Rain, heat or a long winter afternoon, these are the indoor plans we keep coming back to. Kids' theater, puppet and shadow shows, children's opera and hands-on museum workshops, all under a roof. Some are made for toddlers, some for school-age kids, and plenty run in Greek, so check each card for ages and language before you book.
Circo Mundial has been on the road since 1968, and this stop brings its circus show to Katerini. Kids watch a run of live acts, one after another.
The show carries itself without words, so it works for kids who speak no Greek. It suits families in and around Katerini; from Athens it is a long trip for one show.
An interactive exhibition about one feeling: anger. Kids and parents work through hands-on exhibits that show what anger does in the body, test different reactions through its characters, and look for what helps. The Emotions Museum, a listed house at the foot of Philopappou Hill, has a team of psychologists, educators and drama therapists. It suits kids with big tempers and parents who want a way to talk about them.
Pocket Opera & Ballet (Όπερα & Μπαλέτο Τσέπης) is the Greek National Opera's series of opera and ballet shows made for children.
It is performed in Greek, so it suits kids who follow the language best.
A girl and her ticket wait at a bus stop, and an ordinary wait turns into a trip full of surprises. A dancer and a multi-instrumentalist play with balls, veils, balloons and songs while babies and their grown-ups sit on cushions, watching, laughing and joining in. It was made as a first theater outing, by the team behind The Queen of Everything, the longest-running baby show in Athens.
A modern, funny take on Mary Shelley's story. Little Victor, great-great-great-grandson of Victor Frankenstein, tries to bring his toys to life so he can have a real friend, without thinking about what happens if it works. Three actors, live music, songs and video projections carry the mix-ups that follow. Under the jokes are questions about bullying, stereotypes and using AI responsibly. Performed in Greek.
A stage version of The Wizard of Oz, following Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion on their way to the Wizard. Three actors play it with live original music and songs, comedy and interactive video projections. The story leans on teamwork and finding the courage you already have. It is performed in Greek, so it suits kids who know the story or follow Greek.
A new take on Robin Hood from the National Theatre's children's stage. Robin is a young forest ranger who gets branded an outlaw for standing up to a profit-hungry Commissioner who wants to clear the woods for roads, factories and mines. He hides in the heart of the forest with a band of friends who decide to defend it. Songs, movement and movie-style stage fights carry the story.
Karagiozis is the much-loved hero of Greek shadow theater. Haris Psyllas, one of the younger Karagiozis puppeteers carrying on the tradition, writes, directs and performs the show himself.
Each Sunday brings a different story, from a mystery about a trunk to Alexander the Great and a cursed snake. It's performed in Greek, so it best suits kids who follow the language.
The myth of Icarus meets science fiction. In the future, Earth is running out of air and people are split between those under a protective dome and those left outside. A scientist builds Icarus, an android sent to a distant planet, who discovers something just before launch.
Two actors play it as fast, high-energy physical theater with songs and moments where kids join in. It is played in Greek.
A musical play by Maria Kilaidoni about Ririka, a bear cub spending her first birthday alone after moving to a new mountain. She heads to town for her favorite pistachio ice cream and meets her friends on the way: twin hedgehogs who make fireworks, a crocodile pastry chef, two lion musicians and a dancing kangaroo.
When the ice cream shop is closed, the friends have to save the day.
A Christmas stage show where Mickey and his friends board a Christmas train. Kids sit in the audience at the Avlaia Theater in Pasalimani, Piraeus, and watch the familiar characters on stage.
It suits preschoolers and early primary kids who know Mickey and his friends. Older kids may find it young.
A Greek-language musical retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, full of hope, songs, humor and Christmas magic. Young Lizia grows up in a hard world but keeps searching for warmth and love, and along the way she meets Lucien, a boy full of dreams, a couple who believe in miracles and a wise grandfather.
It suits kids who follow spoken and sung Greek and can sit through long shows.
A musical stage version of Maya the Bee, performed in Greek. Maya longs for adventure outside the hive, and while trying to talk her best friend Willy into coming along, she breaks the hive by accident. With help from Flip the grasshopper, Ben the beetle and Beatrice the butterfly, they set out to fix it before the other bees return.
It suits preschool and early primary kids who follow Greek.
Blue blue blue is a short opera made for the very youngest, staged as part of the Maria Callas Museum's family program.
It suits toddlers rather than older kids used to full-length shows.
A stage musical of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The grumpy green Grinch hates the lights, the gifts and the happy voices of Christmas, and plots to make it vanish for good, until a meeting with little Cindy Lou changes everything.
It's a big family show with a message kids get: happiness comes from people, not presents. Songs and dialogue are in Greek.
Lalalilalo Christmas Surprise is a Christmas theater show made for toddlers and preschoolers. A cast performs it at Morfes Ekfrasis, a drama school.
The show is in Greek, so it suits kids who follow Greek. It is pitched at the very young, so older siblings in school may find it too babyish.
On New Year's Eve in the town of Doroupoli, the presents polish their wrapping for the biggest night of the year. Best friends Ribbon and Bow fly around the Earth and find it needs gifts no box can hold: water, trees, clean air. Three actors and an onstage pianist tell it with harmony singing and video projections, and the message is about sticking at it and caring for the planet.
A holiday play for kids built on the premise in its title: Christmas has been banned. It's a story-based show, so it suits kids who can follow a plot from start to finish, and it may lose toddlers along the way.
The MATICAPI company stages it at Arroyo Theater on Patision Street.
A Christmas theater show for children, staged at the historic Olympia Theater in central Athens. Its Greek title is Ο Πλανήτης των Χριστουγεννιάτικων Δέντρων.
It's a seated, ticketed play, a good holiday outing for families whose kids enjoy sitting through a live show.
A Christmas stage show from the Sofi Koukouvagia company, inspired by Dickens' tale of the miser Scrooge. He meets the spirits of Christmas, travels into his past and future, gets moved and scared along the way, and ends up a kinder man.
It suits kids who can sit through a full-length play and follow Greek dialogue, and families after a holiday outing with a clear message about kindness and giving.
Maro and the Kalikantzaroi is a children's play from the Morfes Ekfrasis company, staged at a drama school over the winter holidays.
The show is performed in Greek, so it suits kids who follow spoken Greek. Children who don't may find the story hard to keep up with.
Giorgos Hatzipavlou does stand-up comedy written for kids, and it is in Greek. He jokes about school, pets, foreign languages, children's songs, toys, friends, parents' advice and the odd habits of grown-ups, plus a Christmas set for the season. Kids laugh at their own lives; parents laugh at being reminded what it was like to be a kid. It suits school-age kids who follow spoken Greek well.
A pocket version of Giselle, the classic ballet, made by the Greek National Opera for toddlers and the grown-up who brings them.
It is a first taste of live ballet for children aged one to three. Older kids who already sit through full-length shows are not the audience here.
A Greek-language stage version of the DreamWorks film: Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo break out of the New York zoo, with help from the penguins. Greek singer Akylas plays King Julien.
Expect big sets, costumes, songs and dancing. The whole show is sung and spoken in Greek, so it suits kids who know the film or follow Greek.
The Magic Christmas Chimney is a Christmas theater show for children, back for its 10th year. It plays in cinema halls and a municipal theater.
The show is performed in Greek, so it suits kids who follow the language best.
A Christmas play by Patari Project, one of Greece's best-known physical theater companies. It follows the legend of a fourth Wise Man whose trip to Bethlehem takes far longer, because he keeps stopping to help people in need.
Four actors build the scenes with their bodies and voices, and a musician plays well-known Christmas songs in new arrangements live on stage. Funny and sentimental, it is about giving and kindness.
The Nutcracker, the Christmas ballet, staged by the Grand Classical Ballet in the theater of the Peristeri Exhibition Center in west Athens.
Kids follow the story through dance and music. It suits children who can sit quietly through a ballet in a theater seat, and makes an easy holiday outing near the Anthoupoli metro.
Hans Christian Andersen's tale, staged as an opera. In the emperor of China's palace, a real nightingale's song lifts his gloom, until a mechanical bird arrives as a gift and replaces it. When the machine breaks and the emperor faces death, the nightingale comes back.
It's sung in Greek, so it suits kids who can sit through an opera and follow a story told in song.
Benjamin Britten wrote The Little Sweep in 1949 as an opera for children, and the Greek National Opera stages it in Greek, with the Oros Ensemble playing the score live. The story follows a young chimney sweep in the 19th century.
It suits school-age kids who can follow a sung story in Greek. Families who don't speak Greek will enjoy the music but miss most of the plot.
Saint-Saëns wrote The Carnival of the Animals in 1886, a set of short pieces that each paint an animal in music. The Greek National Opera stages it on its Alternative Stage at the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center, with the Oros Ensemble playing live.
It suits school-age kids who can sit through a concert, and makes an easy first taste of classical music.
Rain, heat or a long winter afternoon, these are the indoor plans we keep coming back to. Kids' theater, puppet and shadow shows, children's opera and hands-on museum workshops, all under a roof. Some are made for toddlers, some for school-age kids, and plenty run in Greek, so check each card for ages and language before you book.
Circo Mundial has been on the road since 1968, and this stop brings its circus show to Katerini. Kids watch a run of live acts, one after another.
The show carries itself without words, so it works for kids who speak no Greek. It suits families in and around Katerini; from Athens it is a long trip for one show.
An interactive exhibition about one feeling: anger. Kids and parents work through hands-on exhibits that show what anger does in the body, test different reactions through its characters, and look for what helps. The Emotions Museum, a listed house at the foot of Philopappou Hill, has a team of psychologists, educators and drama therapists. It suits kids with big tempers and parents who want a way to talk about them.
Pocket Opera & Ballet (Όπερα & Μπαλέτο Τσέπης) is the Greek National Opera's series of opera and ballet shows made for children.
It is performed in Greek, so it suits kids who follow the language best.
A girl and her ticket wait at a bus stop, and an ordinary wait turns into a trip full of surprises. A dancer and a multi-instrumentalist play with balls, veils, balloons and songs while babies and their grown-ups sit on cushions, watching, laughing and joining in. It was made as a first theater outing, by the team behind The Queen of Everything, the longest-running baby show in Athens.
A modern, funny take on Mary Shelley's story. Little Victor, great-great-great-grandson of Victor Frankenstein, tries to bring his toys to life so he can have a real friend, without thinking about what happens if it works. Three actors, live music, songs and video projections carry the mix-ups that follow. Under the jokes are questions about bullying, stereotypes and using AI responsibly. Performed in Greek.
A stage version of The Wizard of Oz, following Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion on their way to the Wizard. Three actors play it with live original music and songs, comedy and interactive video projections. The story leans on teamwork and finding the courage you already have. It is performed in Greek, so it suits kids who know the story or follow Greek.
A new take on Robin Hood from the National Theatre's children's stage. Robin is a young forest ranger who gets branded an outlaw for standing up to a profit-hungry Commissioner who wants to clear the woods for roads, factories and mines. He hides in the heart of the forest with a band of friends who decide to defend it. Songs, movement and movie-style stage fights carry the story.
Karagiozis is the much-loved hero of Greek shadow theater. Haris Psyllas, one of the younger Karagiozis puppeteers carrying on the tradition, writes, directs and performs the show himself.
Each Sunday brings a different story, from a mystery about a trunk to Alexander the Great and a cursed snake. It's performed in Greek, so it best suits kids who follow the language.
The myth of Icarus meets science fiction. In the future, Earth is running out of air and people are split between those under a protective dome and those left outside. A scientist builds Icarus, an android sent to a distant planet, who discovers something just before launch.
Two actors play it as fast, high-energy physical theater with songs and moments where kids join in. It is played in Greek.
A musical play by Maria Kilaidoni about Ririka, a bear cub spending her first birthday alone after moving to a new mountain. She heads to town for her favorite pistachio ice cream and meets her friends on the way: twin hedgehogs who make fireworks, a crocodile pastry chef, two lion musicians and a dancing kangaroo.
When the ice cream shop is closed, the friends have to save the day.
A Christmas stage show where Mickey and his friends board a Christmas train. Kids sit in the audience at the Avlaia Theater in Pasalimani, Piraeus, and watch the familiar characters on stage.
It suits preschoolers and early primary kids who know Mickey and his friends. Older kids may find it young.
A Greek-language musical retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, full of hope, songs, humor and Christmas magic. Young Lizia grows up in a hard world but keeps searching for warmth and love, and along the way she meets Lucien, a boy full of dreams, a couple who believe in miracles and a wise grandfather.
It suits kids who follow spoken and sung Greek and can sit through long shows.
A musical stage version of Maya the Bee, performed in Greek. Maya longs for adventure outside the hive, and while trying to talk her best friend Willy into coming along, she breaks the hive by accident. With help from Flip the grasshopper, Ben the beetle and Beatrice the butterfly, they set out to fix it before the other bees return.
It suits preschool and early primary kids who follow Greek.
Blue blue blue is a short opera made for the very youngest, staged as part of the Maria Callas Museum's family program.
It suits toddlers rather than older kids used to full-length shows.
A stage musical of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The grumpy green Grinch hates the lights, the gifts and the happy voices of Christmas, and plots to make it vanish for good, until a meeting with little Cindy Lou changes everything.
It's a big family show with a message kids get: happiness comes from people, not presents. Songs and dialogue are in Greek.
Lalalilalo Christmas Surprise is a Christmas theater show made for toddlers and preschoolers. A cast performs it at Morfes Ekfrasis, a drama school.
The show is in Greek, so it suits kids who follow Greek. It is pitched at the very young, so older siblings in school may find it too babyish.
On New Year's Eve in the town of Doroupoli, the presents polish their wrapping for the biggest night of the year. Best friends Ribbon and Bow fly around the Earth and find it needs gifts no box can hold: water, trees, clean air. Three actors and an onstage pianist tell it with harmony singing and video projections, and the message is about sticking at it and caring for the planet.
A holiday play for kids built on the premise in its title: Christmas has been banned. It's a story-based show, so it suits kids who can follow a plot from start to finish, and it may lose toddlers along the way.
The MATICAPI company stages it at Arroyo Theater on Patision Street.
A Christmas theater show for children, staged at the historic Olympia Theater in central Athens. Its Greek title is Ο Πλανήτης των Χριστουγεννιάτικων Δέντρων.
It's a seated, ticketed play, a good holiday outing for families whose kids enjoy sitting through a live show.
A Christmas stage show from the Sofi Koukouvagia company, inspired by Dickens' tale of the miser Scrooge. He meets the spirits of Christmas, travels into his past and future, gets moved and scared along the way, and ends up a kinder man.
It suits kids who can sit through a full-length play and follow Greek dialogue, and families after a holiday outing with a clear message about kindness and giving.
Maro and the Kalikantzaroi is a children's play from the Morfes Ekfrasis company, staged at a drama school over the winter holidays.
The show is performed in Greek, so it suits kids who follow spoken Greek. Children who don't may find the story hard to keep up with.
Giorgos Hatzipavlou does stand-up comedy written for kids, and it is in Greek. He jokes about school, pets, foreign languages, children's songs, toys, friends, parents' advice and the odd habits of grown-ups, plus a Christmas set for the season. Kids laugh at their own lives; parents laugh at being reminded what it was like to be a kid. It suits school-age kids who follow spoken Greek well.
A pocket version of Giselle, the classic ballet, made by the Greek National Opera for toddlers and the grown-up who brings them.
It is a first taste of live ballet for children aged one to three. Older kids who already sit through full-length shows are not the audience here.
A Greek-language stage version of the DreamWorks film: Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo break out of the New York zoo, with help from the penguins. Greek singer Akylas plays King Julien.
Expect big sets, costumes, songs and dancing. The whole show is sung and spoken in Greek, so it suits kids who know the film or follow Greek.
The Magic Christmas Chimney is a Christmas theater show for children, back for its 10th year. It plays in cinema halls and a municipal theater.
The show is performed in Greek, so it suits kids who follow the language best.
A Christmas play by Patari Project, one of Greece's best-known physical theater companies. It follows the legend of a fourth Wise Man whose trip to Bethlehem takes far longer, because he keeps stopping to help people in need.
Four actors build the scenes with their bodies and voices, and a musician plays well-known Christmas songs in new arrangements live on stage. Funny and sentimental, it is about giving and kindness.
The Nutcracker, the Christmas ballet, staged by the Grand Classical Ballet in the theater of the Peristeri Exhibition Center in west Athens.
Kids follow the story through dance and music. It suits children who can sit quietly through a ballet in a theater seat, and makes an easy holiday outing near the Anthoupoli metro.
Hans Christian Andersen's tale, staged as an opera. In the emperor of China's palace, a real nightingale's song lifts his gloom, until a mechanical bird arrives as a gift and replaces it. When the machine breaks and the emperor faces death, the nightingale comes back.
It's sung in Greek, so it suits kids who can sit through an opera and follow a story told in song.
Benjamin Britten wrote The Little Sweep in 1949 as an opera for children, and the Greek National Opera stages it in Greek, with the Oros Ensemble playing the score live. The story follows a young chimney sweep in the 19th century.
It suits school-age kids who can follow a sung story in Greek. Families who don't speak Greek will enjoy the music but miss most of the plot.
Saint-Saëns wrote The Carnival of the Animals in 1886, a set of short pieces that each paint an animal in music. The Greek National Opera stages it on its Alternative Stage at the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Center, with the Oros Ensemble playing live.
It suits school-age kids who can sit through a concert, and makes an easy first taste of classical music.
