Shopping for children is one of the fun bits of the spendthrift season. Say what you like about our planet-wrecking addiction to stuff, you can’t deny that kids get a lot of joy out of new things. By comparison, Christmas outings and shows can feel like a more innocent pleasure, not least because theatres and historic buildings are desperately short of cash and need visitors more than ever.
But culture should be something that we do, as well as watch. I can’t draw, paint or knit – or bake anything other than the most basic cakes. However, with glue, scissors, coloured card, glitter and zero draughtsmanship, I can spend at least an hour making Christmas cards before the tedium of writing the addresses on the envelopes becomes overwhelming and the kids want to watch TV. When our children were smaller, we used to make our own decorations. Mail-order company Yellow Moon has a range of bauble-craft kits, and another themed around angels. I like Christmas, and I’m soppy about things made by my children. But I also think homemade gifts are just a very good thing. Most museums put on at least one hands-on workshop during the holidays. If we lived anywhere near Cumbria, I would head straight for Dove Cottage, once home to the Wordsworths. The tiny home is fantastically atmospheric, and, on 20 December, promises poetry alongside mixed-media crafts and social history.
Elsewhere, Norfolk’s revamped Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum is hosting a Victorian family Christmas on 19 and 20 December, and will presumably send visitors away burning with a sense of injustice at all the treats the workhouse’s unlucky inmates missed out on. The William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, east London, hasfar more imaginative provision for children than many larger museums, with free craft activities and music on 18 December.
I have never been a churchgoer, but a brilliant teacher, Mark Rainbow, taught me every carol in the book. Somehow, my children also seem to have picked up the odd one on their far more secular path through primary school. Going to community events such as local fetes and Christmas concerts (or even, dare I say it, helping to organise them) is an easy way to extend the tendrils of goodwill beyond your immediate social circle – and join in carol singing without going to church.Being teetotallers, children tend not to get as excited about the big meal as adults do. So, once the presents have been opened, they need something to keep them from sliding into depression and lethargy (or worse, if they think their siblings got better presents, envy and disappointment).
Charades works with all ages and is a form of acting, so it definitely fits under the culture heading. My daughters find Consequences hilarious (different versions involve words and pictures, offering further opportunities for artiness).
You should attempt competition only if the younger members of your party can cope with losing. Cluedo (the original version) is our favourite board game by miles, but Articulate and Pictionary (yet more drawing) are good in groups, and so is Family Fortunes. Save the weirdly pleasurable frustration of a big jigsaw for Boxing Day. Scrabble, of course, is for the adults on New Year’s Eve. And here are five more activities to keep children occupied this festive season:
Meet Father Christmas
Whether or not they are true believers or wary agnostics, children love a one-to-one with the man in red – so much so that many of the most popular visiting stations, such as the National Coal Mining Museum near Wakefield, are already sold out. Steer clear of shopping centres, where any charm in this ritual will be squashed flat, and look out for imaginative setups such as that at Penshurst Place in Kent, where key scenes in the BBC adaptation of Wolf Hall were filmed. Here, Narnia is the theme, and Father Christmas is found on the far side of a wardrobe (£12 a child). From 15-18 December, he is telling tales at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh (£4 a child), and in Cardiff he can be found at the fireside in the Black Tower of the Castle from 26 November, speaking in Welsh and English (£10.95 a child).
From 26 November-23 December, Penshurst Place, penshurst place.com. From 15‑18 December, Scottish Storytelling Centre, tracscotland.org. From 26 November-24 December, Cardiff Castle, cardiffcastle.com
See the lights at Kew Gardens
Although I disapprove of the spirit of moneymaking that has swept through Britain’s parks in recent years, I couldn’t help but enjoy the extraordinarily garish illuminations at Kew Gardens in London last year, which somehow managed not to be spoiled by the retail opportunities laid like traps along the route, including marshmallows at £1.50 each. Put it down to the Christmas spirit, the novelty of being out in the dark and the rain with a gang of children in wellies or the clever lighting designers, but I heartily recommend this (from £48 for a family of four).
From 23 November-2 January (not 24‑25 December), kew.org
Walk a nativity trail
The nativity is by far the most child-friendly subject for religious painting, and, now that art history A-level is being abolished, schools may find they have even less time for painting, drawing and art appreciation than before. If you want children to take an interest in pictures, stories or practical activities (hunting for things or drawing and copying them) are good ways in. Of course, Christmas has historical and artistic, as well as religious, significance. The National Gallery in London has a downloadable nativity trail that takes in six pictures, while the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge offers a free nativity story satchel for 2- to 6-year-olds. Elsewhere, Edward Burne-Jones’s The Star of Bethlehem is among the highlights at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, while Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery has Mattia Preti’s gleaming Adoration of the Shepherds, featuring a donkey as well as a sheep.
nationalgallery.org.uk, fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk, birminghammuseums.org.uk, liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
Climb a tower
Long nights and twinkling decorations make the shorter days a good time to climb up high in search of a view – especially at sunset, when the lights come on. Hopefully, western Europe’s tallest building, the Shard in London, will repeat its half-term offer allowing two children to go up free with an adult. But there are plenty of cheaper high-rises. Ely cathedral in Cambridgeshire has two towers to choose from for £8 (no kids under 10), while York Minster tower is £15 (£5 for kids aged 8-plus). My ascent of the year, however, is the wind turbine at the Green Britain Centre in Swaffham, Norfolk (£18 for a family of four).
the-shard.com, elycathedral.org, yorkminster.org, greenbritaincentre.co.uk
Watch Moana
Moana is this December’s big Disney release: a computer-animated girl-action-hero movie about a Polynesian princess fighting sea monsters and hunting for a magic island. It’s too early for reviews, but the soundtrack looks promising and a girl on a Sinbad-ish/Homeric adventure is an exciting prospect.
Released 2 December
