- Dads in London
- Posts
- 🛼 29(!) things to do in London this weekend with the kids (13–14 December)
🛼 29(!) things to do in London this weekend with the kids (13–14 December)
Jeff – Dads in London
December 10, 2025
Get in front of 12,000 of the best people in London! Find out about sponsored ads here.
Hey DILFs!
When shops put up their Christmas decorations in August and mince pies arrive before the Halloween pumpkins have finished rotting, it’s understandable why many of us are feeling a bit, “Oh my goodness: there’s STILL two weeks to go until the actual day???” right now.
If you could do with a bit of a festive furlough this weekend, good news: I’ve discovered a nice supply of events and exhibitions that make no mention of Christmas (or if they do, it’s only for the algorithms).
There’s still a ridiculous amount of carols, Christmas shows and wreath-making-adjacent chaos too, should you wish to lean in rather than lie down.
Enjoy!
Jeff xx
PS Want 20% off tickets to see The Snowman: Live in Concert this Sunday at Sinfonia Smith Square? The concert features a live orchestra performing the soundtrack to the film, which is shown on a big screen. There are two performances – at 13:30 and 15:00.
To get 20% off, type the promo code SNOWMAN20 at checkout.
Caravaggio's Cupid
Saturday and Sunday, 10:00–17:00 (and daily until 12 April)
The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, W1U 3BN
FREE
The real-life version is in portrait mode, fyi
The Wallace Collection has dropped one of the most notorious paintings of the 17th century into a free gallery like it’s no big deal. This is Victorious Cupid by Caravaggio – a work that caused so much muttering in Rome that it had to be hidden behind a curtain.
Painted in 1601–02 for the collector Vincenzo Giustiniani, it shows Cupid not as a smooth, mythological idea but as a recognisable, naked boy. Which caused mucho troubleissimo, as they’d say in Italy, because while nude bodies were perfectly acceptable in sculpture, paintings were supposed to keep things idealised and unreal. Caravaggio’s birthday-suited boy broke that rule entirely: the dirty toes, the cheeky grin, the way he looks more like a kid than a god… it was all much closer to real life than anyone had quite agreed to. Hence the “modesty curtain”. (Some prefer to say it was hidden because it outshone everything else in the room, which is a much nicer story than admitting people were simply unsettled by it.)
There’s more to the painting than just bambino here grinning at us in the buff. He’s shown standing on a mess of armour, instruments and a random globe – to indicate that love has, quite literally, conquered all else. And he also holds two arrows, traditionally linked to desire and rejection, just in case the message wasn’t already busy enough.
At the time, Rome was deep in one of its favourite arguments: whether painting or sculpture was the superior art form. Giustiniani collected both, and this painting originally hung among a serious collection of classical sculpture. The Wallace has echoed that setup by pairing the Cupid with two ancient Roman sculptures from the same collection – not recreating the original gallery in full, but enough to remind you that this painting was always meant to be seen in comparison with carved stone.
Caravaggio’s Cupid normally lives in Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie and hasn’t travelled in around 40 years. It has also never been shown publicly in the UK before, which makes this a genuine one-off rather than something that will magically reappear next year.
And, in keeping with Wallace tradition, it’s free. From next April, though, it’s back to Berlin.
While you’re there…
👍️ You’re not far from Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland, if you want to brave the madness…
Top Hat
Saturday and Sunday, 14:00 and 19:30 (plus other dates until 17 January – always at 14:00 and 19:30)
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
£27–£97 per person
Age guidance: 8+
Each year, my family and I have one big (read: “spendy”) Christmas outing. It might be The Nutcracker, or a musical, or a tour of the Christmas lights… that kind of thing.
If we hadn’t already booked this year’s Big Christmas Family Thing, and if my youngest were old enough, and if my oldest were also old enough, and if we weren’t already busy most weekends around Christmas, I might have campaigned for this year’s big festive outing to be Top Hat. Because it looks like SO much fun.
The show is about Broadway tap star Jerry, who arrives in London, wakes up model Dale by tap-dancing in the hotel room above hers, falls in love instantly and is then mistaken for his own married producer. From there it’s misunderstandings, a furious wife, a flamboyant Italian fashion designer, and a detour to Venice that solves absolutely nothing.
The whole thing runs on tap routines and the Irving Berlin songs you already know – Cheek to Cheek, Let’s Face the Music and Dance, Puttin’ on the Ritz – thanks to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the original film. These are not songs you’d choose to put on while loading the dishwasher, but you’re going to love them in the context of one of the season’s most joyful shows.
The production’s recent run in Chichester was greeted with the sort of enthusiasm The Guardian normally reserves for national strikes. It praised the “gorgeous ostrich-feathered costumes”, the revolving Art Deco set and the way the whole thing “oozes style and wit”, before finally declaring “Heaven”. Steady on, Grauniad.
Find out more: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/top-hat/
Maddie Moat’s Very Curious Christmas
Saturday at 10:15, Sunday at 11:00, 13:30 and 15:30 (and other dates and times until 4 January)
Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0HH
£18.50–£32
Age guidance: 3+
Christmas is traditionally a time for switching your brain off. Maddie Moate has other plans.
In her Very Curious Christmas, Maddie is on work experience at Santa’s workshop, where two elves – one training to make toys, one in charge of elf safety – are barely holding things together, and Mrs Claus is due in to give an inspection. Maddie could clearly do with some help, so the audience is roped in to fix a long list of festive problems using science – and in previous shows, they’ve done so at a noise level that implies they take the task very seriously.
They need to work out what makes crackers go bang, why Brussels sprouts have such a dramatic effect on the human body, how the workshop’s electrics are meant to stay switched on, and why water keeps turning up in places it shouldn’t. There are experiments, oversized props and an assortment of practical demonstrations that would be considered way too fun for any Ofsted inspector – so it’s a jolly good thing shows like this exist.
The audience is busy throughout. They start with a quiz on the screen before the show even begins, then move briskly onto shouting answers at the stage and helping to solve problems as they appear. Last year, one small reviewer’s personal highlight involved the true meaning of the word “mistletoe”, which I’ll leave you to discover for yourself.
There’s also a song about evidence. At Christmas. This is one surprisingly unique show.
While you’re there…
👍️ Cecil Court is a 17th-century lane chockablock with shops selling secondhand books, rare art finds and antiques.
👍️ Fair Shot is a beautiful social enterprise cafe in Covent Garden that trains young adults with learning disabilities and autism for a year-long internship — teaching everything from customer service to hospitality skills — before helping them land proper paid jobs. We’ve been before and it’s a lovely place that has a great atmosphere and isn’t scary-busy like everywhere else in the area. Must admit our orders weren’t entirely correct, but they’d have happily fixed them if we’d asked!
👍️ If you like the idea of a double dose of theatre, there are plenty of options nearby in the “other listings” section below.
No obligation at all, but here’s the link if you fancy it:
x
Festive Roller Disco
Saturday 13 December, 13:00–16:00
Deptford Lounge, 9 Giffin Street, SE8 4RJ
£5 or £8 or £10 per person (pay what you decide)
Age guidance: under-16s
“Damn,” said the marketing person at Deptford Lounge. “We forgot to build an ice rink for Christmas. How on earth are we going to get people to visit us now?”
“The Natural History Museum has given up on its ice rink,” said the intern. “Maybe an ice rink isn’t such a driver of business after all.”
“Dave,” said the marketing person. “No disrespect, but the Natural History Museum has a blue whale, a T. rex and several million years of marketing advantage: they can get away with removing their ice rink. All we have is a weekend Craft Club (admittedly EXCELLENT, but still…), and the odd board games night. We don’t even have a Santa’s Grotto. Dobbies bloomin’ Garden Centre has a Santa’s Grotto. Brent bloody Cross has a Santa’s Grotto. It’s ridiculous.”
“My name’s Joe. Not Dave. But yes, I see your point. OK, here’s an idea. We already have a roller disco every third Thursday of the month, right? Which means we already know how to put on a killer roller disco. We have the big hall. We have the music. So all we need to do is create a festive roller disco for families – which is basically a regular roller disco, but with tinsel, daylight, and parental supervision – and boom. Christmas event.”
“Dave,” said the marketing person. “That is an EXCELLENT idea. But one snag: we don’t have any roller skates for people to hire. Lots of our Thursday regulars bring their own.”
“It’s Joe.”
“Focus, Dave.”
“I think we just tell everyone to bring their own skates. I’m sure everyone in London has a pair of roller skates in a cupboard somewhere. Next to a bread maker and ab roller.”
“Fine,” said the marketing person. “Write it up as ‘bring your own skates’. If anyone complains, remind them it’s priced accordingly.”
While you’re there…
There are plenty of regular events at Deptford Lounge, and they’re all free! No booking needed: just turn up to any of the following.
📕 Saturdays 10:30–11:00: Under 5s Rhymes and Stories. Suitable for 0–5s and their families.
✏️ Saturdays 11:00–12:00: Colouring Club. Suitable for all the family.
✂️ Saturdays 14:00: Saturday Craft Club. Suitable for all the family.
🎞️ Saturdays 15:00–16:30: Family Film Club. Suitable for all the family.
Family Takeover: Shaping Patterns
Saturday 13 December, 11:15–12:15 or 12:45–13:45
Camden Art Centre, Arkwright Road, NW3 6DG
FREE (but you need to book tickets in advance)
Age guidance: 4+
Want to opt out of Christmas entirely this weekend? Camden Art Centre has made it possible. Whether this was a thoughtful act of seasonal mercy or a simple scheduling accident is unclear, but either way, it’s useful if you’re not emotionally prepared for another brass band.
At this weekend’s Family Takeover, you’ll be building a giant communal charpai (a kind of woven day bed) out of scrap materials, based on traditional South Asian weaving techniques. You’ll all be working on the same thing, at the same time, using whatever turns up in the pile.
Leading the session is the participatory artist Monique Kaur Kellay. She’s interested in how things are made, who makes them, and what happens when you hand those processes over to a room full of other people. I did have to Google “participatory artist”, and it turns out to be a polite, slightly intellectualised way of saying: the audience does the actual work and the artist supervises the situation. Which may be stretching the definition slightly, but the important thing to know is that this is not a “Picasso alone in a garret” type of setup.
These Family Takeovers happen every couple of weeks, and they focus on making things by hand – often linked to textile traditions from South Asia. They usually sneak in some cultural context while your child wrestles with thread and tie-dye situations, but no one ever says the word “learning” out loud. It’s a far more effective strategy than worksheets, and miles more fun.
While you’re there…
👍️ You may not think the Freud Museum is the ideal place to take a child, but there’s so much more to learn about the guy than the Oedipus-related stuff – and it’s all here in the museum. This is the actual house he and his family lived in when they came to London from Austria in 1938, as refugees from Nazi persecution. They brought all their furniture and other items with them – and the house has been preserved exactly as they left it.
To make things super easy and accessible, there’s a handy “plan your visit” page on the website, which suggests what to explore depending on how much time you have to spare – whether it’s 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, two hours or more than two hours. (If you have more than two hours, the advice is pretty much “Buy some stuff in the gift shop after you’ve seen everything and, you know, hang out.”)
Excitingly, you can see his famous psychoanalytic couch and desk. There’s also the weird chair that had been designed especially for him, which accommodated his preferred seating posture (legs over one arm of the chair), and his 2,000-odd antiquities that are arranged on every surface. The garden is open to visitors too – a peaceful, well-kept space with benches, shady trees and quiet corners to sit.
Other listings
This section now brings together some new events I don’t have room to expand on and selected older ones from past newsletters that are still running. If you see a “(see my write-up here)”, that’s your cue to click through and rediscover whatever Past Me felt strongly enough to write about.
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Saturday and Sunday, 11:00
The Garden Cinema, 39-41 Parker Street, WC2B 5PQ
Pay what you can
Age guidance: certified “U”
Under the Frozen Moon
Saturday 13 December, 11:00
Grand Junction, Rowington Close, W2 5TF
Pay what you can
Age guidance: 3+
Christmas Comes to Moominvalley
Until 4 January (various dates and start times)
Jacksons Lane Arts Centre, 269a Archway Road, N6 5AA
£12–£26
Age guidance: 3+
An Alternative Christmas Market at Chats Palace
Sunday 14 December, 11:00–16:00
Chats Palace Arts Centre, 42–44 Brooksby's Walk, E9 6DF
FREE
A Merry Misrule
Until 24 December (various dates and start times)
Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, SW11 5TN
Adults £18.50, under-16s £16.50
Our Carnival Our Story
Saturday 13 December, 10:00–16:00
Chats Palace Arts Centre, 42–44 Brooksby's Walk, E9 6DF
FREE (no ticket required for daytime, so don’t worry that it says “sold out” at the link: that’s for the evening)
Grinchmas Afternoon Tea Sightseeing Bus Tour (see my write-up here)
Daily until 31 January, various time slots
Departs from Victoria Coach Station, 164 Buckingham Palace Road, SW1W 9TP
Adults £52, children £47
Age guidance: 5+
Me (see my write-up here)
Until 25 January (various dates and start times)
Little Angel Theatre, 14 Dagmar Passage, N1 2DN
Adults £17, children £15
Age guidance: 2–5
Hyakkō 100+ Makers from Japan (see my write-up here)
Daily until 10 May
Japan House, 101–111 Kensington High Street, W8 5SA
FREE – but booking is recommended
Dracapella (see my write-up here)
Until 17 January (various dates and start times)
Park Theatre, Clifton Terrace, N4 3JP
£22.50–£47.50 per person
Age guidance: 10+
A Squash and a Squeeze by Julia Donaldson
Until 23 December, 11:00 and/or 13:30
Leicester Square Theatre, 6 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX
Adults £25.50, children £19.50
Age guidance: 3+
Hampton Court Palace Ice Rink
Daily until 4 January, 10:00–20:00
Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, KT8 9AU
Adults £18, 3–12s £13.50 (doesn’t include palace admission)
The Firework-Maker’s Daughter
Until 18 January, various start times (usually 11:00 and 14:30 on weekends)
Polka Theatre, 240 The Broadway, SW19 1SB
£10–£29 per person
Age guidance: 6–12
The Winter Bar Street Food Market
Until 2 January, 11:00–21:00 (Monday and Sunday, 11:00–18:00)
St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, WC2N 4JJ
FREE entry
The Snow Queen – A Woodland Adventure
Weekends until 21 December, daily until 24 December, 11:00 and 14:00 (and also 16:00 on weekends)
The Albany, Douglas Way, SE8 4AG
£14 per person
Age guidance: 3–8
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Until 4 January, 11:00 and 14:00 on weekends, 10:30 and 13:30 on weekdays
artsdepot, 5 Nether Street, Tally Ho Corner, N12 0GA
£15 per person
Age guidance: 3+
The Gingerbread City (see my write-up here)
Until 4 January, 09:00–17:30
Unit 5, 79–81 Coal Drops Yard, Stable Street, N1C 4DQ
Adults and 12+ £13.50, 3–12s £8.50, under-3s free
Whippersnappers Winter Wonderland (see my write-up here)
Various dates until 23 December, slots between 10:00 and 17:30
Whippersnappers College Lodge, Old College Gate, Dulwich Park, College Road, SE21 7BQ
Adults £17.50, children £28.50
Age guidance: 3–7
The Gruffalo’s Child (see my write-up here)
Until 11 January, various start times
£10–£24 per seat
Lyric Theatre, 29 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7ES
Age guidance: 3+
Christmas Candy Grotto (see my write-up here)
Saturday and Sunday, slots between 10:00 and 18:00 (and also next weekend)
Woolwich Works, The Fireworks Factory, 11 No. 1 Street, SE18 6HD
£13.50 per child (parents, carers and adult family members go free)
Age guidance: suitable for all
Mama Goose
Until 3 January, various start times
Stratford East, Gerry Raffles Square, E15 1BN
£10–£39.50 per person
Age guidance: 5+
Carols for All — The Shepherds
Saturday 13 December, 12:30–13:30
St James's Church, 197 Piccadilly, W1J 9LL
Adults £15.82, under-16s £10.54
Age guidance: suitable for all
The Night Before Christmas
Until 31 December (various days, 10:00 and 13:00)
artsdepot, 5 Nether Street, Tally Ho Corner, N12 0GA
£13.75 per person
Age guidance: 3–7
The Nightmare Before Christmas + Pre-film Festive Quiz and post-film clothes swap!
Saturday 13 December, 11:00
Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS
Adults £5, under-18s £2.50
Age guidance: rated PG