Berlin is generous to families who don't want to pay. Big parks and old airfields to run across, adventure playgrounds, children's farms, sledding hills when it snows, and museums and libraries that let kids in free. We pair those with the free workshops, readings and festivals coming up next, so there's always something new on the list.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Sunday-afternoon club for kids at Haus der Kulturen der Welt. A disco ball, balloons and a rotating cast of DJs turn several of the building's halls into a dance floor where children run, dance and make friends.
Some dates add a special: the October edition is a Ballroom session with House of St. Laurent, with a costume workshop and a runway walk for every kid who wants one.
Berlin's big New Year's Eve party turns the square in front of the Brandenburg Gate into an open-air dance floor, with DJ sets, drinks and snacks. This year's motto is "Yeah 27". It is a crowd at a famous landmark, so it suits older kids who are fine with loud music and a late night.
Staatsoper für alle is a free open-air concert by the Staatskapelle Berlin on Bebelplatz, right beside the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. This edition marks the series' 20th anniversary, with general music director Christian Thielemann conducting Mendelssohn and Liszt.
It suits school-age kids who already enjoy orchestral music and can handle a big crowd.
For one day, free concerts take place across the whole of Berlin. Amateur and professional musicians of every style play in venues from cafes to opera houses.
There's no single site to get to, so families can drift between sets, stop for a song and move on when the kids do. It suits a relaxed day of wandering more than a planned outing.
The playground sits in Weinbergspark, a hillside park on the site of old vineyards. The toddler area has a climbing tower and slide that wheelchairs can reach, plus a nest swing, a carousel and a spinning disc on firm, step-free surfacing.
Older kids get a rubber-surfaced ball cage, ping-pong tables and a wooden deck to hang out on. The rest of the ground is sand, so a bucket and spade earn their place.
Kollwitzplatz is a triangular square in Prenzlauer Berg ringed by late-1800s facades, with a playground and a bronze statue of the artist Käthe Kollwitz at its center.
On Thursdays about 40 stalls from Berlin and Brandenburg sell organic produce, cheese, bread, clay-oven pizza, waffles and soups. A Saturday market adds street food, jam, crafts and clothing. Kids can snack their way along the stalls, then run off to the playground.
Waslala is a staffed adventure playground and children's farm in Altglienicke. Kids build their own wooden huts with real tools, light fires and climb, with educators keeping watch. The animal yard has ponies, sheep, a goat, rabbits and bees, and kids help feed and care for them.
It is a parent-free zone: parents don't stay, so it suits kids who are happy to play on their own.
The Tiergarten is a 210-hectare former royal hunting ground turned landscaped park, with woodland paths, meadows, ponds and the Victory Column at its center. A large playground sits in the southeastern corner near Potsdamer Platz.
Kids can cycle the long avenues or kick a ball on the lawns. Café am Neuen See runs a lakeside beer garden in summer, and in some winters the small lakes freeze hard enough to skate.
Volkspark Rehberge, in Wedding, covers 115 hectares of meadows and woodland, laid out as a landscape park in the 1920s. There are several playgrounds, a wild boar enclosure on the western side, a chain of three small ponds (no swimming), big sports grounds and kilometers of paths where kids learn to ride a bike. In winter, the long sledding hill draws families from the surrounding neighborhoods.
Treptower Park runs 88 hectares along the Spree, with wide lawns for ball games and picnics and a riverside promenade where tour boats leave from the pier. An arched bridge crosses to Insel der Jugend, a small island with boat hire.
It also holds the Soviet War Memorial, a solemn war grave with a 30-meter soldier statue, and the Archenhold Observatory, home to a 21-meter telescope and a small planetarium.
Mauerpark sits on the former Berlin Wall death strip, and 300 meters of the Wall still stand along its east side, covered in street art. An amphitheater set into the slope hosts open-air karaoke on summer Sundays.
Up north are the Moritzhof children's farm and a 15-meter climbing wall, and kids have several playgrounds to choose from, the biggest built in 2020.
Berlin's oldest public park was laid out in the 1840s on the edge of Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg. At the west entrance, the 1913 Märchenbrunnen fountain has over 100 stone figures from German fairy tales. Two hills built from wartime bunkers and rubble, Mont Klamott and Kleiner Bunkerberg, look out over the city center. There are playgrounds, sports grounds, a swan pond with a beer garden, and a barbecue area.
The children's and teens' library inside the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek holds about 130,000 books and other media, the largest collection of its kind in Germany.
It has three parts: a children's library and a teen library for reading for fun, plus a learning center with nonfiction and study help. The kids' wing sits in the glass-walled annex by the garden, where it has been since 1957.
Park am Gleisdreieck opened in 2013 on former railway land, and U-Bahn trains still cross it on raised viaducts. Its 30 hectares hold several playgrounds, including a water playground with climbing frames and a 5,000 m² nature play area with a clay landscape and water pump. Older kids head for the 1,300 m² skate park, table tennis and beach volleyball courts.
A large open-air flea market on the edge of Mauerpark, with roughly 400 to 450 stalls of secondhand clothes, furniture, records, lamps, jewelry, handmade goods and used toys. A food court in the middle has seating, so lunch fits between rounds of browsing.
Kids with a bit of pocket money can hunt for toys and old trinkets. It draws big crowds of locals and tourists, so keep young kids close.
Tempelhofer Feld is the former Tempelhof airport, opened as a park in 2010. Over 300 hectares of meadow surround the old runways, where kids bike, skate and fly kites on wide, flat asphalt with no cars.
By the southeast entrance, the Tempelschlucht nature play area has a water pump feeding a little stream, sand and clay for mud play, and big boulders to climb.
Markthalle Neun is an 1891 market hall in Kreuzberg, one of 14 the city once ran. Inside are farmers' market stalls, a fish counter, bakeries, a butcher, cafés, open kitchens and a brewery in the cellar.
Kids can wander between the stalls, try snacks and watch food being made. Street Food Thursday, running since 2013, fills the hall with chefs who have no restaurant of their own.
The East Side Gallery is the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall, running 1.3 km along Mühlenstraße between Ostbahnhof and the Oberbaumbrücke. After the Wall fell, 118 artists from 21 countries painted it with murals.
Kids can hunt for famous ones, like the Brezhnev and Honecker kiss and a Trabant car bursting through the Wall, then cut across to the green strip along the Spree.
The city's only surviving historic gate, built 1788 to 1791 and modeled on the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. Twelve Doric columns hold up the Quadriga, a chariot statue Napoleon took to Paris in 1806 and Berlin got back in 1814.
Kids can walk through the columns, spot the four horses on top, and hear how the gate stood in a closed zone of the Berlin Wall until 1989.
The glass dome on the roof of the Reichstag Building, home of the German parliament, has a spiral ramp that winds up around a mirrored cone to an open top. Kids can look down through the glass into the plenary chamber, then walk the roof terrace for views over the government district and city landmarks.
Audioguides on the terrace come in twelve languages, with a children's version in German.
A three-deck play ship on the Spree bank, nicknamed the Black Pearl. Kids climb and balance their way between decks, ride a 5-meter spiral tube slide, cook in the galley play kitchen and play table tennis on deck.
Ramps reach part of the ship, and pieces like a marble run, speaking tubes and a memory wall are built so kids with and without disabilities can play together.
The memorial runs 1.4 km along Bernauer Straße, where the border split the street in two. Rusty steel rods trace the line of the Wall, and markers show escape tunnels and spots where people died trying to cross.
From the viewing tower at the Documentation Center, kids look down into the last preserved stretch of the death strip, watchtower included. Best with school-age kids who know some of the history.
Alte Fasanerie is a former pheasantry turned open farmyard on the rural northern edge of the city, run by the Elisabethstift youth charity. Kids can say hello to goats, alpacas, chickens, pheasants and horses, walk round the pond and the herb and flower garden, and browse the Bücherkuh, a courtyard box of kids' books to borrow. It suits a slow, quiet afternoon more than a big day out.
Kinderbauernhof Pinke-Panke is a volunteer-run children's farm and supervised adventure playground on the edge of Bürgerpark. Around 70 animals live here, including donkeys, sheep, goats, mini pigs, geese, rabbits and hens.
Staff help kids with the afternoon feeding, and there are workshops for wood, soapstone, wool and bike repairs, plus a building playground, a vegetable garden and a campfire. Expect a scrappy, hands-on farm rather than a tidy petting zoo.
A hands-on history museum for kids and teens, run by the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district. Its main exhibition, Villa Global, is a house of 14 rooms, each furnished by a different Berliner, from a toddler to a grandmother to a rapper, with video interviews to watch.
An open studio and school-break workshops add crafts and making. It suits curious kids from about 10 into the teens.
Futurium is a museum about how people might live in the future, on the Spree between the main station and the Reichstag. The exhibition is split into three thinking spaces, human, nature and technology, full of interactive stations.
In the Futurium Lab, kids can craft, solder and program at hands-on workshops, and the rooftop Skywalk opens when the weather allows.
Jugendfarm Moritzhof is a children's farm on the former Wall strip at the north end of Mauerpark, in Prenzlauer Berg. Kids help feed and care for goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs, tend the garden beds and cook with what they harvest.
Staff also teach old crafts: felting, spinning, pottery, basket weaving and blacksmithing. The kids help decide which animals they look after and which projects come next.
Berlin's first children's farm, started in 1981 by neighbors who cleared a rubble lot beside the Wall. Kids can meet sheep, goats, ponies, donkeys, rabbits, ducks, geese and chickens, and see how animal feed, herbs and vegetables are grown in the gardens.
There is also a nature trail, a community house built from clay, and open pasture for running around.
Kolle 37 is a staffed adventure playground (Bauspielplatz) on about 4,000 square meters near Kollwitzplatz, open since 1990. Kids build their own wooden huts with real tools, make fires, work in the garden and help with the animals. Youth workers run projects in the pottery, the wood and felt workshop, the smithy and a music rehearsal room, and kids help decide what the projects are.
Schlachtensee is a long, narrow lake at the edge of the Grunewald forest, known for its clear water. Kids wade in from grassy meadows and small sandy patches along the shore, while stand-up paddlers glide past. A path runs all the way around under the trees.
The Alte Fischerhütte on the east bank is a historic inn with a beer garden, a playground and boats for rent.
An 830-meter sandy beach on the northeast shore of the Großer Müggelsee, the city's largest lake, backed by forest. Wooden jetties lead into the water, a buoy line keeps boats out of the swimming area, and there are toilets, a snack bar and sports facilities. A separate section is a nudist (FKK) beach.
The historic bath buildings are being restored, so expect some fenced-off works.
The Rixdorfer Höhe is a hill built after World War II from about 700,000 cubic meters of rubble, rising 22 meters above the surrounding Hasenheide park. When snow falls, most families sled the short, gentle run down in the valley. Bolder kids take the winding run of about 100 meters that spirals down from the top. The park also has playgrounds, an animal enclosure and an outdoor cinema.
Two hills in Volkspark Friedrichshain were built from blown-up wartime flak bunkers and city rubble: Mont Klamott, the taller one, and the Kleiner Bunkerberg.
The marked sledding run is on the east slope of the Kleiner Bunkerberg, fenced on both sides, with a steep, bumpy start and a long runout at the bottom. Both hills have more open slopes, and each has a viewing platform looking over the city center.
Viktoriapark climbs the Kreuzberg, the highest hill in the inner city, with Schinkel's cast-iron National Monument at the top. After a snowfall, families sled down its several slopes. The gradient is moderate enough for small kids, and the main run is wide.
Between runs, there's a wooden climbing playground and an enclosure with goats, rabbits and guinea pigs.
The Insulaner is a 78-meter hill built from World War II rubble, now wooded and crossed by footpaths. After a snowfall its west side holds one of the city's longest sledding runs, about 220 meters, with a smaller beginner slope at the bottom for younger kids.
The Wilhelm-Foerster observatory sits on the summit, the Planetarium am Insulaner at its foot, and there is a mini golf course on the hill.
Teufelsberg is a hill built from World War II rubble in the Grunewald forest, topping out at 120 meters above sea level, the city's second-highest point. When snow falls, families sled and snowboard down its open slopes, which once had a ski lift and an official sled run.
The old run is now closed and partly fenced off. The abandoned US listening station sits on the summit.
Domäne Dahlem is a working organic farm and open-air museum on an old manor estate. It breeds endangered livestock: Red Höhenvieh cattle, German Saddleback pigs, Pomeranian sheep, longhaired goats, Konik and Exmoor ponies, and rare hens and ducks.
Kids can walk the fields and orchards and visit the Culinarium museum about food and farming. A farm shop and country inn sit by the courtyard.
A children's farm inside Görlitzer Park, run since 1981 by a neighborhood association as a supervised youth center. Kids meet goats, donkeys, ponies, rabbits, geese and chickens, roam the yard, and toddlers get their own corner with a sandpit, play equipment and a water playground in summer.
The clay-built community house hosts clubs during the week and opens to everyone on Sundays for a family café with waffles and hot chocolate.
Berlin is generous to families who don't want to pay. Big parks and old airfields to run across, adventure playgrounds, children's farms, sledding hills when it snows, and museums and libraries that let kids in free. We pair those with the free workshops, readings and festivals coming up next, so there's always something new on the list.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Sunday-afternoon club for kids at Haus der Kulturen der Welt. A disco ball, balloons and a rotating cast of DJs turn several of the building's halls into a dance floor where children run, dance and make friends.
Some dates add a special: the October edition is a Ballroom session with House of St. Laurent, with a costume workshop and a runway walk for every kid who wants one.
Berlin's big New Year's Eve party turns the square in front of the Brandenburg Gate into an open-air dance floor, with DJ sets, drinks and snacks. This year's motto is "Yeah 27". It is a crowd at a famous landmark, so it suits older kids who are fine with loud music and a late night.
Staatsoper für alle is a free open-air concert by the Staatskapelle Berlin on Bebelplatz, right beside the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. This edition marks the series' 20th anniversary, with general music director Christian Thielemann conducting Mendelssohn and Liszt.
It suits school-age kids who already enjoy orchestral music and can handle a big crowd.
For one day, free concerts take place across the whole of Berlin. Amateur and professional musicians of every style play in venues from cafes to opera houses.
There's no single site to get to, so families can drift between sets, stop for a song and move on when the kids do. It suits a relaxed day of wandering more than a planned outing.
The playground sits in Weinbergspark, a hillside park on the site of old vineyards. The toddler area has a climbing tower and slide that wheelchairs can reach, plus a nest swing, a carousel and a spinning disc on firm, step-free surfacing.
Older kids get a rubber-surfaced ball cage, ping-pong tables and a wooden deck to hang out on. The rest of the ground is sand, so a bucket and spade earn their place.
Kollwitzplatz is a triangular square in Prenzlauer Berg ringed by late-1800s facades, with a playground and a bronze statue of the artist Käthe Kollwitz at its center.
On Thursdays about 40 stalls from Berlin and Brandenburg sell organic produce, cheese, bread, clay-oven pizza, waffles and soups. A Saturday market adds street food, jam, crafts and clothing. Kids can snack their way along the stalls, then run off to the playground.
Waslala is a staffed adventure playground and children's farm in Altglienicke. Kids build their own wooden huts with real tools, light fires and climb, with educators keeping watch. The animal yard has ponies, sheep, a goat, rabbits and bees, and kids help feed and care for them.
It is a parent-free zone: parents don't stay, so it suits kids who are happy to play on their own.
The Tiergarten is a 210-hectare former royal hunting ground turned landscaped park, with woodland paths, meadows, ponds and the Victory Column at its center. A large playground sits in the southeastern corner near Potsdamer Platz.
Kids can cycle the long avenues or kick a ball on the lawns. Café am Neuen See runs a lakeside beer garden in summer, and in some winters the small lakes freeze hard enough to skate.
Volkspark Rehberge, in Wedding, covers 115 hectares of meadows and woodland, laid out as a landscape park in the 1920s. There are several playgrounds, a wild boar enclosure on the western side, a chain of three small ponds (no swimming), big sports grounds and kilometers of paths where kids learn to ride a bike. In winter, the long sledding hill draws families from the surrounding neighborhoods.
Treptower Park runs 88 hectares along the Spree, with wide lawns for ball games and picnics and a riverside promenade where tour boats leave from the pier. An arched bridge crosses to Insel der Jugend, a small island with boat hire.
It also holds the Soviet War Memorial, a solemn war grave with a 30-meter soldier statue, and the Archenhold Observatory, home to a 21-meter telescope and a small planetarium.
Mauerpark sits on the former Berlin Wall death strip, and 300 meters of the Wall still stand along its east side, covered in street art. An amphitheater set into the slope hosts open-air karaoke on summer Sundays.
Up north are the Moritzhof children's farm and a 15-meter climbing wall, and kids have several playgrounds to choose from, the biggest built in 2020.
Berlin's oldest public park was laid out in the 1840s on the edge of Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg. At the west entrance, the 1913 Märchenbrunnen fountain has over 100 stone figures from German fairy tales. Two hills built from wartime bunkers and rubble, Mont Klamott and Kleiner Bunkerberg, look out over the city center. There are playgrounds, sports grounds, a swan pond with a beer garden, and a barbecue area.
The children's and teens' library inside the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek holds about 130,000 books and other media, the largest collection of its kind in Germany.
It has three parts: a children's library and a teen library for reading for fun, plus a learning center with nonfiction and study help. The kids' wing sits in the glass-walled annex by the garden, where it has been since 1957.
Park am Gleisdreieck opened in 2013 on former railway land, and U-Bahn trains still cross it on raised viaducts. Its 30 hectares hold several playgrounds, including a water playground with climbing frames and a 5,000 m² nature play area with a clay landscape and water pump. Older kids head for the 1,300 m² skate park, table tennis and beach volleyball courts.
A large open-air flea market on the edge of Mauerpark, with roughly 400 to 450 stalls of secondhand clothes, furniture, records, lamps, jewelry, handmade goods and used toys. A food court in the middle has seating, so lunch fits between rounds of browsing.
Kids with a bit of pocket money can hunt for toys and old trinkets. It draws big crowds of locals and tourists, so keep young kids close.
Tempelhofer Feld is the former Tempelhof airport, opened as a park in 2010. Over 300 hectares of meadow surround the old runways, where kids bike, skate and fly kites on wide, flat asphalt with no cars.
By the southeast entrance, the Tempelschlucht nature play area has a water pump feeding a little stream, sand and clay for mud play, and big boulders to climb.
Markthalle Neun is an 1891 market hall in Kreuzberg, one of 14 the city once ran. Inside are farmers' market stalls, a fish counter, bakeries, a butcher, cafés, open kitchens and a brewery in the cellar.
Kids can wander between the stalls, try snacks and watch food being made. Street Food Thursday, running since 2013, fills the hall with chefs who have no restaurant of their own.
The East Side Gallery is the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall, running 1.3 km along Mühlenstraße between Ostbahnhof and the Oberbaumbrücke. After the Wall fell, 118 artists from 21 countries painted it with murals.
Kids can hunt for famous ones, like the Brezhnev and Honecker kiss and a Trabant car bursting through the Wall, then cut across to the green strip along the Spree.
The city's only surviving historic gate, built 1788 to 1791 and modeled on the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. Twelve Doric columns hold up the Quadriga, a chariot statue Napoleon took to Paris in 1806 and Berlin got back in 1814.
Kids can walk through the columns, spot the four horses on top, and hear how the gate stood in a closed zone of the Berlin Wall until 1989.
The glass dome on the roof of the Reichstag Building, home of the German parliament, has a spiral ramp that winds up around a mirrored cone to an open top. Kids can look down through the glass into the plenary chamber, then walk the roof terrace for views over the government district and city landmarks.
Audioguides on the terrace come in twelve languages, with a children's version in German.
A three-deck play ship on the Spree bank, nicknamed the Black Pearl. Kids climb and balance their way between decks, ride a 5-meter spiral tube slide, cook in the galley play kitchen and play table tennis on deck.
Ramps reach part of the ship, and pieces like a marble run, speaking tubes and a memory wall are built so kids with and without disabilities can play together.
The memorial runs 1.4 km along Bernauer Straße, where the border split the street in two. Rusty steel rods trace the line of the Wall, and markers show escape tunnels and spots where people died trying to cross.
From the viewing tower at the Documentation Center, kids look down into the last preserved stretch of the death strip, watchtower included. Best with school-age kids who know some of the history.
Alte Fasanerie is a former pheasantry turned open farmyard on the rural northern edge of the city, run by the Elisabethstift youth charity. Kids can say hello to goats, alpacas, chickens, pheasants and horses, walk round the pond and the herb and flower garden, and browse the Bücherkuh, a courtyard box of kids' books to borrow. It suits a slow, quiet afternoon more than a big day out.
Kinderbauernhof Pinke-Panke is a volunteer-run children's farm and supervised adventure playground on the edge of Bürgerpark. Around 70 animals live here, including donkeys, sheep, goats, mini pigs, geese, rabbits and hens.
Staff help kids with the afternoon feeding, and there are workshops for wood, soapstone, wool and bike repairs, plus a building playground, a vegetable garden and a campfire. Expect a scrappy, hands-on farm rather than a tidy petting zoo.
A hands-on history museum for kids and teens, run by the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district. Its main exhibition, Villa Global, is a house of 14 rooms, each furnished by a different Berliner, from a toddler to a grandmother to a rapper, with video interviews to watch.
An open studio and school-break workshops add crafts and making. It suits curious kids from about 10 into the teens.
Futurium is a museum about how people might live in the future, on the Spree between the main station and the Reichstag. The exhibition is split into three thinking spaces, human, nature and technology, full of interactive stations.
In the Futurium Lab, kids can craft, solder and program at hands-on workshops, and the rooftop Skywalk opens when the weather allows.
Jugendfarm Moritzhof is a children's farm on the former Wall strip at the north end of Mauerpark, in Prenzlauer Berg. Kids help feed and care for goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs, tend the garden beds and cook with what they harvest.
Staff also teach old crafts: felting, spinning, pottery, basket weaving and blacksmithing. The kids help decide which animals they look after and which projects come next.
Berlin's first children's farm, started in 1981 by neighbors who cleared a rubble lot beside the Wall. Kids can meet sheep, goats, ponies, donkeys, rabbits, ducks, geese and chickens, and see how animal feed, herbs and vegetables are grown in the gardens.
There is also a nature trail, a community house built from clay, and open pasture for running around.
Kolle 37 is a staffed adventure playground (Bauspielplatz) on about 4,000 square meters near Kollwitzplatz, open since 1990. Kids build their own wooden huts with real tools, make fires, work in the garden and help with the animals. Youth workers run projects in the pottery, the wood and felt workshop, the smithy and a music rehearsal room, and kids help decide what the projects are.
Schlachtensee is a long, narrow lake at the edge of the Grunewald forest, known for its clear water. Kids wade in from grassy meadows and small sandy patches along the shore, while stand-up paddlers glide past. A path runs all the way around under the trees.
The Alte Fischerhütte on the east bank is a historic inn with a beer garden, a playground and boats for rent.
An 830-meter sandy beach on the northeast shore of the Großer Müggelsee, the city's largest lake, backed by forest. Wooden jetties lead into the water, a buoy line keeps boats out of the swimming area, and there are toilets, a snack bar and sports facilities. A separate section is a nudist (FKK) beach.
The historic bath buildings are being restored, so expect some fenced-off works.
The Rixdorfer Höhe is a hill built after World War II from about 700,000 cubic meters of rubble, rising 22 meters above the surrounding Hasenheide park. When snow falls, most families sled the short, gentle run down in the valley. Bolder kids take the winding run of about 100 meters that spirals down from the top. The park also has playgrounds, an animal enclosure and an outdoor cinema.
Two hills in Volkspark Friedrichshain were built from blown-up wartime flak bunkers and city rubble: Mont Klamott, the taller one, and the Kleiner Bunkerberg.
The marked sledding run is on the east slope of the Kleiner Bunkerberg, fenced on both sides, with a steep, bumpy start and a long runout at the bottom. Both hills have more open slopes, and each has a viewing platform looking over the city center.
Viktoriapark climbs the Kreuzberg, the highest hill in the inner city, with Schinkel's cast-iron National Monument at the top. After a snowfall, families sled down its several slopes. The gradient is moderate enough for small kids, and the main run is wide.
Between runs, there's a wooden climbing playground and an enclosure with goats, rabbits and guinea pigs.
The Insulaner is a 78-meter hill built from World War II rubble, now wooded and crossed by footpaths. After a snowfall its west side holds one of the city's longest sledding runs, about 220 meters, with a smaller beginner slope at the bottom for younger kids.
The Wilhelm-Foerster observatory sits on the summit, the Planetarium am Insulaner at its foot, and there is a mini golf course on the hill.
Teufelsberg is a hill built from World War II rubble in the Grunewald forest, topping out at 120 meters above sea level, the city's second-highest point. When snow falls, families sled and snowboard down its open slopes, which once had a ski lift and an official sled run.
The old run is now closed and partly fenced off. The abandoned US listening station sits on the summit.
Domäne Dahlem is a working organic farm and open-air museum on an old manor estate. It breeds endangered livestock: Red Höhenvieh cattle, German Saddleback pigs, Pomeranian sheep, longhaired goats, Konik and Exmoor ponies, and rare hens and ducks.
Kids can walk the fields and orchards and visit the Culinarium museum about food and farming. A farm shop and country inn sit by the courtyard.
A children's farm inside Görlitzer Park, run since 1981 by a neighborhood association as a supervised youth center. Kids meet goats, donkeys, ponies, rabbits, geese and chickens, roam the yard, and toddlers get their own corner with a sandpit, play equipment and a water playground in summer.
The clay-built community house hosts clubs during the week and opens to everyone on Sundays for a family café with waffles and hot chocolate.
