Every week brings something new for kids around the city: hands-on workshops, puppet theater, circus shows and seasonal outings in parks and gardens. We gather the family events coming up in the next month and sort them by date, so the next free afternoon is easy to plan. Check back often, since the list updates as new events are added and past ones drop off.
More than 100 models built from nearly 15 million LEGO bricks fill 1,500 square meters of a shopping center. Kids walk past a full-size Ferrari F40, a 60-meter Great Wall of China and a Star Wars-inspired zone, then build their own creations in a big free-play area.
It suits kids who already build with bricks. None of the models have been shown here before.
Cirkus Humberto is a traditional Czech family circus that tours the country with its own big top, the largest in the Czech Republic. This season's program mixes animal acts (horses, camels, zebras, a pride of Somali lions, Indian elephants and Matěj the bear) with aerial ropes and straps, juggling, a hula-hoop dancer and the Duo Warriors on the wheel of death. Mr. Chap's clown routines run between acts.
Okamžik (Moment) is the 15th-anniversary show of Cirk La Putyka, directed by Finland's Maksim Komaro. It plays with the idea of a blink: a forest is there and then it's gone, two performers suddenly become twenty.
Expect 35 performers and circus techniques used in new ways, mixed with humor, magic and poetry.
St. Martin rides a white horse across Charles Bridge, leading a costumed procession with banners and a flock of geese. Czech folk wisdom says Martin brings the first snow, so at the Old Town end he hands snow to Prague's burgomaster. Then a St. Martin's market opens on the square.
Kids who like horses, animals and history in costume get the most from it.
A yearly St. Martin's Day evening at Vyšehrad, run by the Maják Scout center. It opens with a themed game for kids in the park and a short children's prayer inside the Rotunda of St. Martin.
Then St. Martin arrives on a white horse and leads a lantern procession along the Vyšehrad walls back to the rotunda. It suits preschoolers and school-age kids who are happy with an evening walk.
A puppet show about Prague's Astronomical Clock, staged at Říše loutek, a mechanical puppet theater that has run inside the Municipal Library for a hundred years. The story follows the clock as keeper of time: Death ringing his bell, the twelve apostles, and the city's legends.
Shadow puppets, marionettes and glove puppets, some spooky and some comic, tell it through pictures and music, so kids from anywhere can follow.
A ghost comedy based on Tim Burton's cult film. Lydia, still grieving her mother, moves into a house already haunted by a gentle couple, and the chaotic demon Beetlejuice makes everything worse. Expect big effects, dance, energetic songs and black humor. It is a full Broadway-style production on the theater's main stage, and it suits kids who like spooky and silly more than sweet.
A morning concert for babies and toddlers where the music turns into animals: who stomps like an elephant, who hops like a kangaroo, who hides in a shell. The Gaudioso wind quartet leads a musical carnival of animals and dancing.
It suits families who want a first taste of live classical music without a long sit. The setting is the Great Hall of the New Town Hall on Charles Square.
A traditional lantern procession run by DDM Praha 5 in Sacré Coeur park. Kids carry their own lanterns along a trail with small tasks on an autumn bug theme, then the group walks together and ends with a sweet treat.
The route works for strollers, so a younger sibling can come along. The smallest kids will need a parent's help with the tasks.
GEOLAB is a geography game room run by Charles University's science faculty, part of its Geography Days. Kids and parents hunt for mistakes on maps, work out what satellite images show, and match population pyramids to the right countries. The games go well past capital cities, so it suits curious school-age kids more than preschoolers.
Circus Nights is a festival of new circus held in towns across Czechia and Slovakia, part of the international La Nuit du Cirque. Here the program spreads over several stages and mixes professional shows with open workshops and training for the public.
It suits kids who want to try circus skills, not only watch: juggling, balancing and acrobatics are on offer. Cirk La Putyka also brings its show Okamžik.
A storyteller tells spooky and mysterious tales out loud at the city library's Černý Most branch, and parents and kids listen together. It suits kids who can follow a longer story and enjoy a scare.
A solo show by performer Daniel Kvašňovský that blends new circus, clowning and physical theater. His character steps on stage set on giving the performance of his life, and it keeps going sideways, funny one moment and touching the next. The setting is a winter solstice somewhere between a circus tent and a sheepfold, with a thread of Slovak folk. Expect no red noses or giant shoes.
Tramtárie is a playful Czech show stitched together from scraps of nonsense poems and set to live music. Actors pop up, run past, whisper, splash and make things vanish in a world of words, colors, magic and laughter.
There is no lesson to learn here: the point is permission to be silly. The verses repeat until they stick, and parents say kids go home singing them.
A puppet fairy tale from Divadlo b, based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Evelína can't wait for her fifteenth birthday, when she can look at the human world for the first time, but the wish brings trouble with it.
It is a spoken story performed in Czech, so it suits kids who follow the language and enjoy a classic tale told with puppets.
Hansel and Gretel as a puppet show by the Říše loutek company. The children wander off while picking strawberries and find a house made of gingerbread, where a witch plans to fatten Hansel up. The grumpy old man who lives with her dislikes children but befriends Hansel and stops her. Two dwarf puppets guide the story. The sets and puppets were made by the family of a late Czech artist.
A family concert where the Prague Symphony Orchestra plays alongside actors, dancers and young performers from Prague music and ballet schools. Two guides lead kids through a fairy-tale adventure of dragons, princesses and magic, with plenty of laughs on the way. It suits curious kids meeting an orchestra for the first time.
A dance revue play about Josephine Baker, the Broadway dancer who made Paris her home, spied against the Nazis in World War II and fought racism all her life. Radka Pavlovčinová plays her through charleston, songs and quick costume changes, with a talkative one-man orchestra and a cheetah named Chiquita.
It suits teens ready to talk about discrimination and about using their own voice.
A puppet play that ties kids' lives today to the dark old legends of Prague. Time stops on the Old Town astronomical clock, an ancient curse wakes, and a creature trapped between the seconds walks into the present. Hurvínek's wish sets it off. There are laughs, but the mood gets eerie, and the story is about love, memory and what can't be undone. Not a light comedy for younger kids.
A live lecture show where a presenter runs experiments with liquid nitrogen at minus 196°C. Kids see how far a chilled balloon shrinks, what happens to an LED at that temperature, whether a splash of liquid nitrogen is dangerous, and why supercooled materials can levitate in a magnetic field. Popular with school groups and the public, it suits kids curious about science who can follow a talk.
Aplaus prosím is Europark's Sunday theater series. Professional Czech troupes take turns on a stage inside the shopping center, and the troupe and story change every week. The shows are short, so it fits around lunch or a quick shop. The fairy tales are told in Czech, so kids who don't follow the language may lose the thread.
A classic Czech puppet tale. Princess Majdalenka ends up in hell by mistake, and Kašpárek, the cheeky jester of Czech puppetry, sets off with his friend Honza to free her by outwitting the devils.
It plays at Divadlo Říše loutek, a puppet theater in the Municipal Library building in the Old Town. A good first theater outing for preschoolers.
A sing-along concert led by composer Jaroslav Uhlíř, with a live band and singer Jana Bittnerová. The set runs through the Uhlíř and Svěrák songbook, from "Holubí dům" and "Severní vítr" to tunes from the fairy-tale films Ať žijí duchové! and Lotrando a Zubejda. Kids can join in, and parents and grandparents will know most of the words.
A one-performer theater show about Františka, who can't wait to meet her little brother, still hiding in Mom's belly. Her search for answers about the nine months before birth is playful, gentle and educational. It suits a child expecting a sibling, or any kid asking where babies come from.
Hrrr na ně! ("Charge at them!") is a new play for kids about the Hussites, the 15th-century Czech rebels led by Jan Žižka. Two actors from 3D company tell the story with jokes, songs and duels, and kids find out why Žižka's name is still known today. It is played for laughs, not as a history lesson, and it suits kids who can follow Czech.
Libozvuky is an interactive music show from Divadlo Minor, directed by Jiří Adámek. Actors and musicians build a landscape of sound, then use light and voices to conjure a creature on stage. There are no seats: kids sit on the floor beside a long wooden walkway, and children often call out what they see and edge closer to the actors. Marek Doubrava's score won the 2015 Theatre Critics' Award.
Prague Zoo turns festive for the holiday season. Families can make an Advent wreath in the Education Center, join carols at the Christmas tree lighting in the Children's Zoo, and watch keepers hand unsold Christmas trees to the animals.
Winter suits the reindeer, camels and Amur tiger in their thick coats, and fourteen heated pavilions offer a warm break between the outdoor paths.
Krysáci, the rat friends from the Czech Večerníček bedtime series and books, move to the stage in this fairy tale by Divadlo pohádek. Hubert and Hodan, Eda the lab mouse from Prague and Ludvík the plaster gnome share an unusual home in a forgotten corner of a dump in Vizovice.
Instead of a screen, kids get live actors and a real stage. Libor Jeník wrote and directed it.
A bathtub is the whole stage in this Divadlo Minor show about the rules parents repeat every day ("Don't run or you'll fall", "The bed is not a trampoline"). Mom and Dad turn out to be big kids themselves, with live music and animation projected on stage. In the second half, kids join in, shooting ping-pong balls into a sink and building marble runs from plumbing pipes.
Two club model railways, built at 1:45 and 1:32 scale, run trains past a replica station, villages and tunnels. Kids watch engines pull passenger and freight cars through detailed miniature scenery. It suits train fans who like spotting details, from steam engines to modern electric locomotives.
Prague's transport company, DPP, switches on the Christmas lights on its decorated fleet in the yard of the Střešovice tram depot, home of the Muzeum MHD. Historic and modern trams line up beside buses, a trolleybus and the mazací tramvaj service tram.
Kids can walk around the vehicles and pick a favorite, sing along to carols, join the countdown, then watch the lit-up parade roll out.
Prague Castle opens its state rooms, usually closed to visitors, decorated for Advent. Families walk from the Matthias Gate through Plečnik's Column Hall, the Spanish Hall and the Rudolf Gallery, then on to the Throne Hall in the New Palace.
The cathedral, Golden Lane and the South Gardens open too, so it is a long day on foot. It suits school-age kids who can walk the route without a stroller.
The Říše loutek ensemble stages Božena Němcová's classic Czech fairy tale with string marionettes: gold is rare and salt is ordinary, until the salt runs out and the whole kingdom is in trouble.
The company has played this basement theater under the Municipal Library since it opened in 1928. The art deco hall has a starry ceiling and height-adjustable seats for small children.
Prague 7's yearly Saint Nicholas afternoon at the Výstaviště fairgrounds. Kids skate in the Small Sports Hall, in their own skates or rental ones. Then they head to the nearby Ateliér for a pre-Christmas craft, a photo-booth picture to take home and a small Saint Nicholas gift.
A St. Nicholas afternoon built around old folk customs. Kids learn the Mikuláš tradition, then make a little devil from dried plums or a straw chain for the Christmas tree. The finale is a face-to-face chat with St. Nicholas, an angel and a devil. It suits families with preschoolers and school-age kids who enjoy crafts and costumes.
On St Nicholas Eve, wooden boats leave the Vltava and slip into the Čertovka, the narrow canal behind Kampa. Devils lurk along the banks, hurling spooky but kind tales full of fire at the passing boats. On the river you also meet an angel and St Nicholas, who rewards the good kids.
A thrill for kids who know the Mikuláš tradition. Very fearful toddlers may find the devils too much.
Mikuláš, the Czech St. Nicholas, comes to Kampa with angels and devils to hand out gifts to kids, and the neighborhood switches on its Christmas tree on the island by the Vltava. It is an open-air, local evening that suits kids who like a costumed visitor, and the tree lighting gives everyone a reason to linger.
A St. Nicholas afternoon inside a historic tram depot. Mikuláš, an angel and a devil walk among the old trams and buses and hand out small gifts, a Czech December tradition. It suits children who enjoy vehicles and are fine with a costumed devil nearby.
Story of Lights fills the riverside grounds at Žluté lázně with a medieval Prague built from light. Kids walk through a gate and follow Charles IV as king, builder and emperor, past a glowing Charles Bridge, the royal crown, Gothic towers and the crown jewels, with interactive elements along the route. It suits kids who like castles and kings, and the history stays easy enough for a simple evening walk.
Pat and Mat are the Czech puppet handymen whose home repairs always go wrong, and this exhibition marks 50 years since they first appeared. The main rooms suit older kids: original film dioramas, props, and an animation workshop where you try the basics yourself. Younger kids head to the play room in the castle cellar, where a cinema also shows one of the feature films.
The Dům čtení branch of Prague's city library turns into a dance floor for this lesson. Kids warm up together, then learn a short routine. It suits kids who like to move and want to try dance without committing to a term of classes.
Two hares, Ludvík and Lujsa, explore the world through its small details. One likes to collect, the other likes to hunt. Puppets, light and music carry a gentle story about which treasures to keep and which to let go. It is made for small children and the grown-ups beside them, and it is led in Czech.
Princ a Večernice is the stage version of the classic Czech fairy tale film. Young Prince Velen marries off his three sisters to the rulers of sun, moon and wind, falls for their sister Večernice, then has to leave the castle and find his own courage on the road. Standing in his way are robbers, false merchants and the cruel Mrakomor, ruler of bad weather. Expect suspense and gentle humor.
A stage version of the famous Czech bedtime cartoon about a small dog, a present for a girl named Ája, who grows into a giant. Kids watch Fík sit at a school desk, star in a circus ring, drive a car and travel the world, only to find home is best.
A funny show about friendship and courage, spoken in Czech, so it suits kids who follow the language.
An open-air rink on Letná plain, with Prague Castle in view. The 43 by 20 meter sheet of ice is a manageable size for a first lap holding the barrier.
A heated tent gives kids somewhere to lace up and warm their hands, and there are skate and helmet rentals, sharpening, toilets and snacks on site. Public skating is walk-in, with no booking.
A hangar of historical aircraft, some still able to fly, opens to visitors who can walk around the planes and see them up close. The owners and pilots who keep their aircraft here run the day and are happy to chat, and in good weather some of the old planes take off for flight demonstrations. It suits kids who love planes and machines.
A new Czech play about Manka, a girl who loves to paint, in the smoky factory streets of old Smíchov. When an old man tells her about a mysterious painting hidden in the Church of St. Nicholas, she crosses into Malá Strana, the neighborhood next door that Smíchov kids avoid. A story of courage and friendship, inspired by writer Jakub Arbes and artist Toyen, played by two actors.
One of Prague's bigger Christmas markets fills the square in front of St. Ludmila Church in Vinohrady, the square locals call Mírák. Wooden stalls sell glass ornaments, wooden toys, ceramic nativity scenes, sheep's wool goods and handmade jewelry, with mulled wine and hot holiday snacks on the side.
It suits a short wander with kids after dark, when the stalls are lit up.
A stage version of the 1980 Czech TV fairy tale. A dragon has moved in just outside the kingdom, Princess Lenka is in danger, and it falls to young Martin and his brother Honza, the so-called fool, to prove that beating a dragon takes more than shiny armor.
The Svěrák and Uhlíř songs are ones Czech kids, parents and grandparents all know, and the cast sings them on stage. Performed in Czech.
Crystal Garden fills the winter garden in Troja with large glass sculptures of flowers, trees and animals made by the Czech glassmaker Jiří Pačinek and his studio. Kids wander the paths spotting glass birds and blooms among the real plants, and after dark the pieces are lit up.
It suits kids who like a walk with something to find. Toddlers in strollers can come along.
Prague's biggest Christmas markets fill Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square with wooden stalls of Czech crafts: wooden nativity scenes, glass and straw ornaments, gingerbread and Czech sausages.
Old Town Square's giant spruce is the centerpiece, and choirs from around the country sing on the stage. Kids who like lights and music do well here; on evenings the crowds get thick, so a stroller moves slowly.
After falling out of a tree, Ema is stuck in a hospital bed with white walls and nothing to do. Out of that boredom, her room turns into a jungle, the sea and outer space, with guides from a monkey to Albert Einstein. The play mixes music, movement, projections and animation, and a group of primary-school kids who helped shape it also appear on stage.
A family walk across Prague Castle that ends in a Christmas labyrinth built by the Forman Brothers' Theatre (Divadlo bratří Formanů) and friends inside the Imperial Stables.
Start at the tree on St. George's Square, stop at the nativity scene beside St. Vitus Cathedral, then cross the Second Courtyard to the stables. Inside, kids wander an imaginary landscape that includes Johannes Kepler's astronomer's workshop.
The two hapless handymen from the Czech cartoon step off the screen and onto the stage, played by two actors. On vacation they still can't leave their tools alone: they tinker on the seabed, in outer space and in a hotel room they rebuild to look like their workshop at home. Petr Skoumal's familiar theme tune runs through the whole show.
Every week brings something new for kids around the city: hands-on workshops, puppet theater, circus shows and seasonal outings in parks and gardens. We gather the family events coming up in the next month and sort them by date, so the next free afternoon is easy to plan. Check back often, since the list updates as new events are added and past ones drop off.
More than 100 models built from nearly 15 million LEGO bricks fill 1,500 square meters of a shopping center. Kids walk past a full-size Ferrari F40, a 60-meter Great Wall of China and a Star Wars-inspired zone, then build their own creations in a big free-play area.
It suits kids who already build with bricks. None of the models have been shown here before.
Cirkus Humberto is a traditional Czech family circus that tours the country with its own big top, the largest in the Czech Republic. This season's program mixes animal acts (horses, camels, zebras, a pride of Somali lions, Indian elephants and Matěj the bear) with aerial ropes and straps, juggling, a hula-hoop dancer and the Duo Warriors on the wheel of death. Mr. Chap's clown routines run between acts.
Okamžik (Moment) is the 15th-anniversary show of Cirk La Putyka, directed by Finland's Maksim Komaro. It plays with the idea of a blink: a forest is there and then it's gone, two performers suddenly become twenty.
Expect 35 performers and circus techniques used in new ways, mixed with humor, magic and poetry.
St. Martin rides a white horse across Charles Bridge, leading a costumed procession with banners and a flock of geese. Czech folk wisdom says Martin brings the first snow, so at the Old Town end he hands snow to Prague's burgomaster. Then a St. Martin's market opens on the square.
Kids who like horses, animals and history in costume get the most from it.
A yearly St. Martin's Day evening at Vyšehrad, run by the Maják Scout center. It opens with a themed game for kids in the park and a short children's prayer inside the Rotunda of St. Martin.
Then St. Martin arrives on a white horse and leads a lantern procession along the Vyšehrad walls back to the rotunda. It suits preschoolers and school-age kids who are happy with an evening walk.
A puppet show about Prague's Astronomical Clock, staged at Říše loutek, a mechanical puppet theater that has run inside the Municipal Library for a hundred years. The story follows the clock as keeper of time: Death ringing his bell, the twelve apostles, and the city's legends.
Shadow puppets, marionettes and glove puppets, some spooky and some comic, tell it through pictures and music, so kids from anywhere can follow.
A ghost comedy based on Tim Burton's cult film. Lydia, still grieving her mother, moves into a house already haunted by a gentle couple, and the chaotic demon Beetlejuice makes everything worse. Expect big effects, dance, energetic songs and black humor. It is a full Broadway-style production on the theater's main stage, and it suits kids who like spooky and silly more than sweet.
A morning concert for babies and toddlers where the music turns into animals: who stomps like an elephant, who hops like a kangaroo, who hides in a shell. The Gaudioso wind quartet leads a musical carnival of animals and dancing.
It suits families who want a first taste of live classical music without a long sit. The setting is the Great Hall of the New Town Hall on Charles Square.
A traditional lantern procession run by DDM Praha 5 in Sacré Coeur park. Kids carry their own lanterns along a trail with small tasks on an autumn bug theme, then the group walks together and ends with a sweet treat.
The route works for strollers, so a younger sibling can come along. The smallest kids will need a parent's help with the tasks.
GEOLAB is a geography game room run by Charles University's science faculty, part of its Geography Days. Kids and parents hunt for mistakes on maps, work out what satellite images show, and match population pyramids to the right countries. The games go well past capital cities, so it suits curious school-age kids more than preschoolers.
Circus Nights is a festival of new circus held in towns across Czechia and Slovakia, part of the international La Nuit du Cirque. Here the program spreads over several stages and mixes professional shows with open workshops and training for the public.
It suits kids who want to try circus skills, not only watch: juggling, balancing and acrobatics are on offer. Cirk La Putyka also brings its show Okamžik.
A storyteller tells spooky and mysterious tales out loud at the city library's Černý Most branch, and parents and kids listen together. It suits kids who can follow a longer story and enjoy a scare.
A solo show by performer Daniel Kvašňovský that blends new circus, clowning and physical theater. His character steps on stage set on giving the performance of his life, and it keeps going sideways, funny one moment and touching the next. The setting is a winter solstice somewhere between a circus tent and a sheepfold, with a thread of Slovak folk. Expect no red noses or giant shoes.
Tramtárie is a playful Czech show stitched together from scraps of nonsense poems and set to live music. Actors pop up, run past, whisper, splash and make things vanish in a world of words, colors, magic and laughter.
There is no lesson to learn here: the point is permission to be silly. The verses repeat until they stick, and parents say kids go home singing them.
A puppet fairy tale from Divadlo b, based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. Evelína can't wait for her fifteenth birthday, when she can look at the human world for the first time, but the wish brings trouble with it.
It is a spoken story performed in Czech, so it suits kids who follow the language and enjoy a classic tale told with puppets.
Hansel and Gretel as a puppet show by the Říše loutek company. The children wander off while picking strawberries and find a house made of gingerbread, where a witch plans to fatten Hansel up. The grumpy old man who lives with her dislikes children but befriends Hansel and stops her. Two dwarf puppets guide the story. The sets and puppets were made by the family of a late Czech artist.
A family concert where the Prague Symphony Orchestra plays alongside actors, dancers and young performers from Prague music and ballet schools. Two guides lead kids through a fairy-tale adventure of dragons, princesses and magic, with plenty of laughs on the way. It suits curious kids meeting an orchestra for the first time.
A dance revue play about Josephine Baker, the Broadway dancer who made Paris her home, spied against the Nazis in World War II and fought racism all her life. Radka Pavlovčinová plays her through charleston, songs and quick costume changes, with a talkative one-man orchestra and a cheetah named Chiquita.
It suits teens ready to talk about discrimination and about using their own voice.
A puppet play that ties kids' lives today to the dark old legends of Prague. Time stops on the Old Town astronomical clock, an ancient curse wakes, and a creature trapped between the seconds walks into the present. Hurvínek's wish sets it off. There are laughs, but the mood gets eerie, and the story is about love, memory and what can't be undone. Not a light comedy for younger kids.
A live lecture show where a presenter runs experiments with liquid nitrogen at minus 196°C. Kids see how far a chilled balloon shrinks, what happens to an LED at that temperature, whether a splash of liquid nitrogen is dangerous, and why supercooled materials can levitate in a magnetic field. Popular with school groups and the public, it suits kids curious about science who can follow a talk.
Aplaus prosím is Europark's Sunday theater series. Professional Czech troupes take turns on a stage inside the shopping center, and the troupe and story change every week. The shows are short, so it fits around lunch or a quick shop. The fairy tales are told in Czech, so kids who don't follow the language may lose the thread.
A classic Czech puppet tale. Princess Majdalenka ends up in hell by mistake, and Kašpárek, the cheeky jester of Czech puppetry, sets off with his friend Honza to free her by outwitting the devils.
It plays at Divadlo Říše loutek, a puppet theater in the Municipal Library building in the Old Town. A good first theater outing for preschoolers.
A sing-along concert led by composer Jaroslav Uhlíř, with a live band and singer Jana Bittnerová. The set runs through the Uhlíř and Svěrák songbook, from "Holubí dům" and "Severní vítr" to tunes from the fairy-tale films Ať žijí duchové! and Lotrando a Zubejda. Kids can join in, and parents and grandparents will know most of the words.
A one-performer theater show about Františka, who can't wait to meet her little brother, still hiding in Mom's belly. Her search for answers about the nine months before birth is playful, gentle and educational. It suits a child expecting a sibling, or any kid asking where babies come from.
Hrrr na ně! ("Charge at them!") is a new play for kids about the Hussites, the 15th-century Czech rebels led by Jan Žižka. Two actors from 3D company tell the story with jokes, songs and duels, and kids find out why Žižka's name is still known today. It is played for laughs, not as a history lesson, and it suits kids who can follow Czech.
Libozvuky is an interactive music show from Divadlo Minor, directed by Jiří Adámek. Actors and musicians build a landscape of sound, then use light and voices to conjure a creature on stage. There are no seats: kids sit on the floor beside a long wooden walkway, and children often call out what they see and edge closer to the actors. Marek Doubrava's score won the 2015 Theatre Critics' Award.
Prague Zoo turns festive for the holiday season. Families can make an Advent wreath in the Education Center, join carols at the Christmas tree lighting in the Children's Zoo, and watch keepers hand unsold Christmas trees to the animals.
Winter suits the reindeer, camels and Amur tiger in their thick coats, and fourteen heated pavilions offer a warm break between the outdoor paths.
Krysáci, the rat friends from the Czech Večerníček bedtime series and books, move to the stage in this fairy tale by Divadlo pohádek. Hubert and Hodan, Eda the lab mouse from Prague and Ludvík the plaster gnome share an unusual home in a forgotten corner of a dump in Vizovice.
Instead of a screen, kids get live actors and a real stage. Libor Jeník wrote and directed it.
A bathtub is the whole stage in this Divadlo Minor show about the rules parents repeat every day ("Don't run or you'll fall", "The bed is not a trampoline"). Mom and Dad turn out to be big kids themselves, with live music and animation projected on stage. In the second half, kids join in, shooting ping-pong balls into a sink and building marble runs from plumbing pipes.
Two club model railways, built at 1:45 and 1:32 scale, run trains past a replica station, villages and tunnels. Kids watch engines pull passenger and freight cars through detailed miniature scenery. It suits train fans who like spotting details, from steam engines to modern electric locomotives.
Prague's transport company, DPP, switches on the Christmas lights on its decorated fleet in the yard of the Střešovice tram depot, home of the Muzeum MHD. Historic and modern trams line up beside buses, a trolleybus and the mazací tramvaj service tram.
Kids can walk around the vehicles and pick a favorite, sing along to carols, join the countdown, then watch the lit-up parade roll out.
Prague Castle opens its state rooms, usually closed to visitors, decorated for Advent. Families walk from the Matthias Gate through Plečnik's Column Hall, the Spanish Hall and the Rudolf Gallery, then on to the Throne Hall in the New Palace.
The cathedral, Golden Lane and the South Gardens open too, so it is a long day on foot. It suits school-age kids who can walk the route without a stroller.
The Říše loutek ensemble stages Božena Němcová's classic Czech fairy tale with string marionettes: gold is rare and salt is ordinary, until the salt runs out and the whole kingdom is in trouble.
The company has played this basement theater under the Municipal Library since it opened in 1928. The art deco hall has a starry ceiling and height-adjustable seats for small children.
Prague 7's yearly Saint Nicholas afternoon at the Výstaviště fairgrounds. Kids skate in the Small Sports Hall, in their own skates or rental ones. Then they head to the nearby Ateliér for a pre-Christmas craft, a photo-booth picture to take home and a small Saint Nicholas gift.
A St. Nicholas afternoon built around old folk customs. Kids learn the Mikuláš tradition, then make a little devil from dried plums or a straw chain for the Christmas tree. The finale is a face-to-face chat with St. Nicholas, an angel and a devil. It suits families with preschoolers and school-age kids who enjoy crafts and costumes.
On St Nicholas Eve, wooden boats leave the Vltava and slip into the Čertovka, the narrow canal behind Kampa. Devils lurk along the banks, hurling spooky but kind tales full of fire at the passing boats. On the river you also meet an angel and St Nicholas, who rewards the good kids.
A thrill for kids who know the Mikuláš tradition. Very fearful toddlers may find the devils too much.
Mikuláš, the Czech St. Nicholas, comes to Kampa with angels and devils to hand out gifts to kids, and the neighborhood switches on its Christmas tree on the island by the Vltava. It is an open-air, local evening that suits kids who like a costumed visitor, and the tree lighting gives everyone a reason to linger.
A St. Nicholas afternoon inside a historic tram depot. Mikuláš, an angel and a devil walk among the old trams and buses and hand out small gifts, a Czech December tradition. It suits children who enjoy vehicles and are fine with a costumed devil nearby.
Story of Lights fills the riverside grounds at Žluté lázně with a medieval Prague built from light. Kids walk through a gate and follow Charles IV as king, builder and emperor, past a glowing Charles Bridge, the royal crown, Gothic towers and the crown jewels, with interactive elements along the route. It suits kids who like castles and kings, and the history stays easy enough for a simple evening walk.
Pat and Mat are the Czech puppet handymen whose home repairs always go wrong, and this exhibition marks 50 years since they first appeared. The main rooms suit older kids: original film dioramas, props, and an animation workshop where you try the basics yourself. Younger kids head to the play room in the castle cellar, where a cinema also shows one of the feature films.
The Dům čtení branch of Prague's city library turns into a dance floor for this lesson. Kids warm up together, then learn a short routine. It suits kids who like to move and want to try dance without committing to a term of classes.
Two hares, Ludvík and Lujsa, explore the world through its small details. One likes to collect, the other likes to hunt. Puppets, light and music carry a gentle story about which treasures to keep and which to let go. It is made for small children and the grown-ups beside them, and it is led in Czech.
Princ a Večernice is the stage version of the classic Czech fairy tale film. Young Prince Velen marries off his three sisters to the rulers of sun, moon and wind, falls for their sister Večernice, then has to leave the castle and find his own courage on the road. Standing in his way are robbers, false merchants and the cruel Mrakomor, ruler of bad weather. Expect suspense and gentle humor.
A stage version of the famous Czech bedtime cartoon about a small dog, a present for a girl named Ája, who grows into a giant. Kids watch Fík sit at a school desk, star in a circus ring, drive a car and travel the world, only to find home is best.
A funny show about friendship and courage, spoken in Czech, so it suits kids who follow the language.
An open-air rink on Letná plain, with Prague Castle in view. The 43 by 20 meter sheet of ice is a manageable size for a first lap holding the barrier.
A heated tent gives kids somewhere to lace up and warm their hands, and there are skate and helmet rentals, sharpening, toilets and snacks on site. Public skating is walk-in, with no booking.
A hangar of historical aircraft, some still able to fly, opens to visitors who can walk around the planes and see them up close. The owners and pilots who keep their aircraft here run the day and are happy to chat, and in good weather some of the old planes take off for flight demonstrations. It suits kids who love planes and machines.
A new Czech play about Manka, a girl who loves to paint, in the smoky factory streets of old Smíchov. When an old man tells her about a mysterious painting hidden in the Church of St. Nicholas, she crosses into Malá Strana, the neighborhood next door that Smíchov kids avoid. A story of courage and friendship, inspired by writer Jakub Arbes and artist Toyen, played by two actors.
One of Prague's bigger Christmas markets fills the square in front of St. Ludmila Church in Vinohrady, the square locals call Mírák. Wooden stalls sell glass ornaments, wooden toys, ceramic nativity scenes, sheep's wool goods and handmade jewelry, with mulled wine and hot holiday snacks on the side.
It suits a short wander with kids after dark, when the stalls are lit up.
A stage version of the 1980 Czech TV fairy tale. A dragon has moved in just outside the kingdom, Princess Lenka is in danger, and it falls to young Martin and his brother Honza, the so-called fool, to prove that beating a dragon takes more than shiny armor.
The Svěrák and Uhlíř songs are ones Czech kids, parents and grandparents all know, and the cast sings them on stage. Performed in Czech.
Crystal Garden fills the winter garden in Troja with large glass sculptures of flowers, trees and animals made by the Czech glassmaker Jiří Pačinek and his studio. Kids wander the paths spotting glass birds and blooms among the real plants, and after dark the pieces are lit up.
It suits kids who like a walk with something to find. Toddlers in strollers can come along.
Prague's biggest Christmas markets fill Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square with wooden stalls of Czech crafts: wooden nativity scenes, glass and straw ornaments, gingerbread and Czech sausages.
Old Town Square's giant spruce is the centerpiece, and choirs from around the country sing on the stage. Kids who like lights and music do well here; on evenings the crowds get thick, so a stroller moves slowly.
After falling out of a tree, Ema is stuck in a hospital bed with white walls and nothing to do. Out of that boredom, her room turns into a jungle, the sea and outer space, with guides from a monkey to Albert Einstein. The play mixes music, movement, projections and animation, and a group of primary-school kids who helped shape it also appear on stage.
A family walk across Prague Castle that ends in a Christmas labyrinth built by the Forman Brothers' Theatre (Divadlo bratří Formanů) and friends inside the Imperial Stables.
Start at the tree on St. George's Square, stop at the nativity scene beside St. Vitus Cathedral, then cross the Second Courtyard to the stables. Inside, kids wander an imaginary landscape that includes Johannes Kepler's astronomer's workshop.
The two hapless handymen from the Czech cartoon step off the screen and onto the stage, played by two actors. On vacation they still can't leave their tools alone: they tinker on the seabed, in outer space and in a hotel room they rebuild to look like their workshop at home. Petr Skoumal's familiar theme tune runs through the whole show.
