London’s best alternative Christmas events

What’s more Christmassy than visiting Santa’s grotto? Going for a pint or two with the man in red in his favourite boozer, of course. Humbug, an immersive Christmas dive bar, allows you to do just that – and join Mr Claus in rounds of games, sing-a-longs, live performances, storytelling and more. It’s all threaded together with a mission to cheer a weary Santa up and help him rekindle his Christmas spirit. Humbug’s 2025 return will include a shrine to the queen of Christmas Mariah Carey, a beer can bowling alley, a grotto and cabaret from the venue’s regular cast. Saving the festive season never sounded so fun.

One of London’s quirkiest Christmas traditions as well as being one of the oldest, the Peter Pan Cup has been contested on Christmas mornings since 1864. Strictly a spectator event – unless you happen to be a regular, not to mention hardy, member of the Serpentine Swimming Club – the name of the 100-yard swimming race in Hyde Park’s lido derives from the 1904 edition, when author and playwright Sir James Barrie presented the trophy to the winner. The race commences at 9am so head down to watch the brave folk go for it before you start opening your presents.

Got a thirst for adventure and winter-themed beverages? Up at The O2 – the dare-devil tour that lets you climb up the outside of the Greenwich venue’s famous white dome – has been given a festive makeover. After being strapped into a harness and ascending to the top of the 52 metre-high dome, climbers will get to retreat into an immersive snow globe featuring falling snow, the sweet smell of cookies and a ‘whimsical winter set-up’ from which they’ll be able to enjoy breathtaking views of the city from. There’ll also be gingerbread cookies to snack on and glasses of bubbly, mulled wine and hot chocolates to purchase. 

If lounging around on Christmas Day and stuffing your face with treats sounds like something that gets in the way of your running streak rather than a dream way to spend a day, the Christmas Day Cracker Run is for you. Head to the outskirts of the city to a course by the Thames where you’ll be able to run for up to seven – yes, seven – hours. The minimum distance you have to complete to take part is 5km, but you can do as much beyond that as you like – up to a 50km ‘ultramarathon’. If you complete one lap (7km), you’ll get to take home a shiny medal and a goody bag full of yummy snacks. 

There's something innately kind of festive about drag queens: they're jolly, covered in tinsel, and generally camp as Christmas. So this seasonal drag reimagining of The Wizard of Oz is a perfect opportunity to queer your Christmas, with a cast including Crayola the Queen, plus the unlikely addition of pre-recorded cameos from Jeremy Corbyn and Sir Ian McKellen. Turn up, dress up, and put a deliciously alternative spin on panto tradition. 

Curling has been growing in popularity in recent years, nudged on by its compelling showings at various Winter Olympics, and this pop-up outdoor arena in King’s Cross’s lovely shopping district Coal Drops Yard is now a mainstay of the area’s winter entertainment offering. It boasts six synthetic curling lanes, on which you can curl your heart out for 45 minutes before rewarding yourself with a tasty cocktail at the retro Italian après bar the Club Curling Lounge. 

Festive karaoke is a bit of a tradition for us lot in the Time Out office. If you’re also a fan of necking half a bottle of prosecco and belting out some Michael Bublé, you’ll love this festive edition of the phenomenon that is Massaoke, or ‘mass karaoke’. Popping up at O2 Kentish Town Forum this December, it’s offering you plenty of chances to warble along to Mariah, Wham, Slade and all your other favourite festive bangers soundtracked by a live band, and with lyrics on the screen in case you somehow don’t have every word of ‘Fairytale of New York’ etched into your brain. Christmas jumpers and festive fancy dress are of course encouraged.

The West End's premier piss artists are taking up residence in Leicester Square Theatre this Christmas, with a musical romp through Dickens' timeless story A Christmas Carol. The casts of Sh!t-faced Shakespeare and Sh!t-faced Showtime will team up to perform a musical tale of Scrooge's festive redemption, with their signature twist: one cast member is genuinely drunk. In true improv tradition, each show is different, and the performers will go along with whatever bonkers plot twists their drunken costar dreams up. 

Roving brass band Old Dirty Brasstards will be unleashing their infectious horn-based hip hop mischief on The Garage for this special festive gig. Expect their usual ‘drum and brass’ party jams as well as some Christmas classics, such as Mariah Carey, East 17, George Michael and The Pogues. The audience is invited to sing and dance along, so get practising those All I Want For Christmas high notes. 

Mischief Theatre are best known for their Fringe megahit The Play That Goes Wrong. Now, they're resurrecting the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, the inept am dram theatre company who are theoretically responsible for it, for a truly chaotic spin on festive theatrical tradition. It’s written by original Mischief members Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, and should feature some very unscary ghosts and some mishaps that would make Dickens turn in his grave.

Adult panto supremos He’s Behind You! – aka Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper, aka the guys who did the Above the Stag panto back in the day – return to the Charing Cross Theatre for another year, this time with a ribald spin on Beauty and the Beast. This version is set in the wintry Scottish village of Lickmanochers, where pampered mummy’s boy Bertie finds himself imprisoned in the castle of a luxuriently hairy aristocrat. Matthew Baldwin will once again star as the dame in a show that’s strictly for over-18s only.

Prepare for a feast for the eyes, but resist the urge to nibble! The sweetest festive event you’ll find, the Museum of Architecture’s edible exhibition tasks leading architects and designers to ditch their conventional building materials for dough bricks and sugar paste mortar to construct a miniature biscuit metropolis erected in King’s Cross’s Coal Drops Yard for the festive season. With a new theme each year, the exhibition aims to encourage innovation and future-forward city planning, and this year’s ‘Playful City’ theme has resulted in some really fun designs, from school buildings with slides between classrooms to candy-coloured climbing walls. As well as marvelling at all the confectionary craftsmanship on display, visitors can take part in a series of hands-on gingerbread house workshops where they’ll be able to construct a delicious souvenir to take home. 

JW3’s panto is only in its third year, but already it feels like a seasonal ficture thanks to its idiosyncratic Jewish humour and distinction of being pretty much the only form of entertainment in all of London to have a Christmas Day performance. There is very, very little information about Cinderella and the Matzo Ball at time of writing: apparently it’s the same creative team as the last two, which presumably means writer Nick Cassenbaum and director Abigail Anderson; there’s nothing on casting so far but the first two had some weirdly impressive cult comedy talents amidst their ranks. 

If you’d rather extend your Strava streak than lounge around housing cheeseboards in front of re-runs of Gavin and Stacey, you’ll love this festive fun-run around the picturesque Wimbledon Common during the Christmas holiday season. Entrants to the 5k and 10k races will get free race photos and chip-timed results, with medals and goody bags for finishers. It’s the perfect way to earn that extra helping of roast potatoes on the big day.

This lavish seasonal dinner show from immersive company Secret Theatre offers an ‘outrageous’ banquet combined with five explorable rooms and music, performance and dance that tell something approximate to the story of Tchaichovsky’s immortal seasonal favouite ballet The Nutcracker. Tickets start at ‘just’ £48 for bar seats, but if you actually want to eat you’re looking at £180-plus.