Here through New Year’s? Last week we brought you five things to do in London through the holidays. Here are five further days out to make the most of our fine city before the school run resumes.
Watch the New Year’s Day Parade
1 January 2015, 12 to 3:30pm, free along the route, £30 for grandstand
Beginning at midday on Piccadilly and winding up in Parliament Square, the New Year’s Day parade features more than 8,000 performers from 20 countries—marching bands, cheerleaders, clowns and acrobats will all entertain the crowds. If you don’t want to fork out for grandstand seats, be sure to arrive early to nab a good spot.
through 3 January 2015, advance tickets £15/10 adult/child or £45 family (less for members)
An after-dark experience, Christmas at Kew sees the botanical gardens transformed into an enchanted glittering landscape. Follow the snowflakes along a mile-long trail to be dazzled by light sculptures, a garden of fire, a tunnel of lights and ‘Mistletoe Moments’. Open daily except Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, from 5pm to 10pm, there are also rides for the kiddies.
Wander round Wakehurst Place
open year-round, £12.50/free adult/child (free for Kew members)
If you live near Kew Gardens, you may have an annual membership—did you know that gets you free entry into Wakehurst Place as well? (It’s also free if you have National Trust membership.) Located in West Sussex, Wakehurst has lovingly landscaped gardens but is generally wilder than Kew. If you need a reason to go at Christmas, it boasts the UK’s largest living Christmas tree, a towering redwood. However, my favourite bit of Wakehurst can be visited year-round: rather dully named and oddly underhyped—my family and I had been to Wakehurst several times before we bothered to check it out—the Rock Walk is actually a kilometre-long series of sandstone outcrops dramatically clung to by exposed tree roots. Plus you can pick up an Adventurous Journeys passport to guide you and the kids to natural play spaces throughout the gardens. You’ll want to go back multiple times to cover it all.
Catch a panto
most through at least 4 January 2015, check websites for prices
It’s the height of pantomime season: from Jerry Hall as the Wicked Queen at Richmond Theatre’s Snow White to Slava’s Snowshow at the Royal Festival Hall, our pantomime roundup shows you where the shows are.
Take the kids to a museum
Christmas displays through 2 or 4 January 2015, see below for prices
Sure, you’ve greeted Dippy at the Natural History Museum dozens of times. With much of the holiday still to go, why not venture further afield? In Shoreditch, the Geffrye Museum—‘the museum of the home’—is wonderful to visit at this time of year. During its annual exhibition Christmas Past: 400 Years of Seasonal Traditions in English Homes, the museum’s 11 period living rooms give a fascinating glimpse at how Christmas has been celebrated through the centuries. The display runs through 4 January, and entry is free.
The Horniman Museum in south London is also free to visit and has a fantastic musical room, where kids can play percussion instruments or use the computerised tables to explore the sounds of instruments from all over the world. The natural history section has some fascinating animals (what kid doesn’t love taxidermy?), including a massively overstuffed walrus. The museum’s aquarium costs £3 but is well worth a visit—be mesmerised by the jellyfish, watch the waves wash over the blue lobsters or pretend you’re in the tropics like the poison dart frogs.
In Covent Garden, the Transport Museum is closer to home and takes you on a trip through time: start in the days of horse-drawn carriages (my six-year-old was thrilled to notice the pretend poo under one of the horse models) and work your way to our present-day beloved tube. Tickets are £15 but free for kids, and there are various free Christmas-themed activities through 2 January.
