Going out with kids adds up fast, so this list sticks to plans that cost nothing at the door. Library craft afternoons, story hours, neighborhood street festivals and children's culture workshops, all free and all in the next month, sorted by what's coming up next. Some workshops cap numbers and ask you to sign up ahead, so check the event page before you head out.
Berliner Puppentheater brings its puppet show Der Grolltroll (The Grumpy Troll) to the Bibliothek im Märkischen Viertel. Kids watch a grumpy troll's story played out with puppets.
It suits toddlers and preschoolers, and makes an easy first taste of theater in a familiar library setting.
A neighborhood lantern walk run by the Heinrich-Böll-Bibliothek, a Pankow public library. Families meet at the library, then kids carry their lit lanterns through the Mühlenkiez streets with music along the way.
It's a local library parade, not a staged show, so it suits kids who can manage an evening walk in the dark.
Children from the State and Cathedral Choir Berlin and a girls' choir of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin act out the legend of St. Martin, the soldier who shared his cloak, set to German songs from the 1500s.
The play is led in German and suits young kids who enjoy a story told in song. It ends with a lantern procession, so the evening finishes outdoors.
A lantern evening at the neighborhood library in Prenzlauer Berg. Kids start by making their own colorful paper lantern with Nadine, who brings all the materials.
Then Rumpelmärchen, a Berlin fairy-tale theater ensemble, tell the story of a phoenix reborn from its ashes and turn it into a real fire show out in the courtyard. A good pick for kids who like crafts and a bit of drama.
A St. Martin's Day evening on a working farm in Dahlem. It opens with a short service where the story of St. Martin is told and families sing Martin and lantern songs with the parish brass ensemble.
Then everyone walks their lanterns across the estate, and the evening ends with food and drinks in the farmyard.
Czech illustrator Lucie Lučanská opens with a reading from her picture book, which follows a walk from a village into the forest and back, told one sense at a time.
Then kids draw their own route to the library on a very long roll of paper: what they saw, heard, touched, smelled and tasted, mixing in collage and rubbings. It suits kids who like to draw and take their time.
Kids and grown-ups build a pop-up box together, filled with pictures of the people, pets, toys or places they love most. Everything is made at the table from craft materials, and the finished treasure box goes home with you. It is open drop-in making, so families work at their own pace.
A musical fairy tale by Thomas Sutter. The little harmonica feels too small and too plain for the big concert hall, until it meets its relatives the accordion, the jaw harp and the Chinese sheng, and finds its own sound.
Soloists Wu Wei, Sören Birke and Mikael Yakut play all four instruments and show how they differ, and why they are one family: each sounds through a free reed.
A hands-on craft workshop where kids build paper torches inspired by Minecraft that light up. They learn how a simple electric circuit works and wire it with conductive tape, then shape the torch from colored and see-through paper however they like. Each kid takes their torch home, ready for an evening walk in the dark. Run by the library with the paper-electronics makers Volt Paper Scissors.
Bubales is a Jewish puppet theater, and this is its show for Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. Shlomo is given a mysterious wonder lamp from Istanbul, and three funny spirits jump out to tell of a miracle of light in the Temple in Jerusalem.
With Jewish humor, a candle band and a hyperactive dreidel, it tells the holiday's customs and its old story.
Over 200 nonprofit organizations, associations, and clubs offer handmade items, wooden toys, candles, honey, jams, and crafted gifts across Richardplatz. Food vendors serve mulled wine, waffles, bratwurst, and international vegetarian and vegan specialties. Only charitable organizations participate; commercial vendors are excluded.
A Christmas funfair on Landsberger Allee with 26 rides, from a 45-meter Ferris wheel with enclosed gondolas to the 85-meter Lion Tower drop and the new Crazy Roulette. Twelve are family and kids' rides, including a mini roller coaster, carousels and a fire-fighter fun house. Younger kids will be happiest there and on the Ferris wheel; the big thrill rides suit older kids and teens.
BAUBAU is a play space inside the Gropius Bau, designed by the artist Kerstin Brätsch, where more is allowed than forbidden. Painted walls, abstract structures and heaps of loose parts (cardboard, fabric, rope, kitchenware) become whatever kids decide.
Trained playworkers keep it safe while children build, take things apart, run around or rest. There are no workshops or set tasks, so it suits kids who like open-ended play more than a guided program.
Every winter the children's library at the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek puts a real Mongolian yurt in its atrium garden, and professional storytellers sit inside it to tell fairy tales and stories from around the world.
Kids sit close and listen to stories told live, not read from a book. It suits preschoolers who can sit still for a story; toddlers under 3 are not admitted.
Winterquartier Berlin is a Christmas market at the Napoleon Komplex in Friedrichshain, with market huts, an ice rink and curling. Kids can skate, have a go at curling and catch the Christmas show for children in the cultural program.
It's a come-and-go outing. The market, rink and curling need no German; only the kids' show is spoken.
A hands-on design workshop run by the Bauhaus-Archiv, inspired by pieces from its collection and by how design was taught at the Bauhaus. Kids and adults explore photography, drawing, material and pattern, craft techniques and color, using analog and digital tools. No experience needed.
A Christmas market running through Spandau's old town, with stalls selling roasted almonds, bratwurst and mulled wine. Kids can meet Santa Claus and pick up cotton candy. Families can try the two ice stock lanes on Reformationsplatz.
A Christmas market in front of Charlottenburg Palace, with craft stalls, food stands and street musicians among fir trees and lit decorations. Once it gets dark, a light-mapping show plays across the palace facade.
Kids ride the carousels and watch the palace light up, while parents browse handmade gifts and grab mulled wine or gingerbread. It suits younger kids who like lights and rides.
A Christmas market in the courtyards of a 19th-century brewery, now the Kulturbrauerei arts complex. Kids ride a small chain carousel, balance on a rope-ladder game and take aim at a miniature knight's castle with crossbows. Santa has his own throne and a mailbox for wish letters. Swedish fires and a coat-heater art piece keep everyone warm.
The Flying Fairytale Orchestra is planning the perfect Christmas party and invites all the kids. But what makes Christmas perfect: a decorated tree, presents, a roast goose?
Together with the kids, the cast goes looking and finds songs, customs and poems from other countries and cultures. By the end, the children help put the perfect Christmas show on stage. A German-language show by Morphtheater, best for kids who follow German.
A storytelling tent in Neukölln where traditional fairy tales from countries like India, Turkey, Japan and Ghana are told in their original language. Kids sit on floor cushions while the storyteller shows large illustrations painted by artists from that country, so the pictures, gestures and faces carry the plot whatever language a child speaks.
Afterward, the storyteller and the audience retell the story together. Running since 2006.
Going out with kids adds up fast, so this list sticks to plans that cost nothing at the door. Library craft afternoons, story hours, neighborhood street festivals and children's culture workshops, all free and all in the next month, sorted by what's coming up next. Some workshops cap numbers and ask you to sign up ahead, so check the event page before you head out.
Berliner Puppentheater brings its puppet show Der Grolltroll (The Grumpy Troll) to the Bibliothek im Märkischen Viertel. Kids watch a grumpy troll's story played out with puppets.
It suits toddlers and preschoolers, and makes an easy first taste of theater in a familiar library setting.
A neighborhood lantern walk run by the Heinrich-Böll-Bibliothek, a Pankow public library. Families meet at the library, then kids carry their lit lanterns through the Mühlenkiez streets with music along the way.
It's a local library parade, not a staged show, so it suits kids who can manage an evening walk in the dark.
Children from the State and Cathedral Choir Berlin and a girls' choir of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin act out the legend of St. Martin, the soldier who shared his cloak, set to German songs from the 1500s.
The play is led in German and suits young kids who enjoy a story told in song. It ends with a lantern procession, so the evening finishes outdoors.
A lantern evening at the neighborhood library in Prenzlauer Berg. Kids start by making their own colorful paper lantern with Nadine, who brings all the materials.
Then Rumpelmärchen, a Berlin fairy-tale theater ensemble, tell the story of a phoenix reborn from its ashes and turn it into a real fire show out in the courtyard. A good pick for kids who like crafts and a bit of drama.
A St. Martin's Day evening on a working farm in Dahlem. It opens with a short service where the story of St. Martin is told and families sing Martin and lantern songs with the parish brass ensemble.
Then everyone walks their lanterns across the estate, and the evening ends with food and drinks in the farmyard.
Czech illustrator Lucie Lučanská opens with a reading from her picture book, which follows a walk from a village into the forest and back, told one sense at a time.
Then kids draw their own route to the library on a very long roll of paper: what they saw, heard, touched, smelled and tasted, mixing in collage and rubbings. It suits kids who like to draw and take their time.
Kids and grown-ups build a pop-up box together, filled with pictures of the people, pets, toys or places they love most. Everything is made at the table from craft materials, and the finished treasure box goes home with you. It is open drop-in making, so families work at their own pace.
A musical fairy tale by Thomas Sutter. The little harmonica feels too small and too plain for the big concert hall, until it meets its relatives the accordion, the jaw harp and the Chinese sheng, and finds its own sound.
Soloists Wu Wei, Sören Birke and Mikael Yakut play all four instruments and show how they differ, and why they are one family: each sounds through a free reed.
A hands-on craft workshop where kids build paper torches inspired by Minecraft that light up. They learn how a simple electric circuit works and wire it with conductive tape, then shape the torch from colored and see-through paper however they like. Each kid takes their torch home, ready for an evening walk in the dark. Run by the library with the paper-electronics makers Volt Paper Scissors.
Bubales is a Jewish puppet theater, and this is its show for Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. Shlomo is given a mysterious wonder lamp from Istanbul, and three funny spirits jump out to tell of a miracle of light in the Temple in Jerusalem.
With Jewish humor, a candle band and a hyperactive dreidel, it tells the holiday's customs and its old story.
Over 200 nonprofit organizations, associations, and clubs offer handmade items, wooden toys, candles, honey, jams, and crafted gifts across Richardplatz. Food vendors serve mulled wine, waffles, bratwurst, and international vegetarian and vegan specialties. Only charitable organizations participate; commercial vendors are excluded.
A Christmas funfair on Landsberger Allee with 26 rides, from a 45-meter Ferris wheel with enclosed gondolas to the 85-meter Lion Tower drop and the new Crazy Roulette. Twelve are family and kids' rides, including a mini roller coaster, carousels and a fire-fighter fun house. Younger kids will be happiest there and on the Ferris wheel; the big thrill rides suit older kids and teens.
BAUBAU is a play space inside the Gropius Bau, designed by the artist Kerstin Brätsch, where more is allowed than forbidden. Painted walls, abstract structures and heaps of loose parts (cardboard, fabric, rope, kitchenware) become whatever kids decide.
Trained playworkers keep it safe while children build, take things apart, run around or rest. There are no workshops or set tasks, so it suits kids who like open-ended play more than a guided program.
Every winter the children's library at the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek puts a real Mongolian yurt in its atrium garden, and professional storytellers sit inside it to tell fairy tales and stories from around the world.
Kids sit close and listen to stories told live, not read from a book. It suits preschoolers who can sit still for a story; toddlers under 3 are not admitted.
Winterquartier Berlin is a Christmas market at the Napoleon Komplex in Friedrichshain, with market huts, an ice rink and curling. Kids can skate, have a go at curling and catch the Christmas show for children in the cultural program.
It's a come-and-go outing. The market, rink and curling need no German; only the kids' show is spoken.
A hands-on design workshop run by the Bauhaus-Archiv, inspired by pieces from its collection and by how design was taught at the Bauhaus. Kids and adults explore photography, drawing, material and pattern, craft techniques and color, using analog and digital tools. No experience needed.
A Christmas market running through Spandau's old town, with stalls selling roasted almonds, bratwurst and mulled wine. Kids can meet Santa Claus and pick up cotton candy. Families can try the two ice stock lanes on Reformationsplatz.
A Christmas market in front of Charlottenburg Palace, with craft stalls, food stands and street musicians among fir trees and lit decorations. Once it gets dark, a light-mapping show plays across the palace facade.
Kids ride the carousels and watch the palace light up, while parents browse handmade gifts and grab mulled wine or gingerbread. It suits younger kids who like lights and rides.
A Christmas market in the courtyards of a 19th-century brewery, now the Kulturbrauerei arts complex. Kids ride a small chain carousel, balance on a rope-ladder game and take aim at a miniature knight's castle with crossbows. Santa has his own throne and a mailbox for wish letters. Swedish fires and a coat-heater art piece keep everyone warm.
The Flying Fairytale Orchestra is planning the perfect Christmas party and invites all the kids. But what makes Christmas perfect: a decorated tree, presents, a roast goose?
Together with the kids, the cast goes looking and finds songs, customs and poems from other countries and cultures. By the end, the children help put the perfect Christmas show on stage. A German-language show by Morphtheater, best for kids who follow German.
A storytelling tent in Neukölln where traditional fairy tales from countries like India, Turkey, Japan and Ghana are told in their original language. Kids sit on floor cushions while the storyteller shows large illustrations painted by artists from that country, so the pictures, gestures and faces carry the plot whatever language a child speaks.
Afterward, the storyteller and the audience retell the story together. Running since 2006.
