Munich with Young Kids: Ages 4 to 7

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kasperl, the red-capped Bavarian hand puppet, teams up with Mucki, an Easter bunny who has lost his job. Together they cause chaos with slapstick, soap bubbles and plenty of Kasperl magic. Kids are invited to shout along and help the heroes, while the adults laugh at the same old jokes. The Kasperl speaks Bavarian, but the story is easy to follow.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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 Christmas market inside the Kaiserhof, the grand courtyard of Munich's Residenz palace, just off Odeonsplatz. More than 50 stalls sell handmade crafts, old Bavarian nativity scenes, mulled wine and homemade eggnog.

For kids, the draw is the Märchenwald, a fairy-tale forest where scenes come to life at the push of a button. It suits preschool and early primary kids most.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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 small puppet theater that has played for over 40 years in an old gatehouse, set in a little park above the Isar weir in Oberföhring. Kasperl and Seppl are the regulars, and the program changes every week.

Stories for the youngest stay close to home and everyday life, while plays for slightly older kids add fairy-tale and adventure plots. A small theater café opens before each show.

A children's theater where professional actors stage fairy tales and classic children's books: Grimm, Hauff and Andersen alongside Astrid Lindgren, Otfried Preußler, Janosch and Michael Ende. Sets and costumes are elaborate, and the repertoire runs to at least 16 plays. Plays are performed in German.

The hall sits in a listed 1916 former cinema with Jugendstil interiors, and the raised stage gives a clear view from almost every seat.

The Münchner Marionettentheater carries on a string-puppet tradition dating to 1858, in a small theater by architect Theodor Fischer that opened near Sendlinger Tor in 1900. Afternoon shows are the kids' program: fairy tales, children's classics and Christmas plays told with marionettes. Evening shows, including opera, are for teens and adults. All 14 rows have a clear view of the stage.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

Santa Claus, known here as Nikolaus, visits the zoo with his angels. Every child gets a moment to tell him their Christmas wishes, and a sweet surprise to take home. It all happens in front of the elephant house, with festive decorations around.

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.

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.

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 traditional beer garden on Wiener Platz, shaded by old chestnut trees. The self-service section is walk-in, with Hofbräu beer, Brotzeit plates and Bavarian dishes, and a separate area has table service. Kids get a small playground with a slide, and a sweets stall sells gingerbread hearts, sugar-bead necklaces, candied almonds and popcorn.

Gut Riem is the city of Munich's organic teaching farm: a quiet farmyard ringed by meadows, pasture, fields and an orchard. Its MitmachStall barn is home to cattle, pigs, sheep, donkeys and small animals.

Kids pitch in with the daily chores, feeding the sheep and cows, bedding down the pigs and gathering greens for the rabbits. In September they pick up potatoes behind the tractor and take a sack home.

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.

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.

A St. Martin's lantern walk from a farm at Munich's eastern edge. The loop runs about 2 km along field paths from Reitsberger Hof to the old village of Baldham-Dorf and back, with stops that tell the story of St. Martin sharing his cloak.

Stands at the farm and in Baldham-Dorf serve hot apple juice, sausages, pretzels and roast goose, so it doubles as an early dinner.

A Christmas market set inside the English Garden, with wooden huts around the lit-up Chinese Tower pagoda. Kids ride a historic 1913 carousel and a small kids' train, take a horse-drawn carriage loop through the park, and try Bavarian ice stock, a curling-style game, on two lanes. Brass players perform from the tower. It suits families who want a calmer market than the crowded Old Town ones.

Tollwood is Munich's alternative Christmas market, set up in big tents and open-air lanes on the Theresienwiese. Around 200 stalls sell crafts, clothing and gifts, much of it fair trade, and more than 50 stands cook certified organic food from many countries.

Walk-acts roam the grounds, a performance stage runs shows, and there is a kids' program. It suits families who want shows and food alongside the shopping.

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.

The Auer Dult is one of Munich's oldest traditions, a market fair that fills Mariahilfplatz in Au three times a year. The spring edition brings about 250 stalls selling pottery, antiques, toys and kitchen gadgets, plus a ride area with bumper cars, a 1919 chain swing carousel, a Ferris wheel and throwing booths. It suits kids who like a few rides and parents who like to browse.

A medieval festival on the grounds of Schloss Kaltenberg, a Bavarian castle west of Munich. Jugglers and musicians play on five stages, and a craft market, camps and food stands fill the site. The centerpiece is a staged jousting show in the arena, with horse stunts, sword fights and fire effects. On Family Sundays, kids then take the arena themselves in a children's tournament and are knighted at the end.

Die Hirschau is a historic beer garden in the English Garden, with seats for around 1,800 under old chestnut trees. Next to the tables is a large adventure playground with climbing frames, a zip line and a pirate ship, so parents can sit within sight of it.

The food runs from roast chicken and Obazda to salads, coffee and cake, plus an organic ice cream hut.

A self-service Bavarian beer garden under old chestnut trees on the high bank of the Isar, with a mix of sunny and half-shaded tables. Kids get open space to run around and a playground, while adults pick up Obazda, pretzels and grilled dishes from the counters.

In the summer season, live jazz bands play every day. A sit-down restaurant serving traditional Bavarian food is on the same grounds.

Munich's oldest beer garden, first marked on a city map in 1812, seats 5,000 under more than 100 chestnut trees. Kids head for the raised playground with a sandpit, swing, climbing tower and slide, and tables sit right around it so parents can watch.

In the self-service area, families can bring their own picnic, as Bavarian tradition allows, or buy pretzels, roast chicken and fish grilled on a stick.

The Krone-Bau is the permanent home of Circus Krone, which tours Germany in summer and comes back here for its winter season. Shows fill the ring under a 3,000-seat roof, mixing classic circus (acrobats, clowns, animal acts) with modern routines.

A life-size statue of the clown Charlie Rivel stands at the entrance. Outside circus season, the building hosts concerts and other productions.

WichtelWerk is an indoor play center with 1,600 m² of play inside and a 1,000 m² outdoor play meadow. The centerpiece is a four-level climbing maze with a wobble bridge, a shoot-out arena and a 10-meter wave slide.

Around it sit two bouncy castles, a ball pit, a separate toddler area, a kids' kart track and the Donut Glider, a slide ridden in a rubber tube.

A large water playground on the former grounds of the 2005 Federal Garden Show (BUGA). Kids pump water by hand, scoop it into wooden channels, dam the streams and dig in the mud areas. Around the water zone are climbing structures, monkey bars, swings and slides, plus shady lawns for a picnic. Riemer See, in the same park, has swimming and pedal boats.

A large water playground in the eastern part of Westpark. A shallow stream runs through it, and kids dam it with stones, wade and splash.

Stone slides, a wooden climbing tower and plenty of play equipment fill the rest, so the dry side stays busy too. There is enough shade for parents to sit out of the sun while kids play.

A 57-hectare park of native European wildlife along a 4 km forest and meadow trail. Fallow deer and mouflon roam free and walk right up to visitors, and many animals can be petted or fed. The trail passes brown bears, wolves, lynx, wild boar and bison.

By the picnic meadow and kiosk, a big play area has a water playground and a western fort.

The Volkssternwarte is a public observatory run by an astronomy society, with a solar-system exhibition, a Zeiss planetarium dome, and a rooftop platform nearly 30 meters up with five telescope domes.

Kids' planetarium shows tell space stories under a projected night sky. The children's tour visits all three stations and ends at the big telescopes, with views to the Alps on clear days.

A small natural history museum inside a former church on Neuhauser Straße, on three floors. The Forest Path walks through big wildlife dioramas, from riverbanks and meadows to Alpine peaks, and a chip card from the ticket desk unlocks screens, games and a buzzer quiz at the exit. On the fishing floor, kids walk on a projected water floor, meet talking fish and watch live fish in a recreated river.

The Munich Toy Museum fills four floors of the Old Town Hall tower on Marienplatz with the private collection of the Ivan Steiger family, spanning four centuries of play. Kids can look at model railways, steam engines, tin toys, teddy bears, dolls and dollhouses, wooden toys, Barbies and a wall of robots. The small tower rooms make it a short visit, and an audio guide can be downloaded in advance.

A hands-on museum built around one big interactive exhibition at a time, with stations, objects and workshop corners to touch, try and explore. The current show, "Iss was?!", is about food and the senses: kids milk a model cow, grind grain into flour, shop in a play supermarket and explore an oversized nose and tongue. Exhibition guides are on hand to help. A visit takes about 90 minutes.

A natural history museum in the north wing of Nymphenburg Palace. The heart of it is a quiz hall where kids press a button to answer questions about animals, and doors pop open or model animals sprint off. Pumuckl audio plays by cases of local wildlife.

Elsewhere: glittering minerals, the history of life, a hall on the brain, and Bruno, the brown bear who roamed Bavaria in 2006.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

LUMAGICA is an outdoor light park, a walking loop of about 1.5 km through light installations after dark. This season's theme is Around the World in 80 Days.

It suits kids who are happy to walk a while on a cold winter evening. Younger kids who tire quickly may need a carrier or a ride on your shoulders for part of the loop.

An Advent market set up as a medieval Munich market scene, with detailed stalls, crafts and market food. Much of it ties back to the city's own history, such as the monk on its first city seal who later turned into the Münchner Kindl.

It suits kids who like knights, castles and old stories, and grown-ups after a more atmospheric Christmas market than the usual.

Once a year, the women who run the stalls at Munich's Viktualienmarkt trade their aprons for costumes and dance on a stage by the maypole. Each costume shows a stall, so kids can spot the baker, the butcher or the flower seller.

The Narrhalla guards and the Fasching prince and princess warm up the crowd first. It's a big outdoor crowd, so smaller kids see best from a parent's shoulders.

The Wiesn is Munich's giant folk festival on the Theresienwiese: beer tents, yes, but also a full fairground. Kids ride the Ferris wheel, chair swings, the Toboggan's conveyor belt and wooden slide, and the Teufelsrad spinning disc.

The Oide Wiesn at the south end is calmer, with historic carousels, a marionette theater and high-wheel bikes. Weekday daytime suits families best; evenings and weekends get packed.

Coco Loco is an indoor play hall in Grünwald, on Munich's southern edge, filled with jungle-themed climbing frames, an XXL bouncy castle with a climbing course and maze that slides into the fun park, and a netted area with four trampolines.

Electric cars and motorbikes circle a track, and the youngest get a fenced-off area with a slide and soft building blocks. A café serves pizza, burgers and fries.

A traditional Bavarian beer garden with 2,500 self-service seats under old chestnut trees. A large, shaded playground with climbing frames, slides and swings sits right beside its own block of benches, so parents can sit and still keep the kids in sight.

Families can bring their own picnic food, while drinks come from the bar. Local bands play the garden stage in summer.

Aumeister is a traditional beer garden at the north end of the Englischer Garten, with close to 3,000 seats under old chestnut trees. Kids get a large playground with swings and climbing frames, a vintage carousel and a kids' menu, and free face painting runs from May. The inn has stood here since 1810, and the indoor restaurant serves Bavarian dishes year-round.

Michaeligarten is a self-service beer garden under old chestnut trees that runs down to the shore of the Ostpark lake. The counters serve Löwenbräu on tap, Bavarian snacks and hot dishes, from an ox-meat roll to Obazda and a vegan Schupfnudel pan.

A large fenced playground sits right next to the tables, so kids can run while parents eat. Seating is first come, with no reservations.

Michaelibad is a public pool run by the city utility SWM. Its 84-meter adventure slide drops into a separate landing pool, and there is a 1-meter diving board, a learner pool and a water play area for small children with mini slides and a spray shower.

Outside, a warm pool stays open all year, with a current channel, bubble loungers and underwater lights after dusk.

Cosimawellenbad is Munich's only public pool with waves. When the wave machine runs, the big pool rolls like the sea; the rest of the time it is a lap and aqua-fitness pool.

Younger kids get a large splash area with a slide, a little boat channel, floor fountains and water jets. There is also a warm outdoor pool with bubble loungers, and a café overlooks the pool hall.

A 21-hectare botanical garden, opened in 1914, beside Nymphenburg Palace park. Indoors, a chain of greenhouses runs from a tall palm house to a giant cactus hall, a tree fern house on lava rock, an orchid house and the Victoria house with its huge water lilies.

Outside, kids can follow paths through an alpine rock garden with over 2,000 species, an arboretum and pond areas.

Königlicher Hirschgarten has been a deer park since 1780, and its two-hectare enclosure of fallow deer and mouflon is still the main draw: kids can feed them, following the signs on the fence.

The south end has the elephant playground, with a huge sandbox and elephant slide, plus a water playground with a water slide. There's also a climbing tower, a small skate park, sledding hills and Munich's largest beer garden.

Munich's central square, with the Neo-Gothic New Town Hall to the north and the Old Town Hall to the east. In the town hall tower, the Glockenspiel's 43 bells ring while figures joust in a knights' tournament and turn in the coopers' dance. The Mariensäule column stands in the middle, and the Fish Fountain by the town hall is the classic meeting point.

SEA LIFE Munich is an indoor aquarium in the Olympiapark, next to the Olympic Tower. A walk-through underwater tunnel runs beneath the tropical ocean tank, home to blacktip reef sharks and Pünktchen, a zebra shark.

Other zones cover the Isar river, the Danube delta, jellyfish, seahorses and a discovery pool. Many tanks sit at floor level, so toddlers can see in without being lifted.

The MVG Museum is the collection of Munich's public transport operator, set in a listed former bus workshop of over 5,000 square meters. About 25 historic trams, buses and works vehicles from different eras stand side by side, each with a board on its maker, specs and working life.

Themed areas cover city history, how transport developed, uniforms, signage and advertising, and the control center.

Three listed 1908 exhibition halls on the Theresienhöhe hold 275 vehicles, from trams and VW Beetles to steam locomotives and the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Hall I covers city traffic and crash safety; Hall II is a railway platform lined with locomotives and carriages; Hall III has racing cars, bikes and skates.

The children's area in Hall III lets kids build, paint, slide and play with toy cars.

A 750-square-meter open-air ice rink on Karlsplatz, the square locals call Stachus, at the edge of Munich's old town. Kids skate under Christmas lights to music, with themed evenings through the week.

Skates and helmets rent on site, so nobody needs their own gear. Between laps, the Schmankerl-Hütte and Glühwein-Alm huts serve hot food and drinks. It works for first-timers and confident skaters alike.

LUMAGICA turns the Showpalast grounds in Fröttmaning into a 1.5 km loop of glowing sculptures and light installations. This year's theme follows Phileas Fogg and Passepartout from Around the World in 80 Days, through light worlds for Asia, the Americas and Europe.

Kids can set off some of the installations themselves, pose at photo spots and catch a light and laser show along the way.

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.

Munich's oldest Christmas market fills Marienplatz and nearby streets with stalls of ornaments, gingerbread hearts and roasted almonds, under a giant tree outside the New Town Hall. Kids can hear brass bands and choirs on the town hall balcony, browse a huge nativity-figure market by St. Peter's, and catch the Krampus run if they like a scare. About three million people visit each season, so expect crowds.

Munich's official Fasching parade, the Faschingszug, is led by the Damische Ritter, a local carnival club. More than 50 groups wind through the Altstadt: brass bands, decorated floats, dance troupes, carnival societies and the city's Fasching prince and princess.

Thousands line the old-town streets to watch, many in costume, so kids get to see the floats up close from inside a crowd in fancy dress.

Twice a year, Leopoldstraße in Schwabing closes to cars and becomes one long festival street between the Siegestor and Münchner Freiheit. Stages along the way run from swing and salsa to Bavarian dialect bands, cabaret and electronic music, with art, dance taster classes and football courts in between.

The Corso Leopoldino kids' area has easel painting, crafts and movement games, a good base while the grown-ups browse.

Thousands of people in dirndls and lederhosen fill the beer garden around the Chinese Tower in the Englischer Garten and dance Bavarian folk dances at sunrise. A dance master calls and demonstrates every step from the stage, so beginners and kids join in.

The ball revives a tradition of the city's cooks and maids, who danced here before work in the 1880s. It suits early-rising families who like music and a crowd.

Maximiliansanlagen is about 2 km of wooded parkland on the high east bank of the Isar. Paths run under old trees past the Friedensengel column and the Maximilianeum, with views across to the old town and down to the river's weirs.

After a snowfall, the short slopes near the Maximilianeum are one of the most central sledding spots in town, with steep runs and gentle ones for small kids.

Aubinger Lohe is a forest recreation area on the western edge of the city, crossed by woodland paths for walking and cycling. Its main hill rises about 25 meters above the surrounding fields and becomes a sledding run when snow falls, with plenty of smaller slopes where young kids can try their first runs.

In summer, families come for the two Böhmerweiher ponds and the playgrounds.

A 750-square-meter open-air ice rink set up each Advent on Karlsplatz, the square locals call Stachus, under festive lights in the middle of the old town. Kids skate on a big open sheet of ice, with music playing on most days.

Sunday daytime sessions are family days with children's entertainment and face painting. Food and hot drinks come from the Schmankerl-Hütte and Glühwein-Alm huts beside the rink.

Three underground ice rinks sit beneath the SAP Garden, the Olympiapark arena where Red Bull Munich plays hockey, so public skating runs all year. Rental skates come in hockey and figure styles from EU size 25.

From October to April, Thursday to Saturday evenings bring an ice disco, and a monthly inclusive session lends skating aids and ice gliders. Jumps and figure-skating moves are not allowed in public sessions.

Schauburg is the city's public theater for young audiences, based on Elisabethplatz. Its ensemble stages plays and dance pieces for every stage of childhood, from a show for crawling babies to dramas for teens.

Shows are in German, some marked as plain language (Einfache Sprache). The LABs are pay-what-you-can workshops where kids and teens make theater themselves.

Westbad is a city-run indoor leisure pool under a large glass dome in Pasing. The fun pool has a current channel, a waterfall and a 60-meter slide, and toddlers get their own splash pool.

Older swimmers can do lengths in the 25-meter pool, and parents can warm up in the two whirlpools. A self-service restaurant inside serves both swimmers and visitors.

Viktualienmarkt is the Old Town's open-air food market, with more than 100 stalls selling fruit, cheese, bread, honey and flowers around a blue-and-white maypole.

Kids can snack their way through the stalls, spot the six statue fountains of Munich comedians and folk singers, and sit in the central beer garden, where families may bring their own food.

A forest education center run by the Bavarian forestry office in the Grünwald Forest. Its 2.8 km loop trail starts at the main building, passes the wild boar enclosure and has 13 stations, including a barefoot path, sounding logs, a sound labyrinth, a climate arboretum and an adventure playground.

There is also a biodiversity exhibition, an insect house, an ant trail and a yearly program of guided forest walks.

Flaucher is the stretch of the Isar between the Flauchersteg footbridge and the Braunauer railway bridge, where the river splits into shallow side channels around wide gravel banks. Kids wade and splash in alpine water that rarely tops 20°C, even in midsummer.

The banks double as a grilling and meeting spot, so summer weekends get crowded, though quieter corners turn up along the branching channels.

Luitpoldpark spreads 33 hectares of open lawns around a 1911 obelisk and linden grove. North of the Bamberger Haus, a playground holds a winding hedge maze and the Pumuckl fountain.

The 37-meter Luitpoldhügel, a hill built from wartime rubble, is a quick climb with views to the Olympic Tower. In winter its shaded north slope is one of the city's steepest toboggan runs.

Ostpark spreads over 56 hectares around a lake with an island, quieter than the city's other big parks. Kids find Maulwurfshausen adventure playground at the east end, a skate park, table tennis and volleyball, and a barbecue zone by the lake. The Michaeligarten beer garden sits on the shore.

In winter the lake draws ice skaters, the hill becomes a sledding run, and a groomed cross-country ski trail follows the water.

Bavaria's Wittelsbach rulers spent their summers here. The main palace has frescoed state rooms, and the 180-hectare park around it has lakes, swans, squirrels and four small park palaces to peek into.

The Marstallmuseum, in the old riding stables, holds over forty royal coaches and sleighs, including King Ludwig II's gilded state coaches and the Rococo coronation coach of Emperor Karl VII.

The world's largest library of international children's books fills a 15th-century castle beside the Würm river. The children's library lends 20,000 books in 24 languages, from Arabic to Ukrainian, and runs courses and readings for kids and families.

Upstairs, the Michael Ende Museum shows the author's books, drawings and belongings, with Momo, Jim Button and Bastian from The Neverending Story. The James Krüss Museum Tower holds more exhibits.

The public museum of the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology fills a glass-roofed hall with big skeletons. At the center stands the Mühldorf prehistoric elephant, surrounded by Plateosaurus (the largest dinosaur found in Bavaria), Allosaurus, Triceratops, the giant flying reptile Pteranodon, a giant deer and a cave bear.

Upstairs, a timeline runs through every era of Earth's history. The museum also shows the Munich Archaeopteryx.

One of the largest museums in Germany, with 20 permanent exhibitions on an island in the Isar. Kids walk among planes and helicopters in Modern Aviation, see how locks and bridges work, and try about 20 hands-on light experiments in Classical Optics.

Younger children head to Kids' Kingdom: a marble run, a fire engine to climb into, a giant guitar to crawl inside and a pedal-powered aircraft.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Boulderwelt München Süd is a bouldering gym in Brunnthal, just south of Munich. Kids under 14 climb in the Kinderwelt, a separate area with kid-sized holds, a hand-painted Alpine scene, a slide and tunnels, or in a mixed area with marked kids' routes beside the adult walls.

Parents can wait in a lounge with coffee. It is not a drop-off: an adult supervises kids the whole time.

Boulderwelt München Ost is a bouldering gym on the upper floors of a building by München Ost station, with 6m walls climbed without ropes.

The 4th floor holds a Kinderwelt just for kids: hand-painted underwater walls with a castle, crawl tunnels and a slide for climbers from about age 2. Kids 6 and up can also use the mixed area, where routes marked with a hand have closer holds.

Dantebad is a city-run outdoor pool that stays heated through the winter, so kids can swim outside in any season. There is a 50-meter lap pool at about 30°C and a warmer leisure pool with bubble loungers, a bubble grotto, a current channel and a water mushroom.

Table tennis, a restaurant and a separate sauna area for adults round it out.

A city-run outdoor pool by the Isar in Giesing, with a 50-meter pool (three lap lanes), a non-swimmer pool and a paddling pool with play features for small kids.

Around them sit a wide slide, a playground, table tennis, an outdoor chess board and a big lawn under old trees.

Naturbad Maria Einsiedel is a natural swimming pool in the Isar meadows, open since 1899. The Isar canal runs almost 400 meters through the grounds, and the water in the 50-meter pool, the non-swimmer area and the large kids' paddling pool is cleaned by microorganisms instead of chlorine. Kids also get a playground, a soccer lawn, table tennis and giant ground chess, with old shade trees over the lawns.

A groundwater-fed swimming lake of nearly 8 hectares, ringed by about 5 hectares of lawn and sandy shoreline in the Dachauer Moos north of Munich. A shallow beach is set aside for small children, with a sand playground near the water rescue station.

Older kids can play beach volleyball on two courts or table tennis by the beer garden. A grill zone allows small family grills.

A groundwater-fed swimming lake dug as a gravel pit in the late 1930s, with about 11 hectares of water ringed by roughly 7 hectares of lawn. A swimming platform floats in the middle, rare for lakes around Munich, and the water reaches about 5 meters deep.

The north shore has a playground, a small soccer field, ping-pong tables and a beer garden, plus a marked barbecue zone.

Hellabrunn sits on the Isar river meadows and was the world's first geozoo: since 1928 its animals have lived grouped by continent, so kids can walk from the African savanna to the polar world in a few steps. More than 500 species live here, from elephants and tigers to penguins and polar bears. A new jungle world covers Asia, and there's a petting area and playgrounds along the way.

BMW Welt is the carmaker's showroom and delivery center, a sweeping glass building with a twisted double cone at one end. Kids can explore the latest BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad models up close, and look down on the Premiere, where new owners drive off in their cars.

The BMW Museum, directly opposite, covers more than 100 years of BMW history and runs hands-on workshops for kids.