snowfall already checked off, there’s a chance of a white Christmas and the crunch of a snowball in your palm. If there’s snow on the ground, head to Prospect Park behind the Picnic House at 3rd Street and Prospect Park West. If we’re left with slush, find ice at the Pond at Bryant Park’s rink. (Between Fifth and Sixth Aves between 41st and 42nd Sts)

Get crafty with a kid
Kids with busy hands are much less likely to whine about what they want from Santa. There are craft classes in almost every borough, with handiwork lessons at Lefferts Homestead in Brooklyn starting Saturday 22, Hands-on History: Winter Holidays at Rufus King Park in Queens on Saturdays, and Gingerbread Adventures crafts at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. “History sounds boring. I’ll take gingerbread,” says our expert, eight-year-old Amori Leary.(nycgovparks.org; nybg.org)

Wrap a gift; save the world
Get some volunteer brownie points and practice your wrapping skills by signing up for a few hours of gift-wrap help at Children of the City on Thursday 13 and Friday 14 through VolunteerNYC.org. “Some of these kids would never otherwise get a gift.You get to see their responses —their eyes wide open with joy and happiness,” says administrator Daniel Ramos. “It’s a different kind of touch.” (No, he really said that.)

Be an elf; make a tie
Get your fingers all over the gifts you give by sewing a one-of-a-kind tie at Make Workshop. You bring the fabric (silk, wool, cotton or corduroy)—“silk is the most evocative,” says owner Diana Rupp. “When you think of silk, you think of luxury. And having something custom-made, what’s better than that?” She pauses. “Nothing. That was rhetorical!” $120 plus supplies. 195 Chrystie St between Rivington and Stanton Sts, no. 803 (212-533-9995, makeworkshop.com)

Be Santa’s baby
Once upon a time, Saks Fifth Avenue’s resident Santa Claus had a Dolce & Gabbana Santa suit (does the north pole have a Fashion Week?). Now the actor who plays Kris Kringle brings his own, but it’s plenty velvety and plushy where it counts. “It’s got a nice white fur. I dry-clean it and I buy a new one every three years,” says Ken Romo, who also puts a pillow on his tummy. As for the beard, it’s made of fake hair and “sometimes gets a little scratchy. But Mrs. Claus—played by my real-life wife—loves it.”

Unlike some Santas, Romo allows adults on his lap. “The first time I ever did Santa Claus, it was at one of these big nightclubs, like Studio 54, and I had the front pages with Brooke Shields and Sylvester Stallone,” he says. Just don’t ask for too much touching. “Adults, you know, they want things—a new husband, a lottery ticket. You play as much as they play. Lately, it’s been, ‘Oh, I’ve been naughty,’ so I say, ‘I can get you the naughty list, so you know what not to do.’ It brings a little laugh to them, and that’s what I want to do.” Saturdays 1–5pm on the eighth and ninth floors, 611 Fifth Ave at 49th St (212-644-1704)