Autumn and winter here bring plenty of gray, wet afternoons, and that's when a plan with a roof over it counts. This list pulls together upcoming kids' shows, sing-along concerts, craft workshops, museum programs and family festivals held indoors, with the next ones first, so you can pick one for this week and book ahead for the popular ones. Check each listing for the language a show is performed in.
A whole special exhibition on the teddy bear, inside a toy museum that holds one of the world's largest collections of historic teddies. It traces the bear from old legends and Basel's own Bear Dance to the 1907 teddy craze, Winnie-the-Pooh, Paddington and the Haribo Goldbear.
Kids can hug a giant plush bear and play at a teddy first-aid station between the glass cases.
Der Räuber Hotzenplotz, the robber adventure, comes to the stage of the Basler Kindertheater in a version by Jessica Wohlwend. Kids and the adults who bring them watch it together.
It is performed in Swiss German dialect, so it suits kids who hear Swiss German at home or at school. Kids who don't understand dialect will miss most of the dialogue.
A marionette play about a young ghost living in a castle in Scotland, performed by the theater's own ensemble in a Basel German version by Markus Blättler.
The Basler Marionetten Theater has staged puppet plays since 1943 in the Zehntenkeller, a historic cellar beside the Münster. It suits kids who understand Swiss German; a child who speaks only English will find the story hard to follow.
Kipling's story of Mowgli, the boy raised in the jungle, and his animal friends, in a new stage version Kamil Krejci wrote and directs for the Fauteuil-Märchenbühne. He plays it for laughs and for suspense, with original music by Alexius Tschallener and choreographed scenes.
The theater's own ensemble of eight actors performs it in the Fauteuil hall on Spalenberg, a two-minute walk from Marktplatz in the Old Town.
A family workshop inside the Museum der Kulturen's Tie-dye exhibition. Kids and parents first look at the different techniques used to pattern textiles, including shibori, a Japanese dyeing technique.
Then everyone gets creative and dyes socks, folding and tying them so each one comes out with its own pattern. It suits kids who like hands-on making more than looking at display cases.
Andrew Bond is the Swiss children's songwriter whose songs many kids already know by heart. This family concert is built for joining in: songs from his nature album "Machs wie de Dachs" (Do It Like the Badger) take the audience through fields, woods and meadows, singing, playing and dancing along with animals, birds and insects, with some of his best-known autumn songs mixed in. It's sung in Swiss German.
Two winter shows share the Rosentalanlage. Palazzo Colombino is a dinner theater in a heated Art Nouveau mirror tent: a four-course menu, with acrobats, jugglers, magicians, clowns and comedians from around the world performing between the courses.
Cirque Noël de Bâle is the Christmas circus on the same grounds. Palazzo is a sit-down dinner evening, so it suits older kids who can manage a full dinner.
The Brothers Grimm's Snow White, staged by the Basler Kindertheater in a version by Mónica and Jessica Wohlwend. The wicked queen wants to be the fairest in the land, and Snow White flees her stepmother to the seven dwarfs' cottage.
The play is spoken in Swiss German dialect, so it suits kids who follow Mundart. The theater pitches it to young and old alike.
An interactive family tour through the Ruth Asawa exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen. It sets out to make art a playful experience for kids and grown-ups alike.
Parents come along on the tour rather than dropping kids off, so it works as a shared outing. A good fit for school-age kids who would rather take part than walk quietly past the art.
Ballett Basel and choreographer Marco Goecke turn Astrid Lindgren's children's classic into a dance fairy tale. Orphan Bo, raised by an unloving foster family, reaches the Land of Faraway, learns he is Prince Mio, finds his father and, with his friend Jum-Jum, stands up to the cruel knight Kato.
Goecke's precise, playful movement builds clear pictures and leaves room for kids' own imagination and humor.
Kids stamp, print, write and draw their own advent calendar at the Basler Papiermühle, a hands-on museum of paper, writing and printing inside a medieval mill: 24 doors, 24 surprises.
It's an open workshop, so families drop in and work at their own pace. Teens and adults make one too, and the museum's other stations, from scooping paper to old printing presses, come with the same ticket.
A family concert based on Janosch's story of Josa, a boy who is given a magic fiddle. Its sound can make anyone small and weak or big and strong, so he sets off for the moon to enchant it too, with adventures all the way to the end of the world.
Suits kids who like adventure stories and are curious about classical music.
Museumsnacht is Basel's big winter night at the museum. One ticket opens dozens of museums and cultural venues across the city and neighboring towns, each with its own program of exhibitions, music, dance and hands-on activities.
Families pick a few houses, plan a route and hop between them. It suits school-age kids who can stay up late and enjoy a crowd.
Lorenz Pauli, a well-known children's book author, comes to the Chinds-Chöpf family theater series at Theater BAU3 and tells stories. Some are about big snow and cold days; the rest he keeps as a surprise.
It is storytelling theater, so the show is his words and the pictures kids build in their own heads. It suits kids who love being read to and can follow spoken German.
CAVALLUNA is a touring horse show that mixes riding, an international dance company, music, lights and special effects on a big stage set.
The story follows Arhat, a shepherd boy, and his companion Shaneya as they set out to free people from a veil of forgetting that keeps them stuck in distraction and routine. It suits horse-loving kids and families who enjoy a big arena spectacle.
Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate classic, Die Schatzinsel, on stage at the Basler Kindertheater in a version written by Jessica Wohlwend. Kids follow a story full of pirates, mysterious islands and hidden treasure, told live in Swiss German dialect.
It suits families who want an exciting adventure story together, and kids who already understand Swiss German, since this is a spoken play and the words carry it.
Four odd birds hatch one by one from a giant egg, and then a big black grand piano appears. The newly hatched birds explore their world and the mysterious instrument, and playful, unusual music grows out of it.
The grand piano becomes the meeting point of the show, with all four performers making it sound. It suits curious kids who like to see how instruments make their sounds.
Balz Aliesch writes modern kids' songs in Baseldytsch, the Basel dialect of Swiss German, mixing pop, reggae, funk and rockabilly with plenty of jokes. Here he plays the favorites from his three albums: songs about everyday kid life to listen to, sing along with and act out, written so the grown-ups enjoy them too. Fauteuil regulars may know him as an actor from the Pfyfferli and the fairy-tale shows.
Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, played with short-strung marionettes. Peter opens the garden gate and meets the big gray wolf, and every character has its own instrument: the waddling duck gets the oboe, the cat sneaks to the clarinet, and Peter's grandfather gets the bassoon.
A first taste of classical music for kids who can follow a story told in German. It is a guest production at the marionette theater.
Fantasy Basel is Switzerland's largest convention for film, gaming, comics and cosplay fans. Kids can watch cosplayers and walking acts, try games, esports and VR, browse comic artists and tabletop games, and catch stars and shows.
It suits gamers and fans of anime, manga and fantasy. Toddlers and kids who dislike crowds and noise will find it a lot.
Circus Knie tours Switzerland with a big-top show, and Basel is one of its stops. The program mixes international circus artists, modern show technology and the horses of the Knie family.
For this tour the company has a new tent and new seating, which brings a new seating plan. It suits kids who can sit through a full circus show and like horses.
Autumn and winter here bring plenty of gray, wet afternoons, and that's when a plan with a roof over it counts. This list pulls together upcoming kids' shows, sing-along concerts, craft workshops, museum programs and family festivals held indoors, with the next ones first, so you can pick one for this week and book ahead for the popular ones. Check each listing for the language a show is performed in.
A whole special exhibition on the teddy bear, inside a toy museum that holds one of the world's largest collections of historic teddies. It traces the bear from old legends and Basel's own Bear Dance to the 1907 teddy craze, Winnie-the-Pooh, Paddington and the Haribo Goldbear.
Kids can hug a giant plush bear and play at a teddy first-aid station between the glass cases.
Der Räuber Hotzenplotz, the robber adventure, comes to the stage of the Basler Kindertheater in a version by Jessica Wohlwend. Kids and the adults who bring them watch it together.
It is performed in Swiss German dialect, so it suits kids who hear Swiss German at home or at school. Kids who don't understand dialect will miss most of the dialogue.
A marionette play about a young ghost living in a castle in Scotland, performed by the theater's own ensemble in a Basel German version by Markus Blättler.
The Basler Marionetten Theater has staged puppet plays since 1943 in the Zehntenkeller, a historic cellar beside the Münster. It suits kids who understand Swiss German; a child who speaks only English will find the story hard to follow.
Kipling's story of Mowgli, the boy raised in the jungle, and his animal friends, in a new stage version Kamil Krejci wrote and directs for the Fauteuil-Märchenbühne. He plays it for laughs and for suspense, with original music by Alexius Tschallener and choreographed scenes.
The theater's own ensemble of eight actors performs it in the Fauteuil hall on Spalenberg, a two-minute walk from Marktplatz in the Old Town.
A family workshop inside the Museum der Kulturen's Tie-dye exhibition. Kids and parents first look at the different techniques used to pattern textiles, including shibori, a Japanese dyeing technique.
Then everyone gets creative and dyes socks, folding and tying them so each one comes out with its own pattern. It suits kids who like hands-on making more than looking at display cases.
Andrew Bond is the Swiss children's songwriter whose songs many kids already know by heart. This family concert is built for joining in: songs from his nature album "Machs wie de Dachs" (Do It Like the Badger) take the audience through fields, woods and meadows, singing, playing and dancing along with animals, birds and insects, with some of his best-known autumn songs mixed in. It's sung in Swiss German.
Two winter shows share the Rosentalanlage. Palazzo Colombino is a dinner theater in a heated Art Nouveau mirror tent: a four-course menu, with acrobats, jugglers, magicians, clowns and comedians from around the world performing between the courses.
Cirque Noël de Bâle is the Christmas circus on the same grounds. Palazzo is a sit-down dinner evening, so it suits older kids who can manage a full dinner.
The Brothers Grimm's Snow White, staged by the Basler Kindertheater in a version by Mónica and Jessica Wohlwend. The wicked queen wants to be the fairest in the land, and Snow White flees her stepmother to the seven dwarfs' cottage.
The play is spoken in Swiss German dialect, so it suits kids who follow Mundart. The theater pitches it to young and old alike.
An interactive family tour through the Ruth Asawa exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen. It sets out to make art a playful experience for kids and grown-ups alike.
Parents come along on the tour rather than dropping kids off, so it works as a shared outing. A good fit for school-age kids who would rather take part than walk quietly past the art.
Ballett Basel and choreographer Marco Goecke turn Astrid Lindgren's children's classic into a dance fairy tale. Orphan Bo, raised by an unloving foster family, reaches the Land of Faraway, learns he is Prince Mio, finds his father and, with his friend Jum-Jum, stands up to the cruel knight Kato.
Goecke's precise, playful movement builds clear pictures and leaves room for kids' own imagination and humor.
Kids stamp, print, write and draw their own advent calendar at the Basler Papiermühle, a hands-on museum of paper, writing and printing inside a medieval mill: 24 doors, 24 surprises.
It's an open workshop, so families drop in and work at their own pace. Teens and adults make one too, and the museum's other stations, from scooping paper to old printing presses, come with the same ticket.
A family concert based on Janosch's story of Josa, a boy who is given a magic fiddle. Its sound can make anyone small and weak or big and strong, so he sets off for the moon to enchant it too, with adventures all the way to the end of the world.
Suits kids who like adventure stories and are curious about classical music.
Museumsnacht is Basel's big winter night at the museum. One ticket opens dozens of museums and cultural venues across the city and neighboring towns, each with its own program of exhibitions, music, dance and hands-on activities.
Families pick a few houses, plan a route and hop between them. It suits school-age kids who can stay up late and enjoy a crowd.
Lorenz Pauli, a well-known children's book author, comes to the Chinds-Chöpf family theater series at Theater BAU3 and tells stories. Some are about big snow and cold days; the rest he keeps as a surprise.
It is storytelling theater, so the show is his words and the pictures kids build in their own heads. It suits kids who love being read to and can follow spoken German.
CAVALLUNA is a touring horse show that mixes riding, an international dance company, music, lights and special effects on a big stage set.
The story follows Arhat, a shepherd boy, and his companion Shaneya as they set out to free people from a veil of forgetting that keeps them stuck in distraction and routine. It suits horse-loving kids and families who enjoy a big arena spectacle.
Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate classic, Die Schatzinsel, on stage at the Basler Kindertheater in a version written by Jessica Wohlwend. Kids follow a story full of pirates, mysterious islands and hidden treasure, told live in Swiss German dialect.
It suits families who want an exciting adventure story together, and kids who already understand Swiss German, since this is a spoken play and the words carry it.
Four odd birds hatch one by one from a giant egg, and then a big black grand piano appears. The newly hatched birds explore their world and the mysterious instrument, and playful, unusual music grows out of it.
The grand piano becomes the meeting point of the show, with all four performers making it sound. It suits curious kids who like to see how instruments make their sounds.
Balz Aliesch writes modern kids' songs in Baseldytsch, the Basel dialect of Swiss German, mixing pop, reggae, funk and rockabilly with plenty of jokes. Here he plays the favorites from his three albums: songs about everyday kid life to listen to, sing along with and act out, written so the grown-ups enjoy them too. Fauteuil regulars may know him as an actor from the Pfyfferli and the fairy-tale shows.
Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, played with short-strung marionettes. Peter opens the garden gate and meets the big gray wolf, and every character has its own instrument: the waddling duck gets the oboe, the cat sneaks to the clarinet, and Peter's grandfather gets the bassoon.
A first taste of classical music for kids who can follow a story told in German. It is a guest production at the marionette theater.
Fantasy Basel is Switzerland's largest convention for film, gaming, comics and cosplay fans. Kids can watch cosplayers and walking acts, try games, esports and VR, browse comic artists and tabletop games, and catch stars and shows.
It suits gamers and fans of anime, manga and fantasy. Toddlers and kids who dislike crowds and noise will find it a lot.
Circus Knie tours Switzerland with a big-top show, and Basel is one of its stops. The program mixes international circus artists, modern show technology and the horses of the Knie family.
For this tour the company has a new tent and new seating, which brings a new seating plan. It suits kids who can sit through a full circus show and like horses.
