Plans for the kids in the next month, sorted by date so the next one is always at the top. Theater and puppet shows, library workshops, story hours, festivals and outings across the city, updated as new events come in. Pick one for this weekend, then come back for the next.
Under the motto "Pumpkin goes to Hollywood", more than 100,000 pumpkins dress up giant figures of Mickey Mouse, Harry Potter, Marilyn Monroe and Yoda. Kids hunt through 500 varieties from around the world, from a 9-gram mini to a bottle gourd over a meter long, and pose at a pumpkin pyramid. It all sits on the farm's playground grounds.
Tur Tur Theater's modern take on the musical classic. Dorothy lands in the land beyond the rainbow and sets off to find the Wizard of Oz, picking up a scarecrow who wants more brains, a tin man who lost his heart and a lion afraid of everything.
Sophie Ammann and Alexander Altomirianos play it as a story about friendship, made for laughing, crying and thinking.
Bauchgefühl is a poetic play about two people who perceive the world differently and keep bumping into each other in the same office. One rainy day, objects come to life, words turn into movement, signs into sound and images into crackling descriptions.
It is made for deaf and hearing, blind, visually impaired and sighted audiences together, so a kid sees how many ways there are to understand someone.
Der schaurige Schusch is a puppet play set on the lonely Dogglspitz mountain, where a grumpy marmot, a shy chicken, a party-loving rabbit and their neighbors are sure the newcomer moving in will be gruesome. None of them has met him yet.
It's a story about prejudice and curiosity, played by one performer with puppets and music. It suits kids who can follow a story told in German.
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 puppet version of the Grimm tale: a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster, chased off by their owners, team up and set out to become town musicians in Bremen. Played by Sebastian Günther, it is staged as a musical road movie full of blues.
It suits kids who follow spoken German or already know the story, since the words and songs carry it.
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 hands-on craft workshop at MACHmit! Museum für Kinder where kids make a portrait of themselves and their gang. It sits alongside KUNSTKNALL, the museum's exhibition of ceramics, photos, paintings and textiles by women artists from Berlin and beyond. Kids work at the museum's craft tables, so it suits anyone who likes making things with friends or family.
A lantern parade through the dark park, led by St. Martin on horseback. Kids without a lantern can make one on site, hear the story of St. Martin in a warm yurt, and bake bread on a stick over the campfire. Hot drinks and food from the grill keep the November evening easy.
Kackebart is a farm boy who wants to be a knight. He heads to King Pipifax's tournament, gets laughed at by the other knights, then gets his chance when a dragon kidnaps the princess.
Kindertheater Purzelbaum plays it as a silly, potty-humor fairy tale. It suits kids who find a poop beard hilarious; families who'd rather skip toilet jokes should pick another show.
A puppet and object theater take on Andersen's Little Match Girl, set in today's Berlin. On New Year's Eve, old Frau Friedel walks the snowy streets of a city that has changed around her, and she has lost a lot along the way. In the glow of each match she strikes, things look different. A detailed Berlin street set carries much of the story, so it suits school-age kids who enjoy a quiet, thoughtful show.
Prokofiev's musical fairy tale about Peter, an orphan boy who leaves the garden gate open, and the adventure that follows with his grandfather, a hunter, a cat, a duck, a bird and a wolf. Six musicians play it live while a narrator tells the story in German.
It is the flagship family concert of the Kammerorchester Unter den Linden, and suits kids who can follow spoken German.
A play festival about living together. Kids puzzle, build, craft, make music and run around, while partner KATE e.V. turns diversity, children's rights and a fair future into games they can join.
This year brings a giant diversity collage, robots sent on a nature mission and a chance to design their own idea for a fairer world. A stage show and a stamp rally carry the day.
The youth company of CABUWAZI Tempelhof, 18 young artists, performs a new circus production about wanting to be yourself and still belong. Solo and group acts on Chinese pole, aerial silks, straps, hoop diving, wire, trapeze and contortion show both the joy of freedom and the pressure of being left out. Directed by Jeele Johannsen.
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.
Pappelapapp is a material theater show by Amai-Figurentheater Berlin, played entirely without words. It starts with plain cardboard boxes and, with a little imagination, turns them into paper tigers, fire-breathing dragons, small cardboard people and a cardboard home.
It is made for the youngest theatergoers. There is no dialogue to follow, so it needs no German, and kids can simply watch one ordinary thing become another.
Old toys lie in an attic until the sound of a piano wakes them up. That's the setup for this story of Mischka the bear and Masha the doll, told with poetry and humor by actress Claudia Maria Franck while pianist Elena Bregman plays music by Dmitri Shostakovich.
It suits young kids curious about classical music and families happy with a short show told in German.
A guided walk through the museum's DINOSAURS! special exhibition, made for families. Kids meet dinosaurs from three geological eras: Tristan Otto, one of the best-preserved T. rex skeletons in the world, the 13-meter Giraffatitan and the Archaeopteryx, the world's most famous fossil.
The guide speaks German, so it suits kids who can follow along in German best.
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.
Honigkuchenpferde are Germany's first pop band made for parents and kids to enjoy together. Their songs are about friendship, diversity and courage, and they are made for singing, dancing and joining in. The band also speaks up for children's rights, so the party comes with a message. Expect a cheerful hour of joining in rather than a quiet sit-down show.
Three musicians, Emma Grünfeld, Marceese and Robert Metcalf, turn a kids' concert into a sound experiment. Alongside sing-along songs, they bring mysterious gadgets that distort, change and flip sounds upside down.
Kids click their tongues, tap and experiment, finding out what odd noises a mouth can make and how a simple "plop" grows into a whole rhythm. It suits curious kids who like to join in.
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.
Vier zurück brings back One, Two, Three and Four, after the GRIPS shows "Vier sind hier" and "Vier bei dir". Three players and a musician invite kids into a world under a huge table, where many things seem bigger than you are.
Made for the very youngest, it's a funny, musical piece about the special moments of growing up, told with play, sounds and songs.
A funny children's play starring the NEINhorn. It has fallen out with the KönigsDOCHter, and nobody remembers why. When the NAhUND starts playing teacher too, the NEINhorn has had enough and sets off. After a long walk it lands in a dark jungle with the SchLANGEWEILE, who hangs from a branch and finds everything deadly boring.
The jokes are German wordplay, so it suits kids who follow spoken German.
A fox leaps through fresh snow and plays with the flakes, while a Wicht keeps warm indoors with steaming tea. Then a snowstorm blows in and the fox is gone. Mirjam Hesse of Theater Miamou builds the story from figures and materials, in a calm, clear visual style.
The show is told in German Sign Language and spoken German, made for deaf and hearing kids to watch together.
A new musical play from Theater an der Parkaue (Chaos der Gefühle) about what love feels like. A question mark goes looking for answers and meets a cloud floating around in love, a hyper hormone, a candy-loving strawberry and Frustration.
It is funny, full of songs written for the show, and lands on self-love and the courage to ask questions. Suits kids starting to notice crushes.
Storytellers Nicola Knappe and Maria Carmela Marinelli follow a block of stone, cut from a mountain near Berlin, that became the figures in and around the Humboldt Forum, like Hercules and Jupiter. They weave its adventures together with myths from antiquity, told with humor in German and Italian side by side.
It suits kids who can follow a spoken story in at least one of the two languages.
Ich & Herr Meyer are two bald musicians who have spent ten years making songs for kids and their parents. They sing and rap in German about everyday family life: small injustices between siblings, the freedom of a stay with Grandma and Grandpa, AI, and a first crush.
Some songs take on climate and sustainability too. It suits kids who like pop and hip-hop more than nursery songs.
A lively, musical and funny take on sex education, in a gently updated version of the Theater Rote Grütze classic. On stage: girls and boys, affection and desire, feeling ashamed, and how babies get into the belly and back out again.
Director Göksen Güntel's staging also shows kids they can say no when they don't like something. It suits families looking for an easy way into these conversations.
FEZ-Berlin, a large children's and family center in the Wuhlheide park, turns its rooms and stages into a puppet theater festival for the 30th time. Professional puppet and object theater companies play fairy tales, picture-book stories like The Gruffalo and The Rainbow Fish, and pieces for the very youngest. Around the shows, a side program lets kids make things themselves and explore the world of theater a bit further.
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.
Families explore the sound rooms of composer and artist Ryuichi Sakamoto, where hearing, seeing and feeling blur together. Back in the studio, everyone turns what they felt into small movement exercises, and families can design a Family Sunday poster of their impressions. Best for kids who like to listen, move and make things.
Theater Marotte turns the much-loved picture book into a puppet show. A little mouse crosses a big forest full of dangers and scares off everyone who wants to eat her by threatening them with the terrible Gruffalo, a monster she made up. Or did she?
It is told in German, so it suits kids who follow spoken German or already know the story well.
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.
Christmas is coming, but nothing goes to plan for Pettersson and Findus: no tree, no festive meal, no firewood, and then Pettersson sprains his foot. A Christmas elf called Kirsi has an idea that could change everything.
Theater des Lachens plays it as a warm, funny story about friendship and helping each other out. It is performed in German, so it suits kids who follow spoken German.
NO GLOW is a circus show performed by the kids and teens who train at CABUWAZI, Berlin's youth circus. A girl stays behind in the big top after everyone leaves, finds out what the circus does at night, and asks who she is.
Acrobatics and juggling mix with theater and dance. It's the group's year-end show, so expect proud young performers and a crowd of families cheering them on.
Ranik and Raja are two young wolves and best friends, but Ranik knows little about how to be a good friend. When a forest fairy spirits Raja away, Ranik has to learn what true friendship means to break the spell, facing adventures and tests along the way, with a quick-witted raccoon who might help.
Actors in full costume play it out. It's the Silflay troupe's own production, performed in German.
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.
Milchsalon puts on a run of family concerts through autumn and the run-up to Christmas. Corinna Bilke and her Skeleton Band open with Grusical, spooky songs and funny interludes for Halloween, and she returns with jazzy winter songs from her album Wunschuniversum.
Unter meinem Bett brings singer-songwriters from the compilation series to one stage, and Pauken & Planeten meet Nevio Passaro for a German-Italian Christmas show.
Kids and grown-ups don't sit and watch here: they share the stage with four professional krump dancers and help decide how the piece unfolds.
Krump is a street dance born in Los Angeles as a response to inequality, built on community and backing each other. Choreographer Janne Gregor turns it into a group game, so every show comes out different. A good fit for movers, less so for shy watchers.
D!E GÄNG is a kids' band that plays hip-hop, dancehall and ska, the music plenty of parents grew up on. Singer Ben Pavlidis (of Ohrbooten) started writing the songs with his daughter Chaja as a family project, and two albums later Chaja and Luna, no longer small kids themselves, front the band on stage.
Expect a loud, bouncy concert where the whole family is meant to get up and dance.
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.
A special exhibition at the Deutsches Technikmuseum, planned with 60 Berlin schoolkids as curators. Their models of a future city sit at the center, surrounded by prototypes and ideas for housing, energy, climate and nature.
Kids can build their own city in kinetic sand, test a sensor trash can, match animals to habitats and step in front of the Invisible Shield. It suits curious primary-school kids best.
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 colored shadow-puppet version of Andersen's Thumbelina, performed by puppeteer Thomas Mierau. Thumbelina is born in a flower and travels past a toad, cheerful fish, a dancing butterfly and a rich mole who wants her in his palace, until a swallow carries her to a land of flowers. Gentle and poetic, with songs. Performed in German.
Once the Museum für Naturkunde closes for the day, visitors sneak through its dark exhibition rooms by flashlight. A guide leads the search for animals of the night, and kids explore the exhibitions.
It suits curious kids who follow spoken German and are happy in the dark.
A shorter, kid-sized version of the opera house's backstage tour. Children walk past the giant stage sets waiting in storage, look down into the orchestra pit and stand on the main stage where singers perform their arias.
Along the way they see how stagehands, the props team and other departments get a show ready. It suits curious school-age kids who like to know how things work.
Families look for angels in the Gemäldegalerie's old paintings: some play music, some bring news, some fight, some pray. Then everyone makes their own winged angel figure.
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 drop-in craft workshop inspired by the biting, funny works of artist Maurizio Cattelan. Kids make pop-up cards that bring cheeky little figures to life, then post the caricature to someone who needs to hear it or leave it somewhere in the city for a stranger to find. Suits kids who like making things and have a sharp sense of humor.
One actress tells the Grimm tale of the miller's daughter, three rooms of straw and a little man who wants her first child, switching between every role in front of the kids. Children call out ideas that she works into the story, and at many points they step on stage to play along. It is told in German.
A guided family talk through the special exhibition on Genghis Khan and the Mongols. Kids meet the animals of the steppe nomads, come face to face with brightly painted grave guardian figures and travel back to the Great Khan's palace in Karakorum, the Mongol capital.
The big moment is a real yurt, where kids step inside and decide whether it could be home. It suits curious kids with big questions.
A new retelling of Pinocchio by playwright Philipp Löhle, staged as a musical family play. Woodcarver Geppetto wants a child, and the puppet he carves wakes up and races off to school, distracted by the fox and the cat and a toy land where anything goes. Geppetto has to set out after him. A story about parents as much as kids.
A group of fans is on a backstage tour before a big concert when the band gets locked in its dressing room. The fans know the songs, and some can play, but nobody wants to stand in the spotlight.
The collective hannsjana uses humor and plenty of live music to look at shyness, stage fright and self-confidence. It suits quiet kids, and the loud ones around them.
Christmas Garden Berlin turns the Botanical Garden in Dahlem into an evening walking trail lit by millions of lights, with light installations set to music. This winter is its 10th season, on a newly redesigned path.
Kids walk the loop at their own pace, with dining options along the way. It suits kids happy to be on their feet outdoors on a winter evening.
A theatrical treasure hunt where children help restore damaged books from a secret archive. Actors Yana Lova and Cem Göktas perform "Pippi Becomes a Treasure Seeker" by Astrid Lindgren, with audiences identifying missing words and phrases to rescue the story from a hungry bookworm. Each monthly installment features a different classic; this production is the second in the series.
A one-way loop of about two kilometers through Tierpark Berlin after dark, lined with light installations set to music. Kids walk through glowing tunnels and past lit-up trees, and there is an ice rink to skate on. Food stands along the route serve mulled wine, hot drinks and snacks. Best for children who can manage a long evening walk in the cold.
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.
The great magician Ala Labama turns walking sticks into flowers and bananas into carrots, and makes things float. Then his assistant Fridolin misses his cue, the big rabbit transformation goes wrong, and the show tips into chaos. Coq au Vin mixes magic, acrobatics and slapstick, and the actors play off the kids in the audience.
A monthly evening program where the Labyrinth Kindermuseum turns off the lights and kids explore its TALENTOPIA exhibition with headlamps, UV light and glowing materials. Across six stations they build, craft, dance and dress up, trying out movement, music, touch, logic, language and art. It ends with the big marble run lit up and glowing paper planes sailing through the dark museum. Parents drop off and pick up.
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 white tent city on one of Berlin's most historic squares, lit by thousands of Christmas lights. Kids can wander past glass blowers and candle makers in the heated crafts tent, watch musicians, acrobats and fire performers on the stage, and warm up over Kaiserschmarren, sweet pancake strips. It gets busy, so it suits kids who enjoy a lively evening crowd.
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.
Sinneszauber is FEZ-Berlin's Advent program for families. A giant Christmas tree lights up the foyer, and around it kids and parents make, tinker, play and craft small gifts together.
It is hands-on rather than a show to watch, so it suits kids who like making things. A warm indoor plan for when it is cold and dark outside.
The Advent Market fills the grounds of Domäne Dahlem, a working estate around a 16th-century manor house. Kids paint Christmas tree baubles and make decorations to take home, ride a tractor and watch a small fire show by Pyrofessor Logo Lard. Handmade gifts, organic mulled wine and kale from the estate's own fields fill the stalls, with brass music from midday.
Two angels crash-land on Earth and try to win back favor from up above by wowing the audience with acrobatics, clowning and clever ideas. Jealousy gets in the way, and the comedy ends on a simple point: help each other.
Coq Au Vin mixes circus and theater, and kids get pulled into the action rather than left sitting still. No religious content, despite the angels. Parents get their share of jokes too.
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.
A German-language musical comedy about Albertina, a big-hearted schoolgirl who heads to the junkyard to visit her friends Henriette the hen and Marvin the mole. When she learns her mom wants no tree this year, she wishes one up in the wishing tub, and it comes true. This is no ordinary tree, and chaos follows.
Best for kids who follow German well enough to enjoy the jokes.
Two trolls, Frieda and Mey, are deep in their winter sleep when Knut wakes them: Christmas is at the door. But nobody is standing there. Who is Christmas? Is it big, small, dangerous?
This cheerful puppet show follows the pair as they puzzle it out and get ready in their own way. It is performed in German, so it suits kids who can follow simple spoken German.
Plans for the kids in the next month, sorted by date so the next one is always at the top. Theater and puppet shows, library workshops, story hours, festivals and outings across the city, updated as new events come in. Pick one for this weekend, then come back for the next.
Under the motto "Pumpkin goes to Hollywood", more than 100,000 pumpkins dress up giant figures of Mickey Mouse, Harry Potter, Marilyn Monroe and Yoda. Kids hunt through 500 varieties from around the world, from a 9-gram mini to a bottle gourd over a meter long, and pose at a pumpkin pyramid. It all sits on the farm's playground grounds.
Tur Tur Theater's modern take on the musical classic. Dorothy lands in the land beyond the rainbow and sets off to find the Wizard of Oz, picking up a scarecrow who wants more brains, a tin man who lost his heart and a lion afraid of everything.
Sophie Ammann and Alexander Altomirianos play it as a story about friendship, made for laughing, crying and thinking.
Bauchgefühl is a poetic play about two people who perceive the world differently and keep bumping into each other in the same office. One rainy day, objects come to life, words turn into movement, signs into sound and images into crackling descriptions.
It is made for deaf and hearing, blind, visually impaired and sighted audiences together, so a kid sees how many ways there are to understand someone.
Der schaurige Schusch is a puppet play set on the lonely Dogglspitz mountain, where a grumpy marmot, a shy chicken, a party-loving rabbit and their neighbors are sure the newcomer moving in will be gruesome. None of them has met him yet.
It's a story about prejudice and curiosity, played by one performer with puppets and music. It suits kids who can follow a story told in German.
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 puppet version of the Grimm tale: a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster, chased off by their owners, team up and set out to become town musicians in Bremen. Played by Sebastian Günther, it is staged as a musical road movie full of blues.
It suits kids who follow spoken German or already know the story, since the words and songs carry it.
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 hands-on craft workshop at MACHmit! Museum für Kinder where kids make a portrait of themselves and their gang. It sits alongside KUNSTKNALL, the museum's exhibition of ceramics, photos, paintings and textiles by women artists from Berlin and beyond. Kids work at the museum's craft tables, so it suits anyone who likes making things with friends or family.
A lantern parade through the dark park, led by St. Martin on horseback. Kids without a lantern can make one on site, hear the story of St. Martin in a warm yurt, and bake bread on a stick over the campfire. Hot drinks and food from the grill keep the November evening easy.
Kackebart is a farm boy who wants to be a knight. He heads to King Pipifax's tournament, gets laughed at by the other knights, then gets his chance when a dragon kidnaps the princess.
Kindertheater Purzelbaum plays it as a silly, potty-humor fairy tale. It suits kids who find a poop beard hilarious; families who'd rather skip toilet jokes should pick another show.
A puppet and object theater take on Andersen's Little Match Girl, set in today's Berlin. On New Year's Eve, old Frau Friedel walks the snowy streets of a city that has changed around her, and she has lost a lot along the way. In the glow of each match she strikes, things look different. A detailed Berlin street set carries much of the story, so it suits school-age kids who enjoy a quiet, thoughtful show.
Prokofiev's musical fairy tale about Peter, an orphan boy who leaves the garden gate open, and the adventure that follows with his grandfather, a hunter, a cat, a duck, a bird and a wolf. Six musicians play it live while a narrator tells the story in German.
It is the flagship family concert of the Kammerorchester Unter den Linden, and suits kids who can follow spoken German.
A play festival about living together. Kids puzzle, build, craft, make music and run around, while partner KATE e.V. turns diversity, children's rights and a fair future into games they can join.
This year brings a giant diversity collage, robots sent on a nature mission and a chance to design their own idea for a fairer world. A stage show and a stamp rally carry the day.
The youth company of CABUWAZI Tempelhof, 18 young artists, performs a new circus production about wanting to be yourself and still belong. Solo and group acts on Chinese pole, aerial silks, straps, hoop diving, wire, trapeze and contortion show both the joy of freedom and the pressure of being left out. Directed by Jeele Johannsen.
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.
Pappelapapp is a material theater show by Amai-Figurentheater Berlin, played entirely without words. It starts with plain cardboard boxes and, with a little imagination, turns them into paper tigers, fire-breathing dragons, small cardboard people and a cardboard home.
It is made for the youngest theatergoers. There is no dialogue to follow, so it needs no German, and kids can simply watch one ordinary thing become another.
Old toys lie in an attic until the sound of a piano wakes them up. That's the setup for this story of Mischka the bear and Masha the doll, told with poetry and humor by actress Claudia Maria Franck while pianist Elena Bregman plays music by Dmitri Shostakovich.
It suits young kids curious about classical music and families happy with a short show told in German.
A guided walk through the museum's DINOSAURS! special exhibition, made for families. Kids meet dinosaurs from three geological eras: Tristan Otto, one of the best-preserved T. rex skeletons in the world, the 13-meter Giraffatitan and the Archaeopteryx, the world's most famous fossil.
The guide speaks German, so it suits kids who can follow along in German best.
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.
Honigkuchenpferde are Germany's first pop band made for parents and kids to enjoy together. Their songs are about friendship, diversity and courage, and they are made for singing, dancing and joining in. The band also speaks up for children's rights, so the party comes with a message. Expect a cheerful hour of joining in rather than a quiet sit-down show.
Three musicians, Emma Grünfeld, Marceese and Robert Metcalf, turn a kids' concert into a sound experiment. Alongside sing-along songs, they bring mysterious gadgets that distort, change and flip sounds upside down.
Kids click their tongues, tap and experiment, finding out what odd noises a mouth can make and how a simple "plop" grows into a whole rhythm. It suits curious kids who like to join in.
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.
Vier zurück brings back One, Two, Three and Four, after the GRIPS shows "Vier sind hier" and "Vier bei dir". Three players and a musician invite kids into a world under a huge table, where many things seem bigger than you are.
Made for the very youngest, it's a funny, musical piece about the special moments of growing up, told with play, sounds and songs.
A funny children's play starring the NEINhorn. It has fallen out with the KönigsDOCHter, and nobody remembers why. When the NAhUND starts playing teacher too, the NEINhorn has had enough and sets off. After a long walk it lands in a dark jungle with the SchLANGEWEILE, who hangs from a branch and finds everything deadly boring.
The jokes are German wordplay, so it suits kids who follow spoken German.
A fox leaps through fresh snow and plays with the flakes, while a Wicht keeps warm indoors with steaming tea. Then a snowstorm blows in and the fox is gone. Mirjam Hesse of Theater Miamou builds the story from figures and materials, in a calm, clear visual style.
The show is told in German Sign Language and spoken German, made for deaf and hearing kids to watch together.
A new musical play from Theater an der Parkaue (Chaos der Gefühle) about what love feels like. A question mark goes looking for answers and meets a cloud floating around in love, a hyper hormone, a candy-loving strawberry and Frustration.
It is funny, full of songs written for the show, and lands on self-love and the courage to ask questions. Suits kids starting to notice crushes.
Storytellers Nicola Knappe and Maria Carmela Marinelli follow a block of stone, cut from a mountain near Berlin, that became the figures in and around the Humboldt Forum, like Hercules and Jupiter. They weave its adventures together with myths from antiquity, told with humor in German and Italian side by side.
It suits kids who can follow a spoken story in at least one of the two languages.
Ich & Herr Meyer are two bald musicians who have spent ten years making songs for kids and their parents. They sing and rap in German about everyday family life: small injustices between siblings, the freedom of a stay with Grandma and Grandpa, AI, and a first crush.
Some songs take on climate and sustainability too. It suits kids who like pop and hip-hop more than nursery songs.
A lively, musical and funny take on sex education, in a gently updated version of the Theater Rote Grütze classic. On stage: girls and boys, affection and desire, feeling ashamed, and how babies get into the belly and back out again.
Director Göksen Güntel's staging also shows kids they can say no when they don't like something. It suits families looking for an easy way into these conversations.
FEZ-Berlin, a large children's and family center in the Wuhlheide park, turns its rooms and stages into a puppet theater festival for the 30th time. Professional puppet and object theater companies play fairy tales, picture-book stories like The Gruffalo and The Rainbow Fish, and pieces for the very youngest. Around the shows, a side program lets kids make things themselves and explore the world of theater a bit further.
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.
Families explore the sound rooms of composer and artist Ryuichi Sakamoto, where hearing, seeing and feeling blur together. Back in the studio, everyone turns what they felt into small movement exercises, and families can design a Family Sunday poster of their impressions. Best for kids who like to listen, move and make things.
Theater Marotte turns the much-loved picture book into a puppet show. A little mouse crosses a big forest full of dangers and scares off everyone who wants to eat her by threatening them with the terrible Gruffalo, a monster she made up. Or did she?
It is told in German, so it suits kids who follow spoken German or already know the story well.
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.
Christmas is coming, but nothing goes to plan for Pettersson and Findus: no tree, no festive meal, no firewood, and then Pettersson sprains his foot. A Christmas elf called Kirsi has an idea that could change everything.
Theater des Lachens plays it as a warm, funny story about friendship and helping each other out. It is performed in German, so it suits kids who follow spoken German.
NO GLOW is a circus show performed by the kids and teens who train at CABUWAZI, Berlin's youth circus. A girl stays behind in the big top after everyone leaves, finds out what the circus does at night, and asks who she is.
Acrobatics and juggling mix with theater and dance. It's the group's year-end show, so expect proud young performers and a crowd of families cheering them on.
Ranik and Raja are two young wolves and best friends, but Ranik knows little about how to be a good friend. When a forest fairy spirits Raja away, Ranik has to learn what true friendship means to break the spell, facing adventures and tests along the way, with a quick-witted raccoon who might help.
Actors in full costume play it out. It's the Silflay troupe's own production, performed in German.
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.
Milchsalon puts on a run of family concerts through autumn and the run-up to Christmas. Corinna Bilke and her Skeleton Band open with Grusical, spooky songs and funny interludes for Halloween, and she returns with jazzy winter songs from her album Wunschuniversum.
Unter meinem Bett brings singer-songwriters from the compilation series to one stage, and Pauken & Planeten meet Nevio Passaro for a German-Italian Christmas show.
Kids and grown-ups don't sit and watch here: they share the stage with four professional krump dancers and help decide how the piece unfolds.
Krump is a street dance born in Los Angeles as a response to inequality, built on community and backing each other. Choreographer Janne Gregor turns it into a group game, so every show comes out different. A good fit for movers, less so for shy watchers.
D!E GÄNG is a kids' band that plays hip-hop, dancehall and ska, the music plenty of parents grew up on. Singer Ben Pavlidis (of Ohrbooten) started writing the songs with his daughter Chaja as a family project, and two albums later Chaja and Luna, no longer small kids themselves, front the band on stage.
Expect a loud, bouncy concert where the whole family is meant to get up and dance.
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.
A special exhibition at the Deutsches Technikmuseum, planned with 60 Berlin schoolkids as curators. Their models of a future city sit at the center, surrounded by prototypes and ideas for housing, energy, climate and nature.
Kids can build their own city in kinetic sand, test a sensor trash can, match animals to habitats and step in front of the Invisible Shield. It suits curious primary-school kids best.
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 colored shadow-puppet version of Andersen's Thumbelina, performed by puppeteer Thomas Mierau. Thumbelina is born in a flower and travels past a toad, cheerful fish, a dancing butterfly and a rich mole who wants her in his palace, until a swallow carries her to a land of flowers. Gentle and poetic, with songs. Performed in German.
Once the Museum für Naturkunde closes for the day, visitors sneak through its dark exhibition rooms by flashlight. A guide leads the search for animals of the night, and kids explore the exhibitions.
It suits curious kids who follow spoken German and are happy in the dark.
A shorter, kid-sized version of the opera house's backstage tour. Children walk past the giant stage sets waiting in storage, look down into the orchestra pit and stand on the main stage where singers perform their arias.
Along the way they see how stagehands, the props team and other departments get a show ready. It suits curious school-age kids who like to know how things work.
Families look for angels in the Gemäldegalerie's old paintings: some play music, some bring news, some fight, some pray. Then everyone makes their own winged angel figure.
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 drop-in craft workshop inspired by the biting, funny works of artist Maurizio Cattelan. Kids make pop-up cards that bring cheeky little figures to life, then post the caricature to someone who needs to hear it or leave it somewhere in the city for a stranger to find. Suits kids who like making things and have a sharp sense of humor.
One actress tells the Grimm tale of the miller's daughter, three rooms of straw and a little man who wants her first child, switching between every role in front of the kids. Children call out ideas that she works into the story, and at many points they step on stage to play along. It is told in German.
A guided family talk through the special exhibition on Genghis Khan and the Mongols. Kids meet the animals of the steppe nomads, come face to face with brightly painted grave guardian figures and travel back to the Great Khan's palace in Karakorum, the Mongol capital.
The big moment is a real yurt, where kids step inside and decide whether it could be home. It suits curious kids with big questions.
A new retelling of Pinocchio by playwright Philipp Löhle, staged as a musical family play. Woodcarver Geppetto wants a child, and the puppet he carves wakes up and races off to school, distracted by the fox and the cat and a toy land where anything goes. Geppetto has to set out after him. A story about parents as much as kids.
A group of fans is on a backstage tour before a big concert when the band gets locked in its dressing room. The fans know the songs, and some can play, but nobody wants to stand in the spotlight.
The collective hannsjana uses humor and plenty of live music to look at shyness, stage fright and self-confidence. It suits quiet kids, and the loud ones around them.
Christmas Garden Berlin turns the Botanical Garden in Dahlem into an evening walking trail lit by millions of lights, with light installations set to music. This winter is its 10th season, on a newly redesigned path.
Kids walk the loop at their own pace, with dining options along the way. It suits kids happy to be on their feet outdoors on a winter evening.
A theatrical treasure hunt where children help restore damaged books from a secret archive. Actors Yana Lova and Cem Göktas perform "Pippi Becomes a Treasure Seeker" by Astrid Lindgren, with audiences identifying missing words and phrases to rescue the story from a hungry bookworm. Each monthly installment features a different classic; this production is the second in the series.
A one-way loop of about two kilometers through Tierpark Berlin after dark, lined with light installations set to music. Kids walk through glowing tunnels and past lit-up trees, and there is an ice rink to skate on. Food stands along the route serve mulled wine, hot drinks and snacks. Best for children who can manage a long evening walk in the cold.
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.
The great magician Ala Labama turns walking sticks into flowers and bananas into carrots, and makes things float. Then his assistant Fridolin misses his cue, the big rabbit transformation goes wrong, and the show tips into chaos. Coq au Vin mixes magic, acrobatics and slapstick, and the actors play off the kids in the audience.
A monthly evening program where the Labyrinth Kindermuseum turns off the lights and kids explore its TALENTOPIA exhibition with headlamps, UV light and glowing materials. Across six stations they build, craft, dance and dress up, trying out movement, music, touch, logic, language and art. It ends with the big marble run lit up and glowing paper planes sailing through the dark museum. Parents drop off and pick up.
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 white tent city on one of Berlin's most historic squares, lit by thousands of Christmas lights. Kids can wander past glass blowers and candle makers in the heated crafts tent, watch musicians, acrobats and fire performers on the stage, and warm up over Kaiserschmarren, sweet pancake strips. It gets busy, so it suits kids who enjoy a lively evening crowd.
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.
Sinneszauber is FEZ-Berlin's Advent program for families. A giant Christmas tree lights up the foyer, and around it kids and parents make, tinker, play and craft small gifts together.
It is hands-on rather than a show to watch, so it suits kids who like making things. A warm indoor plan for when it is cold and dark outside.
The Advent Market fills the grounds of Domäne Dahlem, a working estate around a 16th-century manor house. Kids paint Christmas tree baubles and make decorations to take home, ride a tractor and watch a small fire show by Pyrofessor Logo Lard. Handmade gifts, organic mulled wine and kale from the estate's own fields fill the stalls, with brass music from midday.
Two angels crash-land on Earth and try to win back favor from up above by wowing the audience with acrobatics, clowning and clever ideas. Jealousy gets in the way, and the comedy ends on a simple point: help each other.
Coq Au Vin mixes circus and theater, and kids get pulled into the action rather than left sitting still. No religious content, despite the angels. Parents get their share of jokes too.
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.
A German-language musical comedy about Albertina, a big-hearted schoolgirl who heads to the junkyard to visit her friends Henriette the hen and Marvin the mole. When she learns her mom wants no tree this year, she wishes one up in the wishing tub, and it comes true. This is no ordinary tree, and chaos follows.
Best for kids who follow German well enough to enjoy the jokes.
Two trolls, Frieda and Mey, are deep in their winter sleep when Knut wakes them: Christmas is at the door. But nobody is standing there. Who is Christmas? Is it big, small, dangerous?
This cheerful puppet show follows the pair as they puzzle it out and get ready in their own way. It is performed in German, so it suits kids who can follow simple spoken German.
