Rain on the window and a kid with energy to spare? These are plans with a roof over them: puppet theater, kids' plays, family concerts and hands-on exhibitions. The list updates itself and puts the soonest first, so the next show is always at the top. Check the age on each one before you book, since some are made for toddlers and others for school kids.
Polarwelten is an indoor exhibition about the Arctic and Antarctic. Kids meet polar bears, penguins and whales through pictures and interactive stations.
The main draw is a 360° room with a show of about 25 minutes, where glaciers, icebergs, underwater scenes and northern lights surround you. It suits curious kids who like animals.
Rosmarie the cow finds fault with everything on the farm: the pig wallowing in mud, the dog gulping its food, the hen cackling over a tiny egg. When the farmer sends her away, new animals turn up and he learns the problem is not so easy to solve. Two actors tell it with rhythmic language, music and humor, asking what it takes for everyone to belong.
Bär hat es schwer is a puppet show by Figurentheater Pantaleon at the Ramersdorf branch of the Munich city library. Autumn is nearly over, and the bear comes out of the woods full from eating and tired, ready for his soft winter bed.
But something in the bed pokes and pinches, he can't sleep, and he gets grumpy. The show is in German, so it suits kids who follow German.
Grandma is away, so Kasperl and Seppl send Gretel packing and cook their favorite dishes themselves. Their eyes are bigger than their stomachs at the shop, and the kitchen goes from one slapstick disaster to the next until they are glad to take help after all. A classic hand-puppet show in German, with a happy ending.
A hands-on exhibition about where food comes from and what it does inside us. Kids milk a cow, turn milk into butter, grind grain into flour and play supermarket with a recipe in hand. A giant nose and an oversized tongue explain smell and taste, and a digestion station follows a bite through the body.
Max wakes up one morning and finds he has turned into an ant. Small and alone, he needs help to get home, and he finds it among bumblebees, water striders, honeybees and other fascinating creatures.
Altenbach and Honsel tell the story as a poetic trip into the insect world, with groovy music and cool dance moves. It suits kids who enjoy a story told with music and movement.
KiKolino, a mischievous goblin who eats musical notes with cinnamon sugar and whipped cream, turns 13 and receives birthday mail from Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Schumann, and Richard Strauss. Postwoman Maria guides the audience through the horn's history while interactive activities invite children to shape the story. Features Maria Teiwes on horn (Munich Philharmonic) and Anne Schätz on piano as KiKolino.
Janosch's picture book, staged. Little Bear fishes a crate out of the river that smells of bananas and says "Panama", so he and Little Tiger set off to find it.
On the way they meet a busy mouse, a cow, a sly fox, a hare and a hedgehog, and work out that home may be the place they were looking for. Five actors play the whole cast.
Two actors play with opposites: up and down, in front and behind, together and alone. They chase, hide and seem to vanish on a stage full of surprises, with fast moments and quiet ones. Director Simone Oswald, a pioneer of theater for the very youngest, developed the show with Munich nursery children.
A stage version of Otfried Preußler's second Hotzenplotz book. The robber has broken out of jail, eaten Grandmother's sausages and sauerkraut, and kidnapped her. Kasperl and Seppel set out to rescue her, get caught themselves, and need help from the fortune teller Mrs. Schlotterbeck and her crocodile-dog Wasti. Played by a cast of seven. Kids who already know the books will follow it most easily.
A stage version of the Grimm tale Die Sterntaler, with music and choreography. Hanne, on her own since her parents' accident, helps out at a Christmas market. When a gold coin falls from the sky, she sets out to return it, riding a barrel organ tune up to the post room for wish lists and the star workshop. Suits kids who can follow a long story in German.
A marionette play about Tabaluga, the little green dragon. A snowstorm from Arktos, the ice king, buries him and wipes his memory, and a ladybug helps him piece his past back together: bees, a dolphin, pigs, and a forbidden red button that sets off a volcano. To save both worlds, dragon and ice king team up with a giant snow cannon. Performed in German with recorded voices and songs.
A touring kids' musical where five costumed dinosaurs, led by T-Rex Leo, set off for a fire volcano and need the audience's help to get there. Kids shout warnings, solve riddles, sing and dance along.
It's staged as a full theater production with LED walls, spotlights, fog and amplified music. That suits kindergarten and early primary kids well, less so a child who startles at loud noise or big costumes.
A hands-on coding workshop at the Westend public library, part of its ENTER! digital learning series. Kids work with LEGO SPIKE, a kit that combines building, engineering and programming, and code what they build.
It is a playful first look at how computers "think", with lots of trying things out and tinkering. It suits curious kids who are happy following spoken instructions in German.
Lichterkinder are the kids' music group behind "Der Körperteil Blues" and "Guck mal diese Biene da", songs many Munich kids already know from daycare and lantern walks. A seven-piece live band plays them with dance moves and bright costumes, joined by the mascots Liki and Lumi. The audience is the star: everyone sings and dances along, and the hall becomes the stage.
A puppet show from Zagreb's Teatar Gavran, written by Miro Gavran. A little rabbit raised in the city heads back to the forest to find his mom, meets the forest animals along the way, and finds litter piling up there too. He sets out to clean it up.
Performed in Croatian with no subtitles, it best suits Croatian-speaking families.
Magic Maxl is a magician so young he still goes to school, and not Hogwarts: an ordinary school where magic is strictly forbidden. He does it anyway, and kids see what he does with bad essays and how he solves a math problem.
It is comedy magic built around school life. The show is all in German, so it suits kids who follow spoken German, and primary-school kids most.
Storyteller Claudia Schleich brings fairy tales to life inside a snug yurt, told aloud by a crackling fire. Kids sit close and listen to the story as it unfolds.
It suits kids who can follow a short spoken story, and families after a calm Sunday afternoon. The yurt is at Alte Utting, the old excursion ship moored on dry land in Munich.
A stage version of Otfried Preußler's classic about a young witch who wants to do good, though her spells still go wrong and it rains clothespins or white mice. With her hungry raven Abraxas she helps the chestnut seller and rescues Korbinian the ox, while the witch Rumpumpel spies on her before the big test on the Blocksberg. Performed in German by a professional cast in full costume.
A stage version of Sven Nordqvist's Pettersson and Findus Christmas story, played in German by a full cast in hen, cat and fox costumes. Findus crashes his sled into Pettersson while hunting for a tree, and the old man's sprained foot is only the start: a lost wish list, a homemade tree that looks like a wilted cactus, and Snorre the fox stealing the best laying hen.
Tomcat Matze and his friends take a homemade submarine down into a jazz concert made for singing along. Kids meet a jumpy jellyfish, a wild shaggy whale and dancing octopuses, led by two moderators and a live band of sax, guitar, double bass and drums. Jazz standards and playful originals by Alex Naumann.
Astrid Lindgren's Pippi moves into Villa Villekulla with her monkey, Mr. Nilsson, and her horse, and turns life upside down for Tommy and Annika, the well-behaved kids next door. Police officers, robbers and worried neighbors all try to rein her in, and she outwits every one.
Daniela Kranz, who staged Ronja Räubertochter at the Residenztheater, directs this big-stage version with songs and choreography.
Sarah Mettenleiter, a Munich pianist and singer who has played with the Jazzrausch Bigband, tells the story of her younger self, who meets the Nix, a dachshund-like creature that appears in moments of pure boredom. Soon little Sarah is wrongly suspected in a jewel theft and needs the Nix and her classmates to clear her name. A five-piece jazz band plays the score while illustrations tell the story alongside.
A paper and object theater version of the Grimm tale The Fisherman and His Wife. Pulcinella, who loves dancing, singing, eating and sleeping, catches a shimmering magic fish that grants any wish. He asks for a huge plate of pasta. His wife Zeza wants a house, then a palace, then more.
Every figure and picture is made from recycled paper, and a narrator carries the story like a song.
A family session in Robotic Worlds, the robot exhibition at Die Neue Sammlung, Munich's design museum. Kids and parents watch odd machines roll past on a conveyor belt, some shaped like dogs, sea creatures or cartoon characters, and talk about what each one can do and why it was built.
Then it turns hands-on: each kid draws a robot of their own, and gets to program a few real ones.
Flint was the Stone Age toolmaker's favorite material, and this workshop teaches the basics of shaping it. Kids work with real flint to make carving knives and arrowheads, guided by Dr. Robert Graf. It is part of the museum's program for the Stonehenge exhibition.
A merchant lost in the forest steals a rose from a castle garden, and his daughter Bella takes his punishment with the Beast. This is Johannes Galli's own join-in play, not the Disney musical. Kids call out ideas that go into the story, and at many points they can join in on stage. It suits kids who like to take part and can follow German.
Artist Karin Traxler opens her print lab ahead of Christmas. You and your kid design postcards with winter motifs, print them yourselves and take the finished cards home.
It suits a kid who likes making things with their hands, and a family that would rather send its own cards than buy them.
Once a year the Olympia-Schwimmhalle turns into one big try-it day for water sports. Kids can swim like mermaids, paddle a kayak, try diving, jump from the diving boards or balance on a slackline strung over the water.
It suits families with a mix of ages: there is water play for the smallest, while confident swimmers can sample sports a normal pool visit never offers.
Kasperl is a girl this time: brave, curious and supportive. At her side are Seppel with his glitter unicorn, an unusual witch grandma, a glittering wizard and a crocodile who would rather join the party than bite.
The stories are interactive, and kids are in the middle of them, teaching Kasperl their languages, festivals and favorite words and helping shape where each tale goes.
Münchner Theater für Kinder stages its version of the old fable. Mr. and Mrs. Hedgehog have built a small house, then the boastful hare Flitz turns up, claims it is his and demands a golden carrot as rent.
A cuckoo announces a weightlifting contest, and finally the two race each other with the house as the prize. The play is in German, so it suits kids who follow spoken German.
Clown Pepe opens his magic suitcase and turns it into a traveling circus, with mime, acrobatics, magic and plenty of clumsy clowning. In the story, circus characters come to life: tightrope walkers balance and horses gallop through the ring.
Kids are invited to join in and help shape the story. Much of it is told through mime and acrobatics, so kids who don't speak German can still follow along.
Part of Germany's nationwide reading day. Sabine Bohlmann, Charlotte Habersack and Jörg Hilbert each read from their best-known children's books on the theater stage, including Ritter Rost and Frau Honig. A reading barber, Danny Beuerbach, joins in the afternoon, and the day ends with the authors talking about how they write and where ideas come from.
Marcus Pfister, the author of "The Rainbow Fish," reads from his picture book classic for Germany's nationwide reading day (Vorlesetag). Florian Moch, director and puppeteer at the Augsburger Puppenkiste, joins him, along with the original Rainbow Fish puppets used in the new puppet film.
Afterward Pfister signs books. It suits preschoolers and early readers who can follow a story read in German.
Klang Spiel Platz is a walk-in sound installation at the Schauburg, the city-run children's theater. Strings, wind and percussion instruments share the room with wood, metal, plastic and everyday objects, and kids get to bow, strike and blow all of it. Musicians and music teachers from the theater lead the family workshop and help kids find their own sounds. It suits curious kids who want to touch everything.
In a kitchen live the Tuchlinge, a gang of cloth creatures who drum, giggle and romp around their home. Then a letter from the mayor says they must take in someone called Koriander. Surely he stinks and will wreck everything. He doesn't stink, but he does make a mess.
Stefanie Hattenkofer performs with puppets she made from dish towels, gloves and kitchenware, in a gentle story about meeting someone new.
A hands-on chocolate workshop at Museum Mensch und Natur, in Schloss Nymphenburg. Kids find out where cocoa comes from, who harvests it and how a cocoa bean turns into a bar of chocolate.
It suits curious kids who like making things, with a grown-up alongside.
A magician vanishes just before his own show. A stranger in a hoodie and his companion LUMO ask the kids to help find him, through illusions, magic tricks and audience volunteers. The kids drive the story, and it pays off at the end.
Balduin Ubinga, a panicked theater director, has been told a rich American wants a jazz concert with scat singing, and nobody knows what scat is. Kids help him find out, alongside a live band of trumpet, piano, drums and double bass.
The show runs from sad blues to wild boogie-woogie, with a little history of African American music along the way, and plenty of clapping, dancing and singing along.
René Frotscher is an award-winning comedy magician, and his family show mixes sleight of hand with clowning, mime, slapstick and a lot of wordplay. Coins appear out of thin air, scarves and cards vanish, and kids from the audience help out with the tricks. He keeps adding new tricks to the program, so families who have seen him before still get fresh material.
Candle Art is an Advent workshop for kids and teens at Sammlung Goetz. Each child designs and decorates their own Advent candle in the studio.
It suits kids who like making things with their hands and want something homemade for the Advent season.
A Bavarian family musical from the Lustspielhaus, with songs by Margit Sarholz and Werner Meier of Sternschnuppe. A cow puts on a dirndl and high heels, breaks out of her pasture and sets off for the city to see a movie, dodging a sneaky butcher pig and catching a ride on a scooter.
A small cast swaps through dozens of roles, backed by a live four-piece band.
In a green three-story house, the Sound Merchant runs a shop where boxes, bottles, little sacks and drawers ring, creak, whistle, hum and squeak. Today's special offer: murmurs, giggles, clapping and amazement.
Two puppeteers from the Bremen puppet theater Mensch, Puppe! play this lively show, loosely based on Kathrin Rohmann's story. It suits kids who like to listen closely and enjoy a busy, noisy stage.
Hexe Trixi is a witch whose spells keep going wrong, and she can barely manage a trick without help from the audience. Magician Kornelia Weiland plays her, and kids get called up as apprentices to help the magic work.
It is a hands-on, giggly show built around joining in, so it suits kids who like to shout out and volunteer. Shy kids can watch from their seats.
Theater Kartonka tells the Christmas story with cardboard shadow puppets, poetry and live music, all set inside the Star of Bethlehem, where candles and lights are lit. Sveta Beny narrates and works the figures, with Lina Hesse on music.
It suits young kids who can sit through a calm, quiet show and who follow Russian, the language it is performed in. An audience talk follows the show.
A kids' version of Mozart's The Magic Flute, told through Papageno, the cheerful bird catcher. Prince Tamino sends him to find Princess Pamina, and a small flute helps him past every danger on the way. Singers share the stage with puppets from münchner puzzletheater while the chamber orchestra concierto münchen plays the music live. A good first opera, with the famous tunes and a story kids can follow.
One night Herr Sumsemann, a maybug, taps on Peterchen and Anneliese's window, and the three fly past the Night Fairy and the Star Meadow to the moon to win back his lost sixth leg. Composer Alexander Krampe set Gerdt von Bassewitz's classic German story to music, played by the Bergson Artists on piano, violin, viola and cello, with Maximilian Maier singing and narrating. It suits kids happy to sit and listen.
A cookie angel is supposed to bake for every child St. Nicholas will visit, but the angel is tired, the job is huge, and St. Nicholas could walk in any minute. So the kids in the audience pitch in.
Then Krampus bursts into the heavenly bakery, and a fight breaks out over who bakes better cookies. A small, interactive show in German with music, made for preschoolers and early grade-schoolers.
A stage version of the Grimm tale. Hard-working Maria toils for lazy, money-hungry Frau Schnöselbach and her daughter Marie, who never pay her. When Maria drops her sewing into a well and climbs in after it, she lands in the world of Frau Holle, the woman who makes it snow. A clear story about hard work and fairness, told by a cast of six with bright, colorful sets.
A shortened family version of Mozart's The Magic Flute, keeping the famous music but not the full-length run. Three singers, a narrator and a one-person keyboard "orchestra" tell the story of Prince Tamino, Papageno the bird-catcher and the Queen of the Night, pitched at grown-ups as much as kids. It's performed in German, and works best for kids who already enjoy music and a good story.
A marionette Christmas fairy tale by Siegfried Böhmke. Teddy, himself a Christmas present, helps out in Santa's workshop in the sky and takes a toy airplane for a test flight. He crash-lands in a snowy forest, where new friends help him get it flying again.
A string quartet and a narrator bring Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung down to kid size. The Praetorius Quartett plays themes from the opera cycle while Katja Jung tells the story of the dwarfs, giants, humans and gods fighting over a magic gold ring.
It takes place in the Parkettgarderobe, a foyer inside Munich's opera house, not the main hall. A first taste of classical music and opera storytelling.
Bummelkasten is a Berlin one-man band who builds songs almost entirely with his mouth: a cappella vocals, beatbox and live loop-station layers, often performed from an armchair. The songs star odd characters, like Princess Susi, who grills pony sausage and drives a monster truck to the bakery, and Max, the toilet-paper thief who rides escalators. The lyrics are sharp and funny enough that parents laugh along too.
The award-winning percussion duo Double Drums performs a family concert featuring world percussion instruments, saws, power drills, and cardboard boxes transformed into musical instruments. The musicians interact with the audience through rhythmic storytelling: stampeding wildebeest, ocean waves, and desert storms rendered as "ear cinema." The program includes humor, audience participation, and explanations of diverse percussion traditions.
Margit Sarholz and Werner Meier, the duo behind the Sternschnuppe children's songs, lead a pre-Christmas sing-along. Expect songs about sledding and snow, gentle stories, clapping games, and a visit from Schneemo Willi and the Nikolaus. Parents and kids both join in.
Students from the Munich Music Seminar and their guests perform Christmas melodies and classical pieces from various eras. The program includes a gift-giving ceremony as part of this musical St. Nicholas celebration.
The children's edition of the Münchner Advent, run by Munich's folk music association. This year's theme is dreaming: the Christmas story told from a new angle through songs, stories and old Advent customs.
Kids sing along rather than just watch, and pick up traditions many families no longer keep at home. It suits kids who like to join in; a child who wants a show to sit back and watch may fidget.
Storytellers Gabi Altenbach and Ines Honsel turn into pastry bakers for this pre-Christmas show, baking cookies on stage while they tell winter fairy tales. The stories swing from poetic to wild: animals big and small, trolls and forest folk, wishing and cursing.
It is told in German, so it suits kids who can follow a spoken story in German. The show ends with eating the fresh cookies.
Münchner Marionettentheater stages Dickens' A Christmas Carol with hand puppets and live voices. Marley's ghost warns Scrooge, then three spirits show him his past, a family Christmas happening now, and a lonely future. Some moments are sad or spooky, including a sick child and Scrooge's own death, and the ending turns warm. Scrooge wakes up changed.
Kasperl is Bavaria's classic hand-puppet hero, and Stephan Mikat of the Chiemsee Kasperltheater plays him in broad Bavarian dialect. Kids shout warnings, answer back and help Kasperl out of trouble, while soap bubbles and foam drift over the front rows. Each story is gentle and violence-free, with a happy ending. Kids with little German still follow the slapstick, though most of the jokes are spoken.
A Christmas story told with live classical music. The angel Sosoel breaks a wing playing in the clouds and slides all the way down the sky ladder to Earth, landing on top of a Christmas tree. Kids follow him through a Christmas market and crowded city streets, join in along the way, and find out how his new friends get him home. Afterward, kids can try the instruments themselves.
Conductor Thomas Gropper tells the Christmas story through Bach's Christmas Oratorio, stopping between excerpts to explain what kids are hearing: why the angels sound heavenly, why the shepherds go from amazed to excited, and what all the instruments in the orchestra are.
The Arcis-Vocalisten choir sings with the baroque orchestra L'Arpa festante and soloists. It suits curious school-age kids more than toddlers who need to move.
Actor Stefan Wilkening reads Astrid Lindgren's Christmas stories, with Maria Reiter on accordion. Pippi Longstocking invites the town's kids to plunder her Christmas tree, Michel (Emil in English) brings a feast to the poorhouse, and the Bullerbü children bake cookies as presents draw near. Wilkening plays every voice and face. It's in German, so it suits kids who follow spoken German or already know the books.
A children's theater show about Meg, a lovable, playful cat who forgets that she has just eaten, that cats can't fly, and above all her cat flap. Her memory keeps the Schmidt family in regular chaos, and one day it all goes wrong.
It suits preschoolers and young school kids who like an animal story full of mix-ups.
A family horse show built around a fairy tale. Robert, a boy who has lost his imagination, travels through a winter wonderland to win it back, with fairies, wizards and a few villains along the way. Ponies, Lusitanos and liberty horses share the stage with trick riders, fire effects, stunts and comic actors. It suits horse fans, and kids who simply like a big, bright show.
Timmy, a boy with a flute, goes to Vienna to learn what Mozart's Turkish March is about and meets the storyteller Scheherazade. Her storybook pulls them both into the Arabian Nights: a busy market, a contest of musicians, a conjurer, Sindbad the sailor and a grim palace guard. A chamber ensemble plays Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky, while an acrobat and actress plays out the story with flying carpets and swirling veils.
Percussionist Samuel Wootton, one of Bergson's resident artists, takes the audience through the world of percussion, from a soft "ting" to a big "boom". Kids don't just listen: they drum, clap and laugh along and become part of the show.
It's Bergson's own production, staged in the Freiraum hall of the Bergson Kunstkraftwerk, a converted power station in Aubing. Good for kids who like noise and hate sitting still.
A reading of E.T.A. Hoffmann's Christmas story, told over Tchaikovsky's music played live on cello and piano. Kids don't just listen: they take on roles and act out parts of the story with the performers, and get a playful introduction to both instruments.
In this version the Nutcracker himself is made of musical notes. It suits kids who can sit through a story but like to join in.
A Christmas ballet where professional dancers share the stage with students from German ballet schools. On Christmas Eve, Clara meets the brave Nutcracker, who saves her from the Mouse King, and the two set off into a night where dreams and secret wishes come true.
It suits families with kids who dance or love fairy tales, and grown-ups who want a classical Nutcracker.
A family Christmas concert from the Münchner Motettenchor, a fixture at the Matthäuskirche for many years. Kids sing carols at full voice together with the adult choir, while a host chats and jokes with the audience between songs. Proceeds go to Sternstunden, a charity for children in need.
It suits kids who like to join in more than kids who prefer to sit and listen.
Wagner's opera, retold for kids. Tannhäuser and his friend Wolfram want to win a singing contest at Wartburg castle, and Elisabeth's heart. Then Tannhäuser goes looking for an apple he dreamed of and is trapped underground by the sorceress Venus, allowed only to sing for her.
Actors from puzzletheater münchen play the story while an 11-piece chamber orchestra, concierto münchen, plays Wagner's music live.
Magician Arcato takes the audience on a trip to a Christmas magic land. Kids help Santa get ready for Christmas, hunt for his missing reindeer and watch one trick after another.
The children in the seats are part of the act: some of the spells only work when they help. It suits kids who like to shout out answers and join in, and who can follow a show in German.
A classic Bavarian Kasperl puppet show by the Chiemsee Kasperl. The wizard Hieronymus Wackelzahn has lured the Christ Child, and all the presents, into his magic castle, so Mucki, an out-of-work Easter bunny, steps in as a stand-in angel. It ends happily.
Kids call out and join in rather than just watch. Kasperl speaks Bavarian, written so everyone can follow, but kids with some German get the most from it.
A stage version of Kai Pannen's picture book. Karl-Heinz, a cross spider who mostly wants peace and quiet, catches Bisy the fly in his web and plans to serve her as his Christmas dinner. Bisy has other ideas, and the days in the web fill up with visitors, mix-ups and adventures. A funny, warm story about an unlikely friendship, played by five actors switching between many roles.
Heavysaurus is a rock band of four dinosaurs and a dragon, played by five professional musicians in full costume. They play loud metal on real instruments, written for kids: big riffs, sing-along choruses and a dino roar the whole room shouts back.
Expect a proper concert show with lights, fog, sparks, balloons and confetti. Songs are in German, though little German is needed to jump along.
A children's stage version of Mozart's Magic Flute. Prince Tamino, chased by a dragon, sets out to rescue Pamina with Papageno, a funny bird catcher who is not very brave, armed with a magic flute and magic bells.
Actors in full costume tell the story with music and dance, and it leaves kids with a question: was the Queen of the Night telling the truth? A friendly first taste of Mozart for school-age kids.
Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals, played live by the chamber orchestra concierto münchen while the münchner puzzletheater brings more than 20 moving puppets on stage: a lion, wild donkeys, tortoises, an elephant, kangaroos, an aquarium, fossils and a swan. Conductor Carlos Domínguez-Nieto narrates in German, using Loriot's well-known text.
A good first orchestra concert for animal-mad kids, since there is always something moving to watch.
A stage version of Janosch's picture book. Little Bear and Little Tiger live by the river, but Tiger gets lonely whenever Bear goes fishing. So Bear writes him letters, and the two end up inventing the post, airmail and a telephone with underground cables.
Actors in costume play it close to the book, on a painted set. Kids who know the bear and tiger books will feel at home.
Conni, the girl from the German children's books, is having her birthday and is finally big enough to start school. There's a chocolate cake to bake with her friends, her teddy and her cat Mau to cuddle, and a party that might not go to plan.
The audience becomes part of the show, helping Conni along with songs and movement. It suits kids who know the books or follow German.
A musical fantasy story: Timmy and his friend Philipp travel across Europe by balloon, stopping in places like England, France and Italy to meet the people and hear their music.
The chamber ensemble of the Freies Landestheater Bayern plays melodies by Handel, Debussy, Vivaldi, Rossini and Charpentier. It suits school-age kids who are curious about instruments and other countries.
Dennis & Jesko Band are the trio behind the football songs on WUMMS, an online channel from NDR and Radio Bremen. Their concerts are a party: kids jump and sing at the front while surprisingly word-perfect parents stand further back.
Expect their big hit "Rambo Ramos" plus songs about Lewandowski, Mbappé, FC Bayern and Antonio Rüdiger. It suits football-mad kids who already know the songs.
A family ice show built on the songs from both Frozen films, sung live by musical soloists while ice dancers and acrobats fill the ice. Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff and Sven are all there, and a giant LED screen turns the stage to ice and blue crystals when Elsa sings "Let It Go".
It suits kids who already know the films and want to see the characters in person.
A new science-fiction adventure written and built by the Münchner Marionettentheater's own team. Professor Korbinian Fox and his assistant Rakete are finishing a time machine that still lacks one part. While they're out of the workshop, his niece Fania plays with it, the machine starts, and she vanishes. The chase through time is told with marionettes, puppets and recorded voices. It suits kids who can follow a longer story.
A family concert built around a story: the pictures and words in a mysterious book are fading, and music and dance have to bring them back. Pianist Larissa Richter plays live, ballerina Tatiana Gribov dances and actress Stephanie Marin hosts. Kids don't only watch: they join in, move and dance along. Nobody has to sit still or stay quiet, so it suits kids who like to move.
Rund is a new object theater piece built around things that roll, spin, wobble and tip over, then stand back up. Puppetry meets visual art: director Julika Mayer and Munich artist Olga Golos turn art objects into toys and tools, moved and turned in front of the audience. The Schauburg is building it in close contact with the youngest theatergoers it is made for.
CineKindl is the children's section of Filmfest München, Munich's big summer film festival. It shows new feature, animated, documentary and short films from Germany and around the world, with a jury and awards.
After each screening there is a Q&A, often with the filmmakers in the room, so kids can ask whatever the film made them wonder. It suits kids who follow German, since foreign films are dubbed live.
Rain on the window and a kid with energy to spare? These are plans with a roof over them: puppet theater, kids' plays, family concerts and hands-on exhibitions. The list updates itself and puts the soonest first, so the next show is always at the top. Check the age on each one before you book, since some are made for toddlers and others for school kids.
Polarwelten is an indoor exhibition about the Arctic and Antarctic. Kids meet polar bears, penguins and whales through pictures and interactive stations.
The main draw is a 360° room with a show of about 25 minutes, where glaciers, icebergs, underwater scenes and northern lights surround you. It suits curious kids who like animals.
Rosmarie the cow finds fault with everything on the farm: the pig wallowing in mud, the dog gulping its food, the hen cackling over a tiny egg. When the farmer sends her away, new animals turn up and he learns the problem is not so easy to solve. Two actors tell it with rhythmic language, music and humor, asking what it takes for everyone to belong.
Bär hat es schwer is a puppet show by Figurentheater Pantaleon at the Ramersdorf branch of the Munich city library. Autumn is nearly over, and the bear comes out of the woods full from eating and tired, ready for his soft winter bed.
But something in the bed pokes and pinches, he can't sleep, and he gets grumpy. The show is in German, so it suits kids who follow German.
Grandma is away, so Kasperl and Seppl send Gretel packing and cook their favorite dishes themselves. Their eyes are bigger than their stomachs at the shop, and the kitchen goes from one slapstick disaster to the next until they are glad to take help after all. A classic hand-puppet show in German, with a happy ending.
A hands-on exhibition about where food comes from and what it does inside us. Kids milk a cow, turn milk into butter, grind grain into flour and play supermarket with a recipe in hand. A giant nose and an oversized tongue explain smell and taste, and a digestion station follows a bite through the body.
Max wakes up one morning and finds he has turned into an ant. Small and alone, he needs help to get home, and he finds it among bumblebees, water striders, honeybees and other fascinating creatures.
Altenbach and Honsel tell the story as a poetic trip into the insect world, with groovy music and cool dance moves. It suits kids who enjoy a story told with music and movement.
KiKolino, a mischievous goblin who eats musical notes with cinnamon sugar and whipped cream, turns 13 and receives birthday mail from Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Schumann, and Richard Strauss. Postwoman Maria guides the audience through the horn's history while interactive activities invite children to shape the story. Features Maria Teiwes on horn (Munich Philharmonic) and Anne Schätz on piano as KiKolino.
Janosch's picture book, staged. Little Bear fishes a crate out of the river that smells of bananas and says "Panama", so he and Little Tiger set off to find it.
On the way they meet a busy mouse, a cow, a sly fox, a hare and a hedgehog, and work out that home may be the place they were looking for. Five actors play the whole cast.
Two actors play with opposites: up and down, in front and behind, together and alone. They chase, hide and seem to vanish on a stage full of surprises, with fast moments and quiet ones. Director Simone Oswald, a pioneer of theater for the very youngest, developed the show with Munich nursery children.
A stage version of Otfried Preußler's second Hotzenplotz book. The robber has broken out of jail, eaten Grandmother's sausages and sauerkraut, and kidnapped her. Kasperl and Seppel set out to rescue her, get caught themselves, and need help from the fortune teller Mrs. Schlotterbeck and her crocodile-dog Wasti. Played by a cast of seven. Kids who already know the books will follow it most easily.
A stage version of the Grimm tale Die Sterntaler, with music and choreography. Hanne, on her own since her parents' accident, helps out at a Christmas market. When a gold coin falls from the sky, she sets out to return it, riding a barrel organ tune up to the post room for wish lists and the star workshop. Suits kids who can follow a long story in German.
A marionette play about Tabaluga, the little green dragon. A snowstorm from Arktos, the ice king, buries him and wipes his memory, and a ladybug helps him piece his past back together: bees, a dolphin, pigs, and a forbidden red button that sets off a volcano. To save both worlds, dragon and ice king team up with a giant snow cannon. Performed in German with recorded voices and songs.
A touring kids' musical where five costumed dinosaurs, led by T-Rex Leo, set off for a fire volcano and need the audience's help to get there. Kids shout warnings, solve riddles, sing and dance along.
It's staged as a full theater production with LED walls, spotlights, fog and amplified music. That suits kindergarten and early primary kids well, less so a child who startles at loud noise or big costumes.
A hands-on coding workshop at the Westend public library, part of its ENTER! digital learning series. Kids work with LEGO SPIKE, a kit that combines building, engineering and programming, and code what they build.
It is a playful first look at how computers "think", with lots of trying things out and tinkering. It suits curious kids who are happy following spoken instructions in German.
Lichterkinder are the kids' music group behind "Der Körperteil Blues" and "Guck mal diese Biene da", songs many Munich kids already know from daycare and lantern walks. A seven-piece live band plays them with dance moves and bright costumes, joined by the mascots Liki and Lumi. The audience is the star: everyone sings and dances along, and the hall becomes the stage.
A puppet show from Zagreb's Teatar Gavran, written by Miro Gavran. A little rabbit raised in the city heads back to the forest to find his mom, meets the forest animals along the way, and finds litter piling up there too. He sets out to clean it up.
Performed in Croatian with no subtitles, it best suits Croatian-speaking families.
Magic Maxl is a magician so young he still goes to school, and not Hogwarts: an ordinary school where magic is strictly forbidden. He does it anyway, and kids see what he does with bad essays and how he solves a math problem.
It is comedy magic built around school life. The show is all in German, so it suits kids who follow spoken German, and primary-school kids most.
Storyteller Claudia Schleich brings fairy tales to life inside a snug yurt, told aloud by a crackling fire. Kids sit close and listen to the story as it unfolds.
It suits kids who can follow a short spoken story, and families after a calm Sunday afternoon. The yurt is at Alte Utting, the old excursion ship moored on dry land in Munich.
A stage version of Otfried Preußler's classic about a young witch who wants to do good, though her spells still go wrong and it rains clothespins or white mice. With her hungry raven Abraxas she helps the chestnut seller and rescues Korbinian the ox, while the witch Rumpumpel spies on her before the big test on the Blocksberg. Performed in German by a professional cast in full costume.
A stage version of Sven Nordqvist's Pettersson and Findus Christmas story, played in German by a full cast in hen, cat and fox costumes. Findus crashes his sled into Pettersson while hunting for a tree, and the old man's sprained foot is only the start: a lost wish list, a homemade tree that looks like a wilted cactus, and Snorre the fox stealing the best laying hen.
Tomcat Matze and his friends take a homemade submarine down into a jazz concert made for singing along. Kids meet a jumpy jellyfish, a wild shaggy whale and dancing octopuses, led by two moderators and a live band of sax, guitar, double bass and drums. Jazz standards and playful originals by Alex Naumann.
Astrid Lindgren's Pippi moves into Villa Villekulla with her monkey, Mr. Nilsson, and her horse, and turns life upside down for Tommy and Annika, the well-behaved kids next door. Police officers, robbers and worried neighbors all try to rein her in, and she outwits every one.
Daniela Kranz, who staged Ronja Räubertochter at the Residenztheater, directs this big-stage version with songs and choreography.
Sarah Mettenleiter, a Munich pianist and singer who has played with the Jazzrausch Bigband, tells the story of her younger self, who meets the Nix, a dachshund-like creature that appears in moments of pure boredom. Soon little Sarah is wrongly suspected in a jewel theft and needs the Nix and her classmates to clear her name. A five-piece jazz band plays the score while illustrations tell the story alongside.
A paper and object theater version of the Grimm tale The Fisherman and His Wife. Pulcinella, who loves dancing, singing, eating and sleeping, catches a shimmering magic fish that grants any wish. He asks for a huge plate of pasta. His wife Zeza wants a house, then a palace, then more.
Every figure and picture is made from recycled paper, and a narrator carries the story like a song.
A family session in Robotic Worlds, the robot exhibition at Die Neue Sammlung, Munich's design museum. Kids and parents watch odd machines roll past on a conveyor belt, some shaped like dogs, sea creatures or cartoon characters, and talk about what each one can do and why it was built.
Then it turns hands-on: each kid draws a robot of their own, and gets to program a few real ones.
Flint was the Stone Age toolmaker's favorite material, and this workshop teaches the basics of shaping it. Kids work with real flint to make carving knives and arrowheads, guided by Dr. Robert Graf. It is part of the museum's program for the Stonehenge exhibition.
A merchant lost in the forest steals a rose from a castle garden, and his daughter Bella takes his punishment with the Beast. This is Johannes Galli's own join-in play, not the Disney musical. Kids call out ideas that go into the story, and at many points they can join in on stage. It suits kids who like to take part and can follow German.
Artist Karin Traxler opens her print lab ahead of Christmas. You and your kid design postcards with winter motifs, print them yourselves and take the finished cards home.
It suits a kid who likes making things with their hands, and a family that would rather send its own cards than buy them.
Once a year the Olympia-Schwimmhalle turns into one big try-it day for water sports. Kids can swim like mermaids, paddle a kayak, try diving, jump from the diving boards or balance on a slackline strung over the water.
It suits families with a mix of ages: there is water play for the smallest, while confident swimmers can sample sports a normal pool visit never offers.
Kasperl is a girl this time: brave, curious and supportive. At her side are Seppel with his glitter unicorn, an unusual witch grandma, a glittering wizard and a crocodile who would rather join the party than bite.
The stories are interactive, and kids are in the middle of them, teaching Kasperl their languages, festivals and favorite words and helping shape where each tale goes.
Münchner Theater für Kinder stages its version of the old fable. Mr. and Mrs. Hedgehog have built a small house, then the boastful hare Flitz turns up, claims it is his and demands a golden carrot as rent.
A cuckoo announces a weightlifting contest, and finally the two race each other with the house as the prize. The play is in German, so it suits kids who follow spoken German.
Clown Pepe opens his magic suitcase and turns it into a traveling circus, with mime, acrobatics, magic and plenty of clumsy clowning. In the story, circus characters come to life: tightrope walkers balance and horses gallop through the ring.
Kids are invited to join in and help shape the story. Much of it is told through mime and acrobatics, so kids who don't speak German can still follow along.
Part of Germany's nationwide reading day. Sabine Bohlmann, Charlotte Habersack and Jörg Hilbert each read from their best-known children's books on the theater stage, including Ritter Rost and Frau Honig. A reading barber, Danny Beuerbach, joins in the afternoon, and the day ends with the authors talking about how they write and where ideas come from.
Marcus Pfister, the author of "The Rainbow Fish," reads from his picture book classic for Germany's nationwide reading day (Vorlesetag). Florian Moch, director and puppeteer at the Augsburger Puppenkiste, joins him, along with the original Rainbow Fish puppets used in the new puppet film.
Afterward Pfister signs books. It suits preschoolers and early readers who can follow a story read in German.
Klang Spiel Platz is a walk-in sound installation at the Schauburg, the city-run children's theater. Strings, wind and percussion instruments share the room with wood, metal, plastic and everyday objects, and kids get to bow, strike and blow all of it. Musicians and music teachers from the theater lead the family workshop and help kids find their own sounds. It suits curious kids who want to touch everything.
In a kitchen live the Tuchlinge, a gang of cloth creatures who drum, giggle and romp around their home. Then a letter from the mayor says they must take in someone called Koriander. Surely he stinks and will wreck everything. He doesn't stink, but he does make a mess.
Stefanie Hattenkofer performs with puppets she made from dish towels, gloves and kitchenware, in a gentle story about meeting someone new.
A hands-on chocolate workshop at Museum Mensch und Natur, in Schloss Nymphenburg. Kids find out where cocoa comes from, who harvests it and how a cocoa bean turns into a bar of chocolate.
It suits curious kids who like making things, with a grown-up alongside.
A magician vanishes just before his own show. A stranger in a hoodie and his companion LUMO ask the kids to help find him, through illusions, magic tricks and audience volunteers. The kids drive the story, and it pays off at the end.
Balduin Ubinga, a panicked theater director, has been told a rich American wants a jazz concert with scat singing, and nobody knows what scat is. Kids help him find out, alongside a live band of trumpet, piano, drums and double bass.
The show runs from sad blues to wild boogie-woogie, with a little history of African American music along the way, and plenty of clapping, dancing and singing along.
René Frotscher is an award-winning comedy magician, and his family show mixes sleight of hand with clowning, mime, slapstick and a lot of wordplay. Coins appear out of thin air, scarves and cards vanish, and kids from the audience help out with the tricks. He keeps adding new tricks to the program, so families who have seen him before still get fresh material.
Candle Art is an Advent workshop for kids and teens at Sammlung Goetz. Each child designs and decorates their own Advent candle in the studio.
It suits kids who like making things with their hands and want something homemade for the Advent season.
A Bavarian family musical from the Lustspielhaus, with songs by Margit Sarholz and Werner Meier of Sternschnuppe. A cow puts on a dirndl and high heels, breaks out of her pasture and sets off for the city to see a movie, dodging a sneaky butcher pig and catching a ride on a scooter.
A small cast swaps through dozens of roles, backed by a live four-piece band.
In a green three-story house, the Sound Merchant runs a shop where boxes, bottles, little sacks and drawers ring, creak, whistle, hum and squeak. Today's special offer: murmurs, giggles, clapping and amazement.
Two puppeteers from the Bremen puppet theater Mensch, Puppe! play this lively show, loosely based on Kathrin Rohmann's story. It suits kids who like to listen closely and enjoy a busy, noisy stage.
Hexe Trixi is a witch whose spells keep going wrong, and she can barely manage a trick without help from the audience. Magician Kornelia Weiland plays her, and kids get called up as apprentices to help the magic work.
It is a hands-on, giggly show built around joining in, so it suits kids who like to shout out and volunteer. Shy kids can watch from their seats.
Theater Kartonka tells the Christmas story with cardboard shadow puppets, poetry and live music, all set inside the Star of Bethlehem, where candles and lights are lit. Sveta Beny narrates and works the figures, with Lina Hesse on music.
It suits young kids who can sit through a calm, quiet show and who follow Russian, the language it is performed in. An audience talk follows the show.
A kids' version of Mozart's The Magic Flute, told through Papageno, the cheerful bird catcher. Prince Tamino sends him to find Princess Pamina, and a small flute helps him past every danger on the way. Singers share the stage with puppets from münchner puzzletheater while the chamber orchestra concierto münchen plays the music live. A good first opera, with the famous tunes and a story kids can follow.
One night Herr Sumsemann, a maybug, taps on Peterchen and Anneliese's window, and the three fly past the Night Fairy and the Star Meadow to the moon to win back his lost sixth leg. Composer Alexander Krampe set Gerdt von Bassewitz's classic German story to music, played by the Bergson Artists on piano, violin, viola and cello, with Maximilian Maier singing and narrating. It suits kids happy to sit and listen.
A cookie angel is supposed to bake for every child St. Nicholas will visit, but the angel is tired, the job is huge, and St. Nicholas could walk in any minute. So the kids in the audience pitch in.
Then Krampus bursts into the heavenly bakery, and a fight breaks out over who bakes better cookies. A small, interactive show in German with music, made for preschoolers and early grade-schoolers.
A stage version of the Grimm tale. Hard-working Maria toils for lazy, money-hungry Frau Schnöselbach and her daughter Marie, who never pay her. When Maria drops her sewing into a well and climbs in after it, she lands in the world of Frau Holle, the woman who makes it snow. A clear story about hard work and fairness, told by a cast of six with bright, colorful sets.
A shortened family version of Mozart's The Magic Flute, keeping the famous music but not the full-length run. Three singers, a narrator and a one-person keyboard "orchestra" tell the story of Prince Tamino, Papageno the bird-catcher and the Queen of the Night, pitched at grown-ups as much as kids. It's performed in German, and works best for kids who already enjoy music and a good story.
A marionette Christmas fairy tale by Siegfried Böhmke. Teddy, himself a Christmas present, helps out in Santa's workshop in the sky and takes a toy airplane for a test flight. He crash-lands in a snowy forest, where new friends help him get it flying again.
A string quartet and a narrator bring Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung down to kid size. The Praetorius Quartett plays themes from the opera cycle while Katja Jung tells the story of the dwarfs, giants, humans and gods fighting over a magic gold ring.
It takes place in the Parkettgarderobe, a foyer inside Munich's opera house, not the main hall. A first taste of classical music and opera storytelling.
Bummelkasten is a Berlin one-man band who builds songs almost entirely with his mouth: a cappella vocals, beatbox and live loop-station layers, often performed from an armchair. The songs star odd characters, like Princess Susi, who grills pony sausage and drives a monster truck to the bakery, and Max, the toilet-paper thief who rides escalators. The lyrics are sharp and funny enough that parents laugh along too.
The award-winning percussion duo Double Drums performs a family concert featuring world percussion instruments, saws, power drills, and cardboard boxes transformed into musical instruments. The musicians interact with the audience through rhythmic storytelling: stampeding wildebeest, ocean waves, and desert storms rendered as "ear cinema." The program includes humor, audience participation, and explanations of diverse percussion traditions.
Margit Sarholz and Werner Meier, the duo behind the Sternschnuppe children's songs, lead a pre-Christmas sing-along. Expect songs about sledding and snow, gentle stories, clapping games, and a visit from Schneemo Willi and the Nikolaus. Parents and kids both join in.
Students from the Munich Music Seminar and their guests perform Christmas melodies and classical pieces from various eras. The program includes a gift-giving ceremony as part of this musical St. Nicholas celebration.
The children's edition of the Münchner Advent, run by Munich's folk music association. This year's theme is dreaming: the Christmas story told from a new angle through songs, stories and old Advent customs.
Kids sing along rather than just watch, and pick up traditions many families no longer keep at home. It suits kids who like to join in; a child who wants a show to sit back and watch may fidget.
Storytellers Gabi Altenbach and Ines Honsel turn into pastry bakers for this pre-Christmas show, baking cookies on stage while they tell winter fairy tales. The stories swing from poetic to wild: animals big and small, trolls and forest folk, wishing and cursing.
It is told in German, so it suits kids who can follow a spoken story in German. The show ends with eating the fresh cookies.
Münchner Marionettentheater stages Dickens' A Christmas Carol with hand puppets and live voices. Marley's ghost warns Scrooge, then three spirits show him his past, a family Christmas happening now, and a lonely future. Some moments are sad or spooky, including a sick child and Scrooge's own death, and the ending turns warm. Scrooge wakes up changed.
Kasperl is Bavaria's classic hand-puppet hero, and Stephan Mikat of the Chiemsee Kasperltheater plays him in broad Bavarian dialect. Kids shout warnings, answer back and help Kasperl out of trouble, while soap bubbles and foam drift over the front rows. Each story is gentle and violence-free, with a happy ending. Kids with little German still follow the slapstick, though most of the jokes are spoken.
A Christmas story told with live classical music. The angel Sosoel breaks a wing playing in the clouds and slides all the way down the sky ladder to Earth, landing on top of a Christmas tree. Kids follow him through a Christmas market and crowded city streets, join in along the way, and find out how his new friends get him home. Afterward, kids can try the instruments themselves.
Conductor Thomas Gropper tells the Christmas story through Bach's Christmas Oratorio, stopping between excerpts to explain what kids are hearing: why the angels sound heavenly, why the shepherds go from amazed to excited, and what all the instruments in the orchestra are.
The Arcis-Vocalisten choir sings with the baroque orchestra L'Arpa festante and soloists. It suits curious school-age kids more than toddlers who need to move.
Actor Stefan Wilkening reads Astrid Lindgren's Christmas stories, with Maria Reiter on accordion. Pippi Longstocking invites the town's kids to plunder her Christmas tree, Michel (Emil in English) brings a feast to the poorhouse, and the Bullerbü children bake cookies as presents draw near. Wilkening plays every voice and face. It's in German, so it suits kids who follow spoken German or already know the books.
A children's theater show about Meg, a lovable, playful cat who forgets that she has just eaten, that cats can't fly, and above all her cat flap. Her memory keeps the Schmidt family in regular chaos, and one day it all goes wrong.
It suits preschoolers and young school kids who like an animal story full of mix-ups.
A family horse show built around a fairy tale. Robert, a boy who has lost his imagination, travels through a winter wonderland to win it back, with fairies, wizards and a few villains along the way. Ponies, Lusitanos and liberty horses share the stage with trick riders, fire effects, stunts and comic actors. It suits horse fans, and kids who simply like a big, bright show.
Timmy, a boy with a flute, goes to Vienna to learn what Mozart's Turkish March is about and meets the storyteller Scheherazade. Her storybook pulls them both into the Arabian Nights: a busy market, a contest of musicians, a conjurer, Sindbad the sailor and a grim palace guard. A chamber ensemble plays Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky, while an acrobat and actress plays out the story with flying carpets and swirling veils.
Percussionist Samuel Wootton, one of Bergson's resident artists, takes the audience through the world of percussion, from a soft "ting" to a big "boom". Kids don't just listen: they drum, clap and laugh along and become part of the show.
It's Bergson's own production, staged in the Freiraum hall of the Bergson Kunstkraftwerk, a converted power station in Aubing. Good for kids who like noise and hate sitting still.
A reading of E.T.A. Hoffmann's Christmas story, told over Tchaikovsky's music played live on cello and piano. Kids don't just listen: they take on roles and act out parts of the story with the performers, and get a playful introduction to both instruments.
In this version the Nutcracker himself is made of musical notes. It suits kids who can sit through a story but like to join in.
A Christmas ballet where professional dancers share the stage with students from German ballet schools. On Christmas Eve, Clara meets the brave Nutcracker, who saves her from the Mouse King, and the two set off into a night where dreams and secret wishes come true.
It suits families with kids who dance or love fairy tales, and grown-ups who want a classical Nutcracker.
A family Christmas concert from the Münchner Motettenchor, a fixture at the Matthäuskirche for many years. Kids sing carols at full voice together with the adult choir, while a host chats and jokes with the audience between songs. Proceeds go to Sternstunden, a charity for children in need.
It suits kids who like to join in more than kids who prefer to sit and listen.
Wagner's opera, retold for kids. Tannhäuser and his friend Wolfram want to win a singing contest at Wartburg castle, and Elisabeth's heart. Then Tannhäuser goes looking for an apple he dreamed of and is trapped underground by the sorceress Venus, allowed only to sing for her.
Actors from puzzletheater münchen play the story while an 11-piece chamber orchestra, concierto münchen, plays Wagner's music live.
Magician Arcato takes the audience on a trip to a Christmas magic land. Kids help Santa get ready for Christmas, hunt for his missing reindeer and watch one trick after another.
The children in the seats are part of the act: some of the spells only work when they help. It suits kids who like to shout out answers and join in, and who can follow a show in German.
A classic Bavarian Kasperl puppet show by the Chiemsee Kasperl. The wizard Hieronymus Wackelzahn has lured the Christ Child, and all the presents, into his magic castle, so Mucki, an out-of-work Easter bunny, steps in as a stand-in angel. It ends happily.
Kids call out and join in rather than just watch. Kasperl speaks Bavarian, written so everyone can follow, but kids with some German get the most from it.
A stage version of Kai Pannen's picture book. Karl-Heinz, a cross spider who mostly wants peace and quiet, catches Bisy the fly in his web and plans to serve her as his Christmas dinner. Bisy has other ideas, and the days in the web fill up with visitors, mix-ups and adventures. A funny, warm story about an unlikely friendship, played by five actors switching between many roles.
Heavysaurus is a rock band of four dinosaurs and a dragon, played by five professional musicians in full costume. They play loud metal on real instruments, written for kids: big riffs, sing-along choruses and a dino roar the whole room shouts back.
Expect a proper concert show with lights, fog, sparks, balloons and confetti. Songs are in German, though little German is needed to jump along.
A children's stage version of Mozart's Magic Flute. Prince Tamino, chased by a dragon, sets out to rescue Pamina with Papageno, a funny bird catcher who is not very brave, armed with a magic flute and magic bells.
Actors in full costume tell the story with music and dance, and it leaves kids with a question: was the Queen of the Night telling the truth? A friendly first taste of Mozart for school-age kids.
Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals, played live by the chamber orchestra concierto münchen while the münchner puzzletheater brings more than 20 moving puppets on stage: a lion, wild donkeys, tortoises, an elephant, kangaroos, an aquarium, fossils and a swan. Conductor Carlos Domínguez-Nieto narrates in German, using Loriot's well-known text.
A good first orchestra concert for animal-mad kids, since there is always something moving to watch.
A stage version of Janosch's picture book. Little Bear and Little Tiger live by the river, but Tiger gets lonely whenever Bear goes fishing. So Bear writes him letters, and the two end up inventing the post, airmail and a telephone with underground cables.
Actors in costume play it close to the book, on a painted set. Kids who know the bear and tiger books will feel at home.
Conni, the girl from the German children's books, is having her birthday and is finally big enough to start school. There's a chocolate cake to bake with her friends, her teddy and her cat Mau to cuddle, and a party that might not go to plan.
The audience becomes part of the show, helping Conni along with songs and movement. It suits kids who know the books or follow German.
A musical fantasy story: Timmy and his friend Philipp travel across Europe by balloon, stopping in places like England, France and Italy to meet the people and hear their music.
The chamber ensemble of the Freies Landestheater Bayern plays melodies by Handel, Debussy, Vivaldi, Rossini and Charpentier. It suits school-age kids who are curious about instruments and other countries.
Dennis & Jesko Band are the trio behind the football songs on WUMMS, an online channel from NDR and Radio Bremen. Their concerts are a party: kids jump and sing at the front while surprisingly word-perfect parents stand further back.
Expect their big hit "Rambo Ramos" plus songs about Lewandowski, Mbappé, FC Bayern and Antonio Rüdiger. It suits football-mad kids who already know the songs.
A family ice show built on the songs from both Frozen films, sung live by musical soloists while ice dancers and acrobats fill the ice. Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff and Sven are all there, and a giant LED screen turns the stage to ice and blue crystals when Elsa sings "Let It Go".
It suits kids who already know the films and want to see the characters in person.
A new science-fiction adventure written and built by the Münchner Marionettentheater's own team. Professor Korbinian Fox and his assistant Rakete are finishing a time machine that still lacks one part. While they're out of the workshop, his niece Fania plays with it, the machine starts, and she vanishes. The chase through time is told with marionettes, puppets and recorded voices. It suits kids who can follow a longer story.
A family concert built around a story: the pictures and words in a mysterious book are fading, and music and dance have to bring them back. Pianist Larissa Richter plays live, ballerina Tatiana Gribov dances and actress Stephanie Marin hosts. Kids don't only watch: they join in, move and dance along. Nobody has to sit still or stay quiet, so it suits kids who like to move.
Rund is a new object theater piece built around things that roll, spin, wobble and tip over, then stand back up. Puppetry meets visual art: director Julika Mayer and Munich artist Olga Golos turn art objects into toys and tools, moved and turned in front of the audience. The Schauburg is building it in close contact with the youngest theatergoers it is made for.
CineKindl is the children's section of Filmfest München, Munich's big summer film festival. It shows new feature, animated, documentary and short films from Germany and around the world, with a jury and awards.
After each screening there is a Q&A, often with the filmmakers in the room, so kids can ask whatever the film made them wonder. It suits kids who follow German, since foreign films are dubbed live.
