Family days in Tucson, season by season

Tucson families learn to read the calendar a little differently from the rest of the country. The cool months are for being outside as much as possible, the hot ones for water, shade and air-conditioned rooms, and the holidays arrive with lights strung across whole neighborhoods. Here is how a year of family days can look, using the city's own parks and the institutions that have been part of Tucson childhoods for decades.

Cool months: get outside

From late fall into spring, the obvious first stop is Gene C. Reid Park in midtown, home to Reid Park Zoo. The zoo is open every day, has a free parking lot just north of its entrance, and runs memberships, education programs and live zoo cams for animal-loving children who want to check in from home. The park around it is where the city holds many of its big family events, which makes it an easy place to spend a whole morning.

A few miles north on Alvernon Way, Tucson Botanical Gardens has a seasonal favorite for young children. Butterfly Magic, in the gardens' butterfly and orchid pavilion, runs from October 1 through May 31: a warm greenhouse where hundreds of tropical butterflies drift around visitors as they walk. The gardens also schedule family story times, such as a Garden Story Time with Señorita Mariposa on the morning of November 11.

When the zoo or the gardens leave everyone hungry, Beyond Bread on North Campbell Avenue is a locally owned bakery and sandwich shop, open since 1998, with house-made soups and a kids' menu. Families who need to avoid gluten can head up Oracle Road to Gourmet Girls, an all gluten-free bakery and bistro that serves breakfast and lunch and says its kitchen is safe from cross contamination.

Spring into summer: find the water

As the days lengthen, Tucson Parks and Recreation turns on its splash pads, which run from April 1 to October 31. The city lists them at thirteen parks, including Fort Lowell, Udall, Jesse Owens, Purple Heart, Santa Rita and Catalina Park; the splash pad at Naida Jane Baker opens on weekends only.

The city's pools pick up from there. Recreational swim admission at every city pool is free, according to Parks and Recreation. Archer, Catalina and Clements pools, along with the Edith Ball Adaptive Recreation Center, are open year-round, while most neighborhood pools open for summer only, in June and July. Check the city's page before going: several pools have maintenance closures this winter.

The hottest months: head indoors

When it is too hot for the playground, downtown's Children's Museum Tucson on South 6th Avenue is built for exactly this. Its programs include Wee Tucson for the youngest visitors, Discovery Nights and camps, and it is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. It is open Tuesday through Sunday, with a late evening on Thursdays, and it also runs a smaller sister museum inside Tohono Chul in Oro Valley.

On the University of Arizona campus, Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium has seven hands-on exhibits, from Mysteries of the Cosmos and Destination: Mars to Undersea Discovery, Sharks and the Wild World of Bugs, plus planetarium shows and an observatory. It takes part in Museums for All, offering reduced admission to EBT and WIC cardholders, and children two and under get in free.

The Pima County Public Library is the year-round standby. Its branches run events for babies, toddlers and preschoolers, a Birth to 8 section for parents, homework help and online tutoring, and a summer reading program; this year's ran through July 31. In October the library announced longer hours at five of its branches, so check the hours at your nearest library.

The holiday season

Tucson's holiday traditions start right after Thanksgiving and carry families into the new year.

• The city's Holiday Arts and Crafts Fair fills the west side of Reid Park on November 28 and 29, with more than 150 vendors of handmade goods. Admission is free.
• LightsUp! A Festival of Illumination returns to Tucson Botanical Gardens from November 27 through January 10, with more than a million lights, dancing trees and luminarias.
• Santa's Calling, from Tucson Parks and Recreation, lets children ages 4 to 8 get a phone call from Santa between December 8 and 10. Sign up with the city's online form by December 6.
• The Winterhaven Festival of Lights, held on the streets of the Winterhaven neighborhood since 1949, runs December 12 to 26 this year, its 77th. Admission is free, and organizers ask visitors to bring food or a cash donation for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.

For a holiday treat, La Estrella Bakery has been baking pan dulce, tamales, tortillas and traditional sweets in Tucson since 1986. The family-owned bakery has shops on South 12th Avenue, on North Grande Avenue and in the Mercado San Agustín district.

Making a plan

A Tucson family year works best with a little planning: outdoor days stacked into the cool months, water and indoor days saved for the heat, and the holiday lights circled on the calendar early. Each organization's own page, listed in our sources, has current hours, tickets and any closures before you go.