Basel families will find something new in the next month, and this list keeps up with it. It pulls in the kids' shows, fairs, workshops, museum exhibitions and local traditions coming up in the next month, soonest first, so you can see what fits this weekend and what is worth booking ahead.
Basel's Herbstmesse, "d Mäss" to locals, has run every autumn since 1471 and is the biggest funfair in Switzerland. Rides, game booths and food stalls fill squares on both sides of the Rhine: old-time carousels and a Ferris wheel beside the Münster, faster rides in Kleinbasel, and a pottery and craft market under the plane trees on Petersplatz. Snack stops: Mässmogge candy, spiced Magenbrot and hot chestnuts.
Räbeliechtli is a Swiss autumn tradition: kids carry lanterns carved from turnips and walk together in the evening. This one is run by the ELCH and goes through the Lange Erlen to the square outside Kaffi ELCH.
Big and small are welcome. It suits preschoolers and early schoolers best, and families who booked can stay on afterward for a soup supper.
KinderGleisKreis is a supervised pop-up playground on disused railroad tracks in the Dreispitz area. Kids build it themselves around a railroad theme and their own ideas, with help from the play team. Old freight wagons hold a workshop and a living room, a covered wagon serves as a workbench, and homemade rail trolleys roll along the tracks. Younger kids pull each other in small wagons on a kids' track.
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.
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.
Gratis uffs Glattyys is Basel's free skating day, when the canton opens both public rinks, Margarethen and Eglisee, to everyone. It's an easy, no-pressure way for a family to spend a whole day on the ice.
At Margarethen, regional ice sports clubs add a program kids can join in. It suits kids who can already stand on skates; total beginners will need a parent's hand.
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.
The Basler Stadtlauf is Basel's big city road run, and on race day the old town fills with runners of every age.
Alongside the main run there are 1 km school races for kids and a family run, where one parent and one child run together from the Münster down to the Marktplatz. It suits kids who like to race and families who want to do it side by side.
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.
Niggi-Näggi is Basel's name for Samichlaus, the Swiss St. Nicholas, and the Zolli is what locals call Zoo Basel. For this afternoon event, he comes to the zoo.
It suits preschool and primary-age kids who know the Samichlaus tradition. The event is outdoors, so dress for the weather.
Every year, Harley-Davidson riders turn their motorbikes into Christmas vehicles and ride through Basel's illuminated city center dressed as Nikolaus, Santiglaus, Santa Claus or angels. It is one of the highlights of Basel's Christmas season.
Kids watch from the street as the decorated bikes roll past. It suits families with young children who love Santa, and anyone who likes motorbikes.
Santiglaus (St. Nicholas) drops in at Haus zum Kirschgarten with his helper Schmutzli. Kids who dare can step up and recite a little poem in front of him.
The rest of the family watches from the garden with warm drinks. It suits kids who can say a short rhyme in German, and younger siblings who just want to see him.
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.
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.
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.
Basel's newest Christmas market, a village of huts at Theaterplatz that spreads into the nearby squares. Around 40 huts sell local design and crafts, plus food from the region and around the world.
Kids get their own areas, and the program promises stilt walkers in costume, fairy-tale storytelling, craft afternoons and a carousel. It suits families who want browsing, snacks and Christmas lights in one outing.
A Christmas village for kids, decorated with fir trees, set up by the Robi-Spiel-Aktionen inside the Basel Christmas market on Münsterplatz. Kids go from house to house to dip candles, decorate gingerbread, make Christmas presents, try tin pouring or blacksmithing, and ride the kids' train. A marionette theater performs a Christmas story.
Kids warm up with hot chocolate in the fire room while adults get mulled wine at the bar.
Basel's Christmas market fills the city center with stalls of tree ornaments, gifts and food, around the Barfüsserkirche and in front of the Münster, where the trees are hung with glowing snow globes.
For kids, the main draw is the Märchenwald on Münsterplatz: a forest of fir trees run by the Robi-Spiel-Aktionen association, full of hands-on crafts and with its own puppet theater.
Europa-Park in Rust stays open through the winter season, and Rulantica opens too. Families can spend a day at each and sleep in one of the park's themed hotels, which all stay open along with the restaurants.
It suits families happy to turn a winter day trip into a short break. New Year's has its own packages built around dinner shows and parties, and several are already booked out.
The Märchenwald (also called the Märliwald) turns Münsterplatz into a Christmas village of several houses. Kids move between them to dip candles, decorate gingerbread, make Christmas presents and ride the kids' train.
It suits preschool and primary-age kids who like making things with their hands. Most of it happens out on the square, so dress everyone for a cold December afternoon.
Lörrach's Christmas market turns the Alter Marktplatz into a village of huts and lights. Stalls sell crafts, gift ideas and snacks like crêpes, roasted almonds and chocolate-dipped fruit, with alcohol-free punch alongside the mulled wine.
Younger kids head for the children's carousel, and a culture program brings acts like the town's music school and the Motettenchor choir. It suits a relaxed stroll more than a full day out.
Basel families will find something new in the next month, and this list keeps up with it. It pulls in the kids' shows, fairs, workshops, museum exhibitions and local traditions coming up in the next month, soonest first, so you can see what fits this weekend and what is worth booking ahead.
Basel's Herbstmesse, "d Mäss" to locals, has run every autumn since 1471 and is the biggest funfair in Switzerland. Rides, game booths and food stalls fill squares on both sides of the Rhine: old-time carousels and a Ferris wheel beside the Münster, faster rides in Kleinbasel, and a pottery and craft market under the plane trees on Petersplatz. Snack stops: Mässmogge candy, spiced Magenbrot and hot chestnuts.
Räbeliechtli is a Swiss autumn tradition: kids carry lanterns carved from turnips and walk together in the evening. This one is run by the ELCH and goes through the Lange Erlen to the square outside Kaffi ELCH.
Big and small are welcome. It suits preschoolers and early schoolers best, and families who booked can stay on afterward for a soup supper.
KinderGleisKreis is a supervised pop-up playground on disused railroad tracks in the Dreispitz area. Kids build it themselves around a railroad theme and their own ideas, with help from the play team. Old freight wagons hold a workshop and a living room, a covered wagon serves as a workbench, and homemade rail trolleys roll along the tracks. Younger kids pull each other in small wagons on a kids' track.
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.
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.
Gratis uffs Glattyys is Basel's free skating day, when the canton opens both public rinks, Margarethen and Eglisee, to everyone. It's an easy, no-pressure way for a family to spend a whole day on the ice.
At Margarethen, regional ice sports clubs add a program kids can join in. It suits kids who can already stand on skates; total beginners will need a parent's hand.
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.
The Basler Stadtlauf is Basel's big city road run, and on race day the old town fills with runners of every age.
Alongside the main run there are 1 km school races for kids and a family run, where one parent and one child run together from the Münster down to the Marktplatz. It suits kids who like to race and families who want to do it side by side.
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.
Niggi-Näggi is Basel's name for Samichlaus, the Swiss St. Nicholas, and the Zolli is what locals call Zoo Basel. For this afternoon event, he comes to the zoo.
It suits preschool and primary-age kids who know the Samichlaus tradition. The event is outdoors, so dress for the weather.
Every year, Harley-Davidson riders turn their motorbikes into Christmas vehicles and ride through Basel's illuminated city center dressed as Nikolaus, Santiglaus, Santa Claus or angels. It is one of the highlights of Basel's Christmas season.
Kids watch from the street as the decorated bikes roll past. It suits families with young children who love Santa, and anyone who likes motorbikes.
Santiglaus (St. Nicholas) drops in at Haus zum Kirschgarten with his helper Schmutzli. Kids who dare can step up and recite a little poem in front of him.
The rest of the family watches from the garden with warm drinks. It suits kids who can say a short rhyme in German, and younger siblings who just want to see him.
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.
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.
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.
Basel's newest Christmas market, a village of huts at Theaterplatz that spreads into the nearby squares. Around 40 huts sell local design and crafts, plus food from the region and around the world.
Kids get their own areas, and the program promises stilt walkers in costume, fairy-tale storytelling, craft afternoons and a carousel. It suits families who want browsing, snacks and Christmas lights in one outing.
A Christmas village for kids, decorated with fir trees, set up by the Robi-Spiel-Aktionen inside the Basel Christmas market on Münsterplatz. Kids go from house to house to dip candles, decorate gingerbread, make Christmas presents, try tin pouring or blacksmithing, and ride the kids' train. A marionette theater performs a Christmas story.
Kids warm up with hot chocolate in the fire room while adults get mulled wine at the bar.
Basel's Christmas market fills the city center with stalls of tree ornaments, gifts and food, around the Barfüsserkirche and in front of the Münster, where the trees are hung with glowing snow globes.
For kids, the main draw is the Märchenwald on Münsterplatz: a forest of fir trees run by the Robi-Spiel-Aktionen association, full of hands-on crafts and with its own puppet theater.
Europa-Park in Rust stays open through the winter season, and Rulantica opens too. Families can spend a day at each and sleep in one of the park's themed hotels, which all stay open along with the restaurants.
It suits families happy to turn a winter day trip into a short break. New Year's has its own packages built around dinner shows and parties, and several are already booked out.
The Märchenwald (also called the Märliwald) turns Münsterplatz into a Christmas village of several houses. Kids move between them to dip candles, decorate gingerbread, make Christmas presents and ride the kids' train.
It suits preschool and primary-age kids who like making things with their hands. Most of it happens out on the square, so dress everyone for a cold December afternoon.
Lörrach's Christmas market turns the Alter Marktplatz into a village of huts and lights. Stalls sell crafts, gift ideas and snacks like crêpes, roasted almonds and chocolate-dipped fruit, with alcohol-free punch alongside the mulled wine.
Younger kids head for the children's carousel, and a culture program brings acts like the town's music school and the Motettenchor choir. It suits a relaxed stroll more than a full day out.
