Good family plans don't have to cost anything. This list pulls together the free events coming up in the next month: parades, outdoor markets and city festivals you can walk into with the kids. It updates itself as dates come and go, so it's worth a look whenever you're planning a weekend.
A fun, cheeky and above all messy science show with Beppe Singer, the award-winning presenter, author and teacher. Kids get to try some of his favorite experiments, taken straight from his books.
It suits curious kids who don't mind getting their hands dirty. The show is led in Swedish, so kids who don't follow it will get less out of it.
Isol, the Argentine picture book author and illustrator, reads from some of her own books in Spanish and Swedish. Then everyone gets creative together, and the library serves fika.
It suits kids who follow Spanish or Swedish and like being read to. Isol won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) in 2013, the world's largest prize for children's and youth literature.
Kungsträdgårdens julmarknad fills the park in central Stockholm with Christmas stalls run by students from the city's upper secondary schools. Kids can wander between the stands, look for a small gift and take in the holiday bustle.
It's a market rather than a show, so it suits families happy to browse. Toddlers in strollers do fine; school-age kids with a bit of pocket money get the most out of it.
Schysst Jul is the Christmas market Svalorna Latinamerika runs every year. Each exhibitor is picked for putting ecological sustainability and social justice first, so the stalls are full of products made with people and the planet in mind.
It is a good place to shop for presents together. Kids can help choose something for a grandparent or teacher, and older kids who like picking gifts get the most from it.
A drop-in workshop at Liljevalchs, the art gallery on Djurgården, where kids make their own mask with educators and artists on hand to guide them. The idea comes from Ylva Snöfrid's exhibition The House of the Muses, where masks are part of her rituals. The starting question: who are you, and who would you like to be? You can also try the show's Exquisite Corpse ritual.
#Stockholmsjul turns streets and squares across central Stockholm into a walk of Christmas lights, a million LEDs in all. Swedish Christmas figures get a modern look: moose, reindeer, deer, spruces, cones, angels and a giant mistletoe.
Kids can help pick the route on the free light map and spot the animals along the way. It suits families happy to walk a while in the cold.
Children and adults work side by side in the museum's Workshop, making their own memory boxes with paint and collage. The theme comes from the exhibition of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, whose Heartache Boxes are small sculptures holding memories from her life. It suits families who would rather make something together than walk through galleries.
An Advent market at Wenngarn Castle outside Sigtuna, with more than 40 hand-picked crafters in the orangery selling silver, ceramics, textiles, food and art. Open fires in the park serve glögg, sausages and kolbullar.
Kids can warm up by the fires and slip into the candlelit chapel for a short concert. It's a calm market without the crush, a good pick for families who find big city markets too much.
Sigtuna's traditional Christmas market takes over the old town's streets and squares with market traders, traditional Swedish Christmas food and a packed program. It grew out of the town's Christmas celebration in the early 1960s, when market stalls were first added.
It suits families happy to wander outdoors in the winter cold, browsing stalls with a stroller or small kids on shoulders, with choir singing along the way.
Nobel Week Lights is a light art festival that turns Stockholm's streets and squares into canvases during the darkest time of the year. International and local artists, designers and students build large-scale light artworks that interpret the Nobel Prize and the ideas behind it.
Kids walk from one glowing piece to the next, so it suits a toddler in a stroller as much as a curious teenager. Everything is outdoors.
Good family plans don't have to cost anything. This list pulls together the free events coming up in the next month: parades, outdoor markets and city festivals you can walk into with the kids. It updates itself as dates come and go, so it's worth a look whenever you're planning a weekend.
A fun, cheeky and above all messy science show with Beppe Singer, the award-winning presenter, author and teacher. Kids get to try some of his favorite experiments, taken straight from his books.
It suits curious kids who don't mind getting their hands dirty. The show is led in Swedish, so kids who don't follow it will get less out of it.
Isol, the Argentine picture book author and illustrator, reads from some of her own books in Spanish and Swedish. Then everyone gets creative together, and the library serves fika.
It suits kids who follow Spanish or Swedish and like being read to. Isol won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) in 2013, the world's largest prize for children's and youth literature.
Kungsträdgårdens julmarknad fills the park in central Stockholm with Christmas stalls run by students from the city's upper secondary schools. Kids can wander between the stands, look for a small gift and take in the holiday bustle.
It's a market rather than a show, so it suits families happy to browse. Toddlers in strollers do fine; school-age kids with a bit of pocket money get the most out of it.
Schysst Jul is the Christmas market Svalorna Latinamerika runs every year. Each exhibitor is picked for putting ecological sustainability and social justice first, so the stalls are full of products made with people and the planet in mind.
It is a good place to shop for presents together. Kids can help choose something for a grandparent or teacher, and older kids who like picking gifts get the most from it.
A drop-in workshop at Liljevalchs, the art gallery on Djurgården, where kids make their own mask with educators and artists on hand to guide them. The idea comes from Ylva Snöfrid's exhibition The House of the Muses, where masks are part of her rituals. The starting question: who are you, and who would you like to be? You can also try the show's Exquisite Corpse ritual.
#Stockholmsjul turns streets and squares across central Stockholm into a walk of Christmas lights, a million LEDs in all. Swedish Christmas figures get a modern look: moose, reindeer, deer, spruces, cones, angels and a giant mistletoe.
Kids can help pick the route on the free light map and spot the animals along the way. It suits families happy to walk a while in the cold.
Children and adults work side by side in the museum's Workshop, making their own memory boxes with paint and collage. The theme comes from the exhibition of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, whose Heartache Boxes are small sculptures holding memories from her life. It suits families who would rather make something together than walk through galleries.
An Advent market at Wenngarn Castle outside Sigtuna, with more than 40 hand-picked crafters in the orangery selling silver, ceramics, textiles, food and art. Open fires in the park serve glögg, sausages and kolbullar.
Kids can warm up by the fires and slip into the candlelit chapel for a short concert. It's a calm market without the crush, a good pick for families who find big city markets too much.
Sigtuna's traditional Christmas market takes over the old town's streets and squares with market traders, traditional Swedish Christmas food and a packed program. It grew out of the town's Christmas celebration in the early 1960s, when market stalls were first added.
It suits families happy to wander outdoors in the winter cold, browsing stalls with a stroller or small kids on shoulders, with choir singing along the way.
Nobel Week Lights is a light art festival that turns Stockholm's streets and squares into canvases during the darkest time of the year. International and local artists, designers and students build large-scale light artworks that interpret the Nobel Prize and the ideas behind it.
Kids walk from one glowing piece to the next, so it suits a toddler in a stroller as much as a curious teenager. Everything is outdoors.
