[title]
Put your money away! Here are the week’s best free events
Gingerbread City
You know how ‘Great British Bake Off’ contestants always make building gingerbread houses look super-tricky? Their efforts have been blown out of the water. The Museum of Architecture has created a model city made entirely out of gingerbread. You can take part in workshops and buy a plot to support MoA. Sadly, you have to appreciate it with your eyes and not your mouth.
10 Thurloe Place. South Kensington. Until Dec 22.
Peter Pan Cup
Watch the brave souls/nutters of the Serpentine Swimming Club take a frosty festive dip in the 153rd Annual Christmas Morning Race. The Cup is strictly a spectator sport, unless you fancy catching hypothermia for Christmas.
Serpentine Lido. Sun Dec 25.
Silke Otto-Knapp: Seascapes
In a palette of grey and monochrome – a bit like the London sky in winter – the paintings in ‘Seascapes’ thankfully hum with subtle rhythms and graceful cultural references, instead of endless drizzle.
Greengassi. Kennington. Until Wed Dec 21.
A Georgian Christmas
If you felt your work Christmas party with its paper hats, karaoke and cheap plonk wasn’t traditional enough, come over to John Welsey’s old gaff to see how the Georgians celebrated the big day.
Wesley's Chapel. Old St. Thu Dec 22, 11am-3pm.
New Year's Day Parade
2017 If you can haul yourself out of bed after the madness of New Year’s Eve, you deserve some sort of parade. Good news: there’s one every year. Arrive early to get a good spot to watch more than 8,500 performers.
Parade starts at the Ritz Hotel. Green Park. Noon.
The Nest Collective
This isn’t a gathering of the British Trust for Ornithology to discuss amendations to the Birdwatchers’ Code, but a folkroots outfit fronted by Mercury Prize nominated singer songwriter Sam Lee. Sorry, twitchers.
Southbank Centre. Waterloo. Thu Dec 22, 5.30pm-7pm.