Children's Christmas Shows 2024 in London Theatres

The Puppet Theatre Barge’s Christmas show is a mini musical adventure set in the coastal town of Rocky Snore, which has been left in disarray after all the fish appear to have gone missing from the sea – Captain Sandy is charged with getting to the bottom of it. Written – somewhat exotically – by New Yorker cartoonist Maddie Dai, the show for kids aged four to 10 is directed by Kate Middleton (not that one, presumably).

The team behind the Little Angel’s recent West End transfer hit ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’ – that’s Barb Jungr and Samantha Lane – join forces again for another major adaptation of a picturebook by colossally beloved writer-illustrator duo Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. ‘Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book’ is from 2005, and is a celebration of the power of reading consisting of lots of mini-stories that live inside the eponymous hero’s titular tome. For ages three-to-eight.

A full musical adaptation of Tom ‘from McFly’ Fletcher’s 2017 kids book about Lucy, a young girl from the town of Whiffington who wakes up one day to discover that all the local parents have disappeared, leaving her and her fellow kids to run wild. 

The Barbican always does a good seasonal line in sensory shows for the very young. ‘First Light’ arguably isn’t theatre per se – it’s billed as a ‘sensory sculpture’ – but you try telling its zero-to-18-months target audience that. In essence, it’s a 15-minute experience in a pod, for one family at a time, in which you bathe in sound and light designed to simulate the gradually awakening senses of a baby. 

Following last year’s cute but slight Solstice, Wild Rumpus returns to Battersea Arts Centre with what promises to be a somewhat more souped up theatrical trail through the sprawling building. Based on a Celtic folk tale, the show is set in a world of perpetual summer in which the Oak King defeated the Holly King a century ago. But now it’s time to help the Holly King return and restore balance to a world in which everyone is over eating icecream all day. It’s aimed at ages four plus, though younger children are welcome.

Taking the magic out of Christmas in the most gleeful way, this stage spin off from the endless Horrible Histories series returns to Ally Pally and offers a look at yuletide celebrations through the ages, from po-faced Puritans to 'treat yo'self' Tudors. 

Against a deadpan animated backdrop of a larger colony, Joseph Barnes-Phillips’s Papa Penguin squawks and waddles and gets up to general penguin business. Of course, he looks like a dude in a penguin suit, and part of the charm of Huddle is how far the creative team have gone with this…

Wholesome CBeebies icon Maddie Moate moves into the West End this Christmas with a new show of live science with a seasonal theme. 

While it can feel like around three-quarters of the shows on in London over the Christmas period are productions of the ballet The Nutcracker, the big Christmas show from Polka Theatre is something a little different, being a new non-dance version of the classic seasonal fairy story from leftfield theatre stalwarts Little Bulb.

Aimed at ages seven-plus, this seasonal Neil Gaiman adaptation follows unlikely hero Odd after he encounters Odin, Thor and Loki, who have all been turned into animals by the villainous giants.

Pioneering kids’ company Chickenshed takes its dedication to inclusiveness to radical new limits with a new adaptation of JM Barry’s beloved story about the boy who never grew up that features a cast of over 800. 

Theatre Peckham’s Christmas show is a cheeky spin on JM Barrie’s Peter Pan that relocates the London portions of the story to Peckham, while Neverland becomes a freedom-filled Carribbean idyll. Full of reggae, soca and soul, the adapation is by Geoff Aymer, with music by Jordan Xavier. Suzann McLean directs a cast headed by Tyler Ephraim as Peter Pan, aka Double P.

Peppa Pig has been churning out live shows for years now:  ‘Peppa Pig’s Fun Day Out’ will probably repeat the likes of ‘Peppa Pig’s Best Day Ever’ in essentially being a compilation of plot of the five minute episodes, strung together with songs and audience interaction, probably with a human interlocutor bridging the gap between Peppa and her family (played by people in massive costumes) and the young audience.  

This Lyric Christmas staple brings Raymond Briggs’s ‘Father Christmas’ to enchanting life. The author of ‘The Snowman’ is known for his beautiful depictions of the season – and this adaptation by theatre company Pins and Needles is equally charming.

A witch soars across the skies – and picks up a few animal pals along the way – in this adaptation of the best-selling picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffer. It's created by Tall Stories, who've created a host of loveable stagings of storybook favourites, and uses their typical combo of sing-a-longs, puppetry, and quirky humour. Ages three-to-eight.

The Little Angel’s Christmas show for smaller children is this charming tale about a little robin’s efforts to deliver the seasonal post and the complications that ensue when a snowstorm sweeps though Clover Leaf Wood. 

What Samantha Lane’s Julia Donaldson production loses in terms of the rhythm of the words, it more than makes up for in visual invention, bringing the world illustrated by Lydia Monks to gloriously barmy life.

Based on a (relatively underrated, imo) early work by the reigning king and queen of kids’ picture books, ‘The Smartest Giant…’ tells the story of George: an actually rather scruffy but extremely kind-hearted giant whose attempt to smarten up his act quickly unravels as he meets five animals in need.

Birmingham Rep’s ballet spin-off of Raymond Briggs’ dreamy Christmas classic is back in London once again. Unlike the ageless book and TV animation that inspired it, it’s creaking a little – but it is a classic in its own right, and still inspires rapture in the two-to-eight-year-old target audience and nostalgic sniffles in their middle-aged parents.

Freckle Productions returns with its splendid puppet-driven family adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's popular book. The hapless Stick Man's domestic idyll – living up a tree with his Stick Lady Love and their trio of stick sprogs – is shattered when an enterprising dog mistakes him for a common or garden piece of wood. Ages three-plus.

The Albany’s Christmas kids’ show is an adaptation of idiosyncratic kids’ author and illustrator Chris Haughton’s latest sweet-but-droll picture book, which concerns the aforementioned Mummy Penguin’s hazardous efforts to score a fish for her partner and child, who are looking on nervously. The show is by Can’t Sit Still, who have previously adapted Haughton’s Oh No, George! for the stage. It’s aimed at ages three to eight.