Saturday morning comes around fast. This list pulls together the family events we've found for the coming weekend: kids' theater and concerts, hands-on museum workshops, exhibitions and festivals. It updates on its own as the week goes on, so check back on Thursday or Friday when you start planning. Open any card for times, ages and how to book.
An all-white stage fills up with color, one shade at a time, until everything is mixed together. Vases roll away, feathers fly around, soap bubbles turn into a crown and balls decide they are ladybugs.
When the show ends, the kids get to play in the set themselves, among all the colors of the rainbow.
Sinterklaas arrives by boat at the Appelweg, then a procession of Pieten walks him through the garden village of Tuindorp Oostzaan. It is a local tradition run by the neighborhood's Sint and Christmas committee. Kids who know the story will enjoy it most, and the whole route is out in the open.
Sinterklaas arrives in Amstelveen with a parade of Pieten, music, dance and acrobatics, handing out pepernoten along the way. The procession winds through town to a welcome from the mayor and the children's mayor. Kids watch from the curb and wave. It suits young children who love the Sinterklaas story.
A musical theater show about a rubber stuntman who crashes through Professor BOEM's experiments until one test too many turns him to glass. Now he is afraid of every bump. Kids get slapstick, crashes and music, and a funny, gentle look at being scared and starting again. It suits kids who like a bit of adrenaline with their heart.
Every November, Sinterklaas sails into Amsterdam on his steamboat and the city comes out to welcome him. Kids wave from the banks of the Amstel as the boat goes by, then line the streets as he rides through the center with his Pieten and decorated floats. At Leidseplein he speaks to the children himself.
It is made for kids who still believe in him. Expect big crowds.
Släpstick is a Dutch troupe of musical clowns, and Schërzo is their slapstick take on classical music. They play Rossini, Brahms, Saint-Saëns and Gershwin while everything goes wrong: a yodeling Schubert, a ventriloquist duel with a bust of Beethoven, tennis with violins, the Danse Macabre on theremin. Meervaart tags it "language no problem," so kids with no Dutch can follow along.
The Amsterdam Museum turns 100, and it is celebrating with a festival of tours, creative workshops, exhibitions and birthday cake.
For families, the easiest way in is the giant city model, where projections show a small village on the Amstel growing into today's city, with 30,500 hand-placed buildings to spot. Much of the program is pitched at adults, so a visit to the model suits kids better than the talks and tours.
An exhibition of more than 80 works on paper from the museum's own collection, by Rembrandt and other artists up to today's makers, all experimenting with technique and material. In the middle of the show, visitors make their own drawing and try different papers and drawing materials, just like the artists on the walls. It all happens in the house where Rembrandt lived and worked.
An exhibition on the golden age of stage magic, around 1900, when magicians left the fairground for big theaters. Kids meet Harry Houdini, Okito and other famous acts, many of them Jewish performers, and see how vanishing, escaping and levitating tricks work.
Then they try a few themselves, like sawing a parent in half. Dutch illusionist Hans Klok is the guide. School-age kids get the most out of it.
Henry Chalfant photographed New York's graffiti scene in the 1970s and 80s, and STRAAT shows his work at true scale. Metro cars more than three meters tall pull you into the hall. Kids can draw their own pieces at a table, follow a treasure hunt made for families, or join a drop-in creative session.
Speel! (Play!) is a pop-up exhibition at Wereldmuseum Amsterdam about the stories behind well-known games, from the Royal Game of Ur to Tetris and from Mahjong to Mario. The point is to play: kids and parents can challenge each other on new and familiar games.
It also shows how games travel with people, like chess moving from India via Persia to Europe. Suits school-age kids who like games.
An outdoor ice rink on Museumplein, with the Rijksmuseum behind it and the Van Gogh Museum and Concertgebouw close by. Skates come in every size, so first-timers and confident skaters share the same ice. People skated on this square from 1887 to 1937, and the first official world speed skating championship was held here.
Next to the ice, Het Wak serves hot chocolate, lunch and dinner.
A kids' trail through Abracadabra, the Jewish Museum's exhibition on the golden age of stage magic. Kids grab a magic magnifying glass and hunt for seven magic props that illusionist Hans Klok has hidden among the displays.
Along the way they meet magicians like Harry Houdini and can try tricks themselves, like sawing mom in half or making a brother disappear. It suits curious kids who like a mission.
Meesterwerk Amsterdam brings the city's 17th-century paintings to the Stadsarchief, the city archive on Vijzelstraat. Kids look for hidden details in harbor scenes, markets and canal views, and ask whether the Golden Age city was as grand as the paintings say. A free treasure hunt booklet and an audio tour in Dutch and English let families explore at their own pace.
Willie wants nothing more than to be a real superhero: Super Willie. The trouble is, he's clumsy and has no idea how to get superpowers. Just as he's about to give up, a real superheroine appears.
It's a comic children's show at Kindertheater de Toverknol on the Kerkstraat, a good pick for kids who like superhero stories.
Dozens of giant Playmobil dioramas: knights and a dragon castle, pirate ships, Roman camps, pyramids on the Nile, a circus and Star Trek spaceships. Some scenes have their own shows, like Dragon Castle with fire-breathing dragons and Space Western.
Kids don't just look: in the big play zones and at the play tables they play with Playmobil themselves. It suits families and Playmobil collectors alike.
Kids paint their own rabbits in a landscape, inspired by Vincent van Gogh's Landscape with Rabbits from 1889. It is a hands-on painting session inside the museum, a good fit for kids who like to paint and are curious about Van Gogh's work.
A read-aloud for the youngest listeners, from babies to preschoolers, in a children's bookshop. It is short enough for small attention spans. Parents stay close and can have coffee or tea in the shop's coffee corner while the reading happens.
Sinterklaas is staying at the castle, which is busy getting ready for pakjesavond. Kids hunt for Sint's lost things, see where he sleeps and where the presents wait, practice their Piet skills and make something in the castle workshop. On the weekends Sint is in, he greets every child himself, and kids can dance at the Piet disco, meet the circus Pieten, bake pepernoten and pet his horse.
A comic, dreamlike fairy tale about a king who is afraid of everything, most of all the elephants he says are coming. To keep them out, he invents strange rules, puts up odd signs and confiscates everyone's apples. Everyone obeys except Samar, who won't let herself be scared. It's funny first, and it asks what happens when one person refuses to be led by fear.
Veere is looking forward to Sinterklaas evening, until Sinterklaas turns up stuck on the roof with his beard tangled in an antenna. Veere calls Jan the firefighter, who is a clumsy choice of rescuer. Kids dance and sing along to well-known and lesser-known Sinterklaas songs in a classic Toverknol show.
A detective-style walk through the Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam's grand old city theater. A real theater guide leads kids and their grown-ups through the building, kids get to open doors that normally stay shut, and small games and tasks turn up the people who have acted, danced and sung here. Kids pick up some theater history and a little about acting along the way.
A two-hour guided outing in the woods with a certified nature guide. Kids climb, balance on logs and play nature games while the guide tells stories about what they find.
Each date has its own theme, such as a mushroom hunt, bird spotting or making art from leaves and twigs. It goes ahead in the rain, so it suits kids who like being outside in any weather.
Kids watch a few short films from Eye's collection, then make something themselves in a short family workshop. The workshop changes from session to session: making sound effects like a Foley artist, drawing a film on celluloid strips, building a flipbook or moving along to the film. A grown-up has to come along. It is a follow-up for kids who have outgrown Cinemini.
A Sinterklaas puppet show by Scratch Marionetten (Janet Cratchley) at Koos Kneus, a small, cozy puppet theater on Iepenplein. Bibi finds a lost horse in her tiny backyard, makes friends with it and feeds it every day, until its owner turns up.
Every child gets their face painted on arrival and can pull on dress-up clothes. The story is told in Dutch, so it suits kids who follow simple Dutch.
Sinterklaas wakes up outside the museum and has lost his magic book and three golden apples. Kids search for them with a museum guide through a canal house and its hidden attic church. Parents can come along or slip out for coffee. Everyone gets pepernoten and a drink afterward.
String players from Amsterdam Sinfonietta get an exciting letter: they're in a contest to see whose little plant grows the biggest. They're no good at sitting still, so while they wait they sing, dance and set their bows bouncing.
Kids meet the violin, viola, cello and double bass up close and are invited to bounce along. A playful first concert for preschoolers, made together with Het Concertgebouw.
A drop-in craft table for the Sinterklaas season. Kids make surprises (the homemade disguised gifts Dutch families swap on pakjesavond), decorate a shoe to set out for Sint, and learn gift-wrapping traditions from around the world, like Japanese furoshiki cloth wrapping.
It suits kids who like to make things with their hands. It's part of the museum's Sunday holiday series, so you can pair it with a look around the galleries.
Saturday morning comes around fast. This list pulls together the family events we've found for the coming weekend: kids' theater and concerts, hands-on museum workshops, exhibitions and festivals. It updates on its own as the week goes on, so check back on Thursday or Friday when you start planning. Open any card for times, ages and how to book.
An all-white stage fills up with color, one shade at a time, until everything is mixed together. Vases roll away, feathers fly around, soap bubbles turn into a crown and balls decide they are ladybugs.
When the show ends, the kids get to play in the set themselves, among all the colors of the rainbow.
Sinterklaas arrives by boat at the Appelweg, then a procession of Pieten walks him through the garden village of Tuindorp Oostzaan. It is a local tradition run by the neighborhood's Sint and Christmas committee. Kids who know the story will enjoy it most, and the whole route is out in the open.
Sinterklaas arrives in Amstelveen with a parade of Pieten, music, dance and acrobatics, handing out pepernoten along the way. The procession winds through town to a welcome from the mayor and the children's mayor. Kids watch from the curb and wave. It suits young children who love the Sinterklaas story.
A musical theater show about a rubber stuntman who crashes through Professor BOEM's experiments until one test too many turns him to glass. Now he is afraid of every bump. Kids get slapstick, crashes and music, and a funny, gentle look at being scared and starting again. It suits kids who like a bit of adrenaline with their heart.
Every November, Sinterklaas sails into Amsterdam on his steamboat and the city comes out to welcome him. Kids wave from the banks of the Amstel as the boat goes by, then line the streets as he rides through the center with his Pieten and decorated floats. At Leidseplein he speaks to the children himself.
It is made for kids who still believe in him. Expect big crowds.
Släpstick is a Dutch troupe of musical clowns, and Schërzo is their slapstick take on classical music. They play Rossini, Brahms, Saint-Saëns and Gershwin while everything goes wrong: a yodeling Schubert, a ventriloquist duel with a bust of Beethoven, tennis with violins, the Danse Macabre on theremin. Meervaart tags it "language no problem," so kids with no Dutch can follow along.
The Amsterdam Museum turns 100, and it is celebrating with a festival of tours, creative workshops, exhibitions and birthday cake.
For families, the easiest way in is the giant city model, where projections show a small village on the Amstel growing into today's city, with 30,500 hand-placed buildings to spot. Much of the program is pitched at adults, so a visit to the model suits kids better than the talks and tours.
An exhibition of more than 80 works on paper from the museum's own collection, by Rembrandt and other artists up to today's makers, all experimenting with technique and material. In the middle of the show, visitors make their own drawing and try different papers and drawing materials, just like the artists on the walls. It all happens in the house where Rembrandt lived and worked.
An exhibition on the golden age of stage magic, around 1900, when magicians left the fairground for big theaters. Kids meet Harry Houdini, Okito and other famous acts, many of them Jewish performers, and see how vanishing, escaping and levitating tricks work.
Then they try a few themselves, like sawing a parent in half. Dutch illusionist Hans Klok is the guide. School-age kids get the most out of it.
Henry Chalfant photographed New York's graffiti scene in the 1970s and 80s, and STRAAT shows his work at true scale. Metro cars more than three meters tall pull you into the hall. Kids can draw their own pieces at a table, follow a treasure hunt made for families, or join a drop-in creative session.
Speel! (Play!) is a pop-up exhibition at Wereldmuseum Amsterdam about the stories behind well-known games, from the Royal Game of Ur to Tetris and from Mahjong to Mario. The point is to play: kids and parents can challenge each other on new and familiar games.
It also shows how games travel with people, like chess moving from India via Persia to Europe. Suits school-age kids who like games.
An outdoor ice rink on Museumplein, with the Rijksmuseum behind it and the Van Gogh Museum and Concertgebouw close by. Skates come in every size, so first-timers and confident skaters share the same ice. People skated on this square from 1887 to 1937, and the first official world speed skating championship was held here.
Next to the ice, Het Wak serves hot chocolate, lunch and dinner.
A kids' trail through Abracadabra, the Jewish Museum's exhibition on the golden age of stage magic. Kids grab a magic magnifying glass and hunt for seven magic props that illusionist Hans Klok has hidden among the displays.
Along the way they meet magicians like Harry Houdini and can try tricks themselves, like sawing mom in half or making a brother disappear. It suits curious kids who like a mission.
Meesterwerk Amsterdam brings the city's 17th-century paintings to the Stadsarchief, the city archive on Vijzelstraat. Kids look for hidden details in harbor scenes, markets and canal views, and ask whether the Golden Age city was as grand as the paintings say. A free treasure hunt booklet and an audio tour in Dutch and English let families explore at their own pace.
Willie wants nothing more than to be a real superhero: Super Willie. The trouble is, he's clumsy and has no idea how to get superpowers. Just as he's about to give up, a real superheroine appears.
It's a comic children's show at Kindertheater de Toverknol on the Kerkstraat, a good pick for kids who like superhero stories.
Dozens of giant Playmobil dioramas: knights and a dragon castle, pirate ships, Roman camps, pyramids on the Nile, a circus and Star Trek spaceships. Some scenes have their own shows, like Dragon Castle with fire-breathing dragons and Space Western.
Kids don't just look: in the big play zones and at the play tables they play with Playmobil themselves. It suits families and Playmobil collectors alike.
Kids paint their own rabbits in a landscape, inspired by Vincent van Gogh's Landscape with Rabbits from 1889. It is a hands-on painting session inside the museum, a good fit for kids who like to paint and are curious about Van Gogh's work.
A read-aloud for the youngest listeners, from babies to preschoolers, in a children's bookshop. It is short enough for small attention spans. Parents stay close and can have coffee or tea in the shop's coffee corner while the reading happens.
Sinterklaas is staying at the castle, which is busy getting ready for pakjesavond. Kids hunt for Sint's lost things, see where he sleeps and where the presents wait, practice their Piet skills and make something in the castle workshop. On the weekends Sint is in, he greets every child himself, and kids can dance at the Piet disco, meet the circus Pieten, bake pepernoten and pet his horse.
A comic, dreamlike fairy tale about a king who is afraid of everything, most of all the elephants he says are coming. To keep them out, he invents strange rules, puts up odd signs and confiscates everyone's apples. Everyone obeys except Samar, who won't let herself be scared. It's funny first, and it asks what happens when one person refuses to be led by fear.
Veere is looking forward to Sinterklaas evening, until Sinterklaas turns up stuck on the roof with his beard tangled in an antenna. Veere calls Jan the firefighter, who is a clumsy choice of rescuer. Kids dance and sing along to well-known and lesser-known Sinterklaas songs in a classic Toverknol show.
A detective-style walk through the Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam's grand old city theater. A real theater guide leads kids and their grown-ups through the building, kids get to open doors that normally stay shut, and small games and tasks turn up the people who have acted, danced and sung here. Kids pick up some theater history and a little about acting along the way.
A two-hour guided outing in the woods with a certified nature guide. Kids climb, balance on logs and play nature games while the guide tells stories about what they find.
Each date has its own theme, such as a mushroom hunt, bird spotting or making art from leaves and twigs. It goes ahead in the rain, so it suits kids who like being outside in any weather.
Kids watch a few short films from Eye's collection, then make something themselves in a short family workshop. The workshop changes from session to session: making sound effects like a Foley artist, drawing a film on celluloid strips, building a flipbook or moving along to the film. A grown-up has to come along. It is a follow-up for kids who have outgrown Cinemini.
A Sinterklaas puppet show by Scratch Marionetten (Janet Cratchley) at Koos Kneus, a small, cozy puppet theater on Iepenplein. Bibi finds a lost horse in her tiny backyard, makes friends with it and feeds it every day, until its owner turns up.
Every child gets their face painted on arrival and can pull on dress-up clothes. The story is told in Dutch, so it suits kids who follow simple Dutch.
Sinterklaas wakes up outside the museum and has lost his magic book and three golden apples. Kids search for them with a museum guide through a canal house and its hidden attic church. Parents can come along or slip out for coffee. Everyone gets pepernoten and a drink afterward.
String players from Amsterdam Sinfonietta get an exciting letter: they're in a contest to see whose little plant grows the biggest. They're no good at sitting still, so while they wait they sing, dance and set their bows bouncing.
Kids meet the violin, viola, cello and double bass up close and are invited to bounce along. A playful first concert for preschoolers, made together with Het Concertgebouw.
A drop-in craft table for the Sinterklaas season. Kids make surprises (the homemade disguised gifts Dutch families swap on pakjesavond), decorate a shoe to set out for Sint, and learn gift-wrapping traditions from around the world, like Japanese furoshiki cloth wrapping.
It suits kids who like to make things with their hands. It's part of the museum's Sunday holiday series, so you can pair it with a look around the galleries.
