Looking for something to do with the kids in the next month? This list fills itself with the family events coming up around town: festivals, kids' theater and musicals, exhibitions and seasonal fairs. Check back each week, because it changes as new plans are added and old ones end.
A family evening of Halloween-themed circus and dance in Sirkus Magenta's circus space inside the Itis shopping center. Professionals and hobbyists take the stage with aerial rope acts, slack rope, yo-yo tricks, juggling with cigar boxes and Pacific Island dance.
Kids are invited to come dressed up for a playful costume contest, and there is face painting too. The evening is part of the international La Nuit du Cirque.
A neighborhood light festival with a Christmas trail in Ilveskorpi Park in Vuosaari.
It's an outdoor afternoon: kids walk the trail and look at the lights, and nobody needs any Finnish to enjoy it. It suits families with preschoolers through preteens who live nearby or want a short winter outing in east Helsinki.
Molli is a children's theater show staged inside Paloheinä Library. It is a short play, which makes it an easy, low-key outing with a preschooler.
The show is in Finnish, so it works best for kids who follow spoken Finnish. Families without Finnish may find the story hard to follow.
A fairy tale written around Musiikkitalo's famous organ. Kerttu lives in a village so small it barely exists, until a great wind blows her away from her family into a strange forest. There she meets a wolf, Hukkanen, who becomes her friend, and they set off for the wondrous tree Buu.
Martina Roos narrates while the organ plays, so it suits kids who enjoy a story told aloud.
Ihmebussi (Wonder Bus) is a participatory improv show by the improv group Olotila. The audience are the passengers: they share their wishes for where the bus should go, and the cast turns them into improvised stories, scenes, songs and play everyone joins in.
No two rides are the same, since each one is built together with the people on board.
Clown duo Timo Ruuskanen and Tuukka Vasama turn Mary Shelley's classic into a musical comedy with disco music, bright lights and plenty of audience participation. Kids meet the monster, of course, and two mad scientists who lead the show.
Under the jokes, it asks who gets to belong and who gets left out. A good pick for kids who like silly, interactive shows and don't mind being pulled in.
Jamkids Musiikkisirkus is a music show set in a circus. A circus director, a clown and a lion are on stage, and the audience is part of the show: kids sing and play along with them.
It suits young kids who would rather join in than sit and watch.
Är : Grus is a wordless family show from the Swedish company Claire Parsons Co. Two performers use dance, juggling and shadow theater to play with the very small and the very large, with stones and a grain of sand at the center.
Since no words are spoken, it works whatever language your family speaks at home.
A short theater play workshop for young children and the adults who come with them. Together you improvise, make sculptures and build a nest, starting indoors at the Cable Factory and then heading out to a nearby park.
It suits preschoolers who like to move and pretend, with a parent playing alongside. It's a hands-on session, not a show to sit and watch.
A short mini circus show led by the ringmaster character Vasiljev Vitelloni, staged in PerformanceSirkus's own space inside the Cable Factory (Kaapelitehdas).
It suits preschoolers and younger school kids who would enjoy a first taste of circus.
A gentle stage show about feelings for toddlers and preschoolers, built from Eppu Nuotio's poems in the picture book Minä tykkään nyt. When does joy start? Where do you feel it when you like something? What do you do with sadness that hits out of nowhere, or anger that won't pass? It ends with a play session where kids explore the feelings themselves.
Valokartano (Manor of Light) is a display of light art made by children for Children's Rights Day. Light art, animations and illuminated sculptures fill the windows and grounds of Ströms Manor.
It's come-and-go, so you walk around at your own pace. It suits preschoolers and school-age kids, especially ones who like to draw, build or make things themselves and want to see what other children made.
Övre Nybacka is a 200-year-old coaching inn in Vantaa, and for its Christmas market the cozy main room, the elegant hall and the courtyard fill with stalls from craftspeople and small producers. Expect one-of-a-kind gifts and finds for yourself, plus a Christmas program for kids and adults.
It suits families who like browsing a small market at an easy pace, with things for kids to do between the stalls.
Kids decorate gingerbread cookies with icing and sprinkles at the Hotel and Restaurant Museum's returning Christmas workshop. The museum supplies the cookies and all the decorations, in partnership with baking brand Dr. Oetker, so there's nothing to bring. It's drop-in: walk in any time during a session, decorate at your own pace, and leave when you're done. Adults can tour the museum's food and drink exhibition on the same ticket.
Helsingin Joulunavaus is the city's yearly start to the Christmas season. A parade sets off beside Senaatintori and moves along Aleksanterinkatu toward Mannerheimintie.
It's an outdoor, come-and-go street event. It suits kids who enjoy a parade and can cope with a city-center crowd, and it's a cold wait for anyone who isn't bundled up.
A musical stage show built around 33 science questions children ask, set to song, from a dinosaur's hiccup to a bee's poop. The organizer calls it a fast-paced adventure, and it features musician Suvi Isotalo.
It is aimed at young school kids, and the whole family can come along. It is performed in Finnish, so it suits kids who follow spoken Finnish.
A day of puppets with a sea theme at Helsinki's Hungarian cultural center. Kids watch two short puppet shows in Finnish, help bring marionettes and masks to life, and draw a sea world together with their parents, which runs all day.
Toward the end, each kid makes a fish puppet, then brings it to a closing party with music, a projection show and a fish dance.
Pikkuisten joulu is Helsinki City Museum's cozy family Christmas event. Babies and toddlers get winter rhymes, songs and storytime, while older kids do crafts, like a Christmas tree candy workshop, and watch Magician Kari's tricks.
Santa visits, and so does Rudi the guide dog with owner Tiina. In the museum's Children's Town, kids can try a self-guided task trail and help grandma's house get ready for an old-fashioned Christmas.
A new Finnish musical based on Tove Jansson's Comet in Moominland, written and directed by Henna Tanskanen. Moomintroll, Snorkmaiden, Little My, Snufkin and Sniff are all on stage, telling the comet story through song, acting and visuals. The music mixes new Moomin songs from Sony Music's latest album with familiar Moomin classics in new arrangements. Kids who know the books or the cartoons will spot their favorites right away.
Nukketeatteri Ofelia is a puppet theater company, and Pikku peikon joulu (The Little Troll's Christmas) is a Christmas puppet show about a little troll, staged at the neighborhood library in Puistola.
It's a short show, which suits preschoolers and young school kids who can't sit through a full theater performance. Older kids may find it too young.
Alfons Åberg gets a Christmas party in this touring play with three actors, part of the Barnens Estrad children's stage program. It is made for young kids to watch alongside their families.
The show is short, which suits children who are new to theater. Vuotalo is the cultural center in Vuosaari, with concerts, theater and children's events through the year.
A Christmas theater show starring Mikko Mallikas, staged by the touring children's theater Barnens Estrad. Three actors bring the story to the stage at Vuotalo, the city's cultural center in Vuosaari.
This performance is in Finnish, so it suits kids who follow Finnish.
A Christmas sale at Annantalo, Helsinki's arts center for children and young people, where picture-book makers and publishers gather in a festive mood. Families can browse the books and buy them from the people who made them.
Kids also get a workshop of their own, Joululauluja koristellen (roughly, decorating with Christmas songs). Best for picture-book ages: it's a market, not a show.
Every Independence Day, students from across the Helsinki region carry torches through the city center, from Hietaniemi Cemetery to Senate Square. Participants are asked to wear their student caps.
For families, this is one to watch from the sidewalk. Kids who like a parade get a festive look at how Finland marks the day. Best for kids fine with the cold.
Saunatonttu (the sauna elf) is a puppet show by Nukketeatteri Taiga-Matto, staged at the Etelä-Haaga library. The story is told in Finnish, in a translation by Sari Tirkkonen, with live music and dance woven through it.
Kids who speak Finnish will get the most from it. Others can still follow the puppets, songs and dancing, though they will miss much of the story.
Lastenkirjafestarit takes over the gallery spaces of Annantalo, Helsinki's arts center for children and young people. Three exhibition spaces across the first and second floors are given over to picture books, board books and poems for children.
It suits families with small children who enjoy picture books. Kids who have outgrown them may move through quickly.
The first show in HAM's renewed Tove Jansson Gallery follows the artist family whose home life found its way into the Moomin stories. Over 140 works by Tove, her parents and her brothers fill three rooms, from postage stamps to sculptures.
Kids can open hatches in a wall to find Moomin Valley characters based on the family, try drawing caricatures and handle a sculptor's stone.
A new stage version of Aili Somersalo's 1919 fairy-tale classic, Mestaritontun seikkailut. The ancient Master Elf guards the king's castle with a glowing pearl as his lantern, falls out with the king and leaves with the pearl.
He teams up with a former court witch, and the trip becomes a rescue through the dark caves of Kyöpelinvuori. Exciting but warm-hearted. It suits kids who follow spoken Finnish.
Tuomaan Markkinat is Helsinki's oldest open-air Christmas market, filling Senate Square with food stalls and gift stands. At its heart sit a carousel and a restaurant yard where families can stop and taste Christmas flavors.
Kids come for the carousel and the treats, parents for unhurried gift shopping. It is a come-and-go market, so a short visit works as well as a long one.
Red Nose Company stages Kaarina Helakisa's fairy tale Ihmeellinen maalari as a solo show that mixes clowning, puppetry and live music.
It is a family show for young kids, told in Finnish, so it suits children who follow spoken Finnish best.
Tchaikovsky's Christmas ballet, in a version set in the wintry Finnish town of Porvoo. On Christmas night Klaara is swept into a dream: an army of mice, a duel with the Mouse King, and a nutcracker who turns back into a prince.
The sets, costumes and dancing tell the story with no spoken words. For many families it is their yearly Christmas outing.
A Christmas market on Manta, the square around the Havis Amanda statue next to Kauppatori. This year Manta gets its own covered ice rink, with a small winter world of food, market stalls and a program built around it.
It works as a come-and-go stop: a skate, a snack and a wander between the stalls. Kids who like skating will get the most out of it.
A new Finnish musical that drops Lewis Carroll's Alice into Wonderland, a video game where anyone can be anyone. A buggy update hands control to the Queen of Hearts, and Alice is soon accused of breaking the rules. Young performers from the Shed youth music theater group lead the cast, alongside two Helsinki City Theatre actors. The score borrows from retro game music, pop and Eurovision-style songs.
Korkeasaari, Helsinki's zoo on its own island, gets into the Christmas spirit. Kids can visit Santa's workshop, follow an activity trail around the zoo and see how the animals live through a Helsinki winter.
The festive program comes with regular zoo entry, so it suits families already planning a zoo day. It is a come-and-go visit.
Looking for something to do with the kids in the next month? This list fills itself with the family events coming up around town: festivals, kids' theater and musicals, exhibitions and seasonal fairs. Check back each week, because it changes as new plans are added and old ones end.
A family evening of Halloween-themed circus and dance in Sirkus Magenta's circus space inside the Itis shopping center. Professionals and hobbyists take the stage with aerial rope acts, slack rope, yo-yo tricks, juggling with cigar boxes and Pacific Island dance.
Kids are invited to come dressed up for a playful costume contest, and there is face painting too. The evening is part of the international La Nuit du Cirque.
A neighborhood light festival with a Christmas trail in Ilveskorpi Park in Vuosaari.
It's an outdoor afternoon: kids walk the trail and look at the lights, and nobody needs any Finnish to enjoy it. It suits families with preschoolers through preteens who live nearby or want a short winter outing in east Helsinki.
Molli is a children's theater show staged inside Paloheinä Library. It is a short play, which makes it an easy, low-key outing with a preschooler.
The show is in Finnish, so it works best for kids who follow spoken Finnish. Families without Finnish may find the story hard to follow.
A fairy tale written around Musiikkitalo's famous organ. Kerttu lives in a village so small it barely exists, until a great wind blows her away from her family into a strange forest. There she meets a wolf, Hukkanen, who becomes her friend, and they set off for the wondrous tree Buu.
Martina Roos narrates while the organ plays, so it suits kids who enjoy a story told aloud.
Ihmebussi (Wonder Bus) is a participatory improv show by the improv group Olotila. The audience are the passengers: they share their wishes for where the bus should go, and the cast turns them into improvised stories, scenes, songs and play everyone joins in.
No two rides are the same, since each one is built together with the people on board.
Clown duo Timo Ruuskanen and Tuukka Vasama turn Mary Shelley's classic into a musical comedy with disco music, bright lights and plenty of audience participation. Kids meet the monster, of course, and two mad scientists who lead the show.
Under the jokes, it asks who gets to belong and who gets left out. A good pick for kids who like silly, interactive shows and don't mind being pulled in.
Jamkids Musiikkisirkus is a music show set in a circus. A circus director, a clown and a lion are on stage, and the audience is part of the show: kids sing and play along with them.
It suits young kids who would rather join in than sit and watch.
Är : Grus is a wordless family show from the Swedish company Claire Parsons Co. Two performers use dance, juggling and shadow theater to play with the very small and the very large, with stones and a grain of sand at the center.
Since no words are spoken, it works whatever language your family speaks at home.
A short theater play workshop for young children and the adults who come with them. Together you improvise, make sculptures and build a nest, starting indoors at the Cable Factory and then heading out to a nearby park.
It suits preschoolers who like to move and pretend, with a parent playing alongside. It's a hands-on session, not a show to sit and watch.
A short mini circus show led by the ringmaster character Vasiljev Vitelloni, staged in PerformanceSirkus's own space inside the Cable Factory (Kaapelitehdas).
It suits preschoolers and younger school kids who would enjoy a first taste of circus.
A gentle stage show about feelings for toddlers and preschoolers, built from Eppu Nuotio's poems in the picture book Minä tykkään nyt. When does joy start? Where do you feel it when you like something? What do you do with sadness that hits out of nowhere, or anger that won't pass? It ends with a play session where kids explore the feelings themselves.
Valokartano (Manor of Light) is a display of light art made by children for Children's Rights Day. Light art, animations and illuminated sculptures fill the windows and grounds of Ströms Manor.
It's come-and-go, so you walk around at your own pace. It suits preschoolers and school-age kids, especially ones who like to draw, build or make things themselves and want to see what other children made.
Övre Nybacka is a 200-year-old coaching inn in Vantaa, and for its Christmas market the cozy main room, the elegant hall and the courtyard fill with stalls from craftspeople and small producers. Expect one-of-a-kind gifts and finds for yourself, plus a Christmas program for kids and adults.
It suits families who like browsing a small market at an easy pace, with things for kids to do between the stalls.
Kids decorate gingerbread cookies with icing and sprinkles at the Hotel and Restaurant Museum's returning Christmas workshop. The museum supplies the cookies and all the decorations, in partnership with baking brand Dr. Oetker, so there's nothing to bring. It's drop-in: walk in any time during a session, decorate at your own pace, and leave when you're done. Adults can tour the museum's food and drink exhibition on the same ticket.
Helsingin Joulunavaus is the city's yearly start to the Christmas season. A parade sets off beside Senaatintori and moves along Aleksanterinkatu toward Mannerheimintie.
It's an outdoor, come-and-go street event. It suits kids who enjoy a parade and can cope with a city-center crowd, and it's a cold wait for anyone who isn't bundled up.
A musical stage show built around 33 science questions children ask, set to song, from a dinosaur's hiccup to a bee's poop. The organizer calls it a fast-paced adventure, and it features musician Suvi Isotalo.
It is aimed at young school kids, and the whole family can come along. It is performed in Finnish, so it suits kids who follow spoken Finnish.
A day of puppets with a sea theme at Helsinki's Hungarian cultural center. Kids watch two short puppet shows in Finnish, help bring marionettes and masks to life, and draw a sea world together with their parents, which runs all day.
Toward the end, each kid makes a fish puppet, then brings it to a closing party with music, a projection show and a fish dance.
Pikkuisten joulu is Helsinki City Museum's cozy family Christmas event. Babies and toddlers get winter rhymes, songs and storytime, while older kids do crafts, like a Christmas tree candy workshop, and watch Magician Kari's tricks.
Santa visits, and so does Rudi the guide dog with owner Tiina. In the museum's Children's Town, kids can try a self-guided task trail and help grandma's house get ready for an old-fashioned Christmas.
A new Finnish musical based on Tove Jansson's Comet in Moominland, written and directed by Henna Tanskanen. Moomintroll, Snorkmaiden, Little My, Snufkin and Sniff are all on stage, telling the comet story through song, acting and visuals. The music mixes new Moomin songs from Sony Music's latest album with familiar Moomin classics in new arrangements. Kids who know the books or the cartoons will spot their favorites right away.
Nukketeatteri Ofelia is a puppet theater company, and Pikku peikon joulu (The Little Troll's Christmas) is a Christmas puppet show about a little troll, staged at the neighborhood library in Puistola.
It's a short show, which suits preschoolers and young school kids who can't sit through a full theater performance. Older kids may find it too young.
Alfons Åberg gets a Christmas party in this touring play with three actors, part of the Barnens Estrad children's stage program. It is made for young kids to watch alongside their families.
The show is short, which suits children who are new to theater. Vuotalo is the cultural center in Vuosaari, with concerts, theater and children's events through the year.
A Christmas theater show starring Mikko Mallikas, staged by the touring children's theater Barnens Estrad. Three actors bring the story to the stage at Vuotalo, the city's cultural center in Vuosaari.
This performance is in Finnish, so it suits kids who follow Finnish.
A Christmas sale at Annantalo, Helsinki's arts center for children and young people, where picture-book makers and publishers gather in a festive mood. Families can browse the books and buy them from the people who made them.
Kids also get a workshop of their own, Joululauluja koristellen (roughly, decorating with Christmas songs). Best for picture-book ages: it's a market, not a show.
Every Independence Day, students from across the Helsinki region carry torches through the city center, from Hietaniemi Cemetery to Senate Square. Participants are asked to wear their student caps.
For families, this is one to watch from the sidewalk. Kids who like a parade get a festive look at how Finland marks the day. Best for kids fine with the cold.
Saunatonttu (the sauna elf) is a puppet show by Nukketeatteri Taiga-Matto, staged at the Etelä-Haaga library. The story is told in Finnish, in a translation by Sari Tirkkonen, with live music and dance woven through it.
Kids who speak Finnish will get the most from it. Others can still follow the puppets, songs and dancing, though they will miss much of the story.
Lastenkirjafestarit takes over the gallery spaces of Annantalo, Helsinki's arts center for children and young people. Three exhibition spaces across the first and second floors are given over to picture books, board books and poems for children.
It suits families with small children who enjoy picture books. Kids who have outgrown them may move through quickly.
The first show in HAM's renewed Tove Jansson Gallery follows the artist family whose home life found its way into the Moomin stories. Over 140 works by Tove, her parents and her brothers fill three rooms, from postage stamps to sculptures.
Kids can open hatches in a wall to find Moomin Valley characters based on the family, try drawing caricatures and handle a sculptor's stone.
A new stage version of Aili Somersalo's 1919 fairy-tale classic, Mestaritontun seikkailut. The ancient Master Elf guards the king's castle with a glowing pearl as his lantern, falls out with the king and leaves with the pearl.
He teams up with a former court witch, and the trip becomes a rescue through the dark caves of Kyöpelinvuori. Exciting but warm-hearted. It suits kids who follow spoken Finnish.
Tuomaan Markkinat is Helsinki's oldest open-air Christmas market, filling Senate Square with food stalls and gift stands. At its heart sit a carousel and a restaurant yard where families can stop and taste Christmas flavors.
Kids come for the carousel and the treats, parents for unhurried gift shopping. It is a come-and-go market, so a short visit works as well as a long one.
Red Nose Company stages Kaarina Helakisa's fairy tale Ihmeellinen maalari as a solo show that mixes clowning, puppetry and live music.
It is a family show for young kids, told in Finnish, so it suits children who follow spoken Finnish best.
Tchaikovsky's Christmas ballet, in a version set in the wintry Finnish town of Porvoo. On Christmas night Klaara is swept into a dream: an army of mice, a duel with the Mouse King, and a nutcracker who turns back into a prince.
The sets, costumes and dancing tell the story with no spoken words. For many families it is their yearly Christmas outing.
A Christmas market on Manta, the square around the Havis Amanda statue next to Kauppatori. This year Manta gets its own covered ice rink, with a small winter world of food, market stalls and a program built around it.
It works as a come-and-go stop: a skate, a snack and a wander between the stalls. Kids who like skating will get the most out of it.
A new Finnish musical that drops Lewis Carroll's Alice into Wonderland, a video game where anyone can be anyone. A buggy update hands control to the Queen of Hearts, and Alice is soon accused of breaking the rules. Young performers from the Shed youth music theater group lead the cast, alongside two Helsinki City Theatre actors. The score borrows from retro game music, pop and Eurovision-style songs.
Korkeasaari, Helsinki's zoo on its own island, gets into the Christmas spirit. Kids can visit Santa's workshop, follow an activity trail around the zoo and see how the animals live through a Helsinki winter.
The festive program comes with regular zoo entry, so it suits families already planning a zoo day. It is a come-and-go visit.
