Need a plan for the kids soon? This list pulls together the family events coming up around town, soonest first: children's theater and puppet shows, museum workshops, festivals and seasonal weekends. It refreshes on its own as new events are added and past ones drop off, so it's worth checking back before each weekend.
Klara has forgotten her name and can't find her way home. On her search she meets an egg that refuses to hatch, a wind that longs to be a stone and a tree that wishes it were water. It's a short, dreamlike opera in the spirit of Alice in Wonderland, sung in Swedish, with music by composer Andrea Tarrodi. Critics and young audiences loved its 2024 premiere.
Häpp! is a gentle dance show by ZebraDans about two friends, two wooden stools and the simple joy of dancing together. With soft live music, a bit of humor and a little magic, the friends make the stools float and spin.
There is very little talking, so kids who don't speak Swedish can follow it. It suits toddlers and preschoolers who do better with a calm show.
Kurt and Kio are bored, the stare-at-the-ceiling kind of bored, until Kio decides a fort will fix everything. They just don't have one. What follows is an adventure around the living room, told mostly through movement and humor by two mime-trained actors. It's based on Lisen Adbåge's Swedish children's book Kurt och Kio vill ha koja, and suits kids who like silliness more than a long story.
One of Sweden's biggest Christmas fairs fills Taxinge Slott in Sörmland, with more than 100 Swedish craftspeople selling handmade work. It's a day for ticking off Christmas gifts while kids wander the stalls with you.
The castle calls itself Kakslottet, the cake castle, and has its own café for fika. It's a browsing day, so it suits kids happy to look around more than ones expecting a program of activities.
A family circus show by Swedish company Below Zero. Seven acrobats move across a set that suggests mountains, waves and a glacier, while two musicians play newly written folk music live, from whispering fiddles to drums and club beats.
Expect risky balancing acts, flips, a haute couture catwalk and bodies thrown meters into the air. It is told through bodies and music rather than words, so kids need no Swedish.
Birkagården, a culture house, brings a theater group or other children's performers to its stage each year. This fall's last show is Totoo trollkarl, a magic show led by a slightly goofy magician whose spells sometimes go wrong, which only makes it funnier. It is easy to follow and full of laughs, for kids and the adults who bring them.
Omfamnad is a hands-on exhibition at Kulturhuset where you can step inside a six-meter stone sculpture, lean on a giant textile octopus and wear the paintings. On Art Saturdays, one of the exhibition's artists walks kids and parents through their own work, then runs a making workshop built on it. Each Saturday has a different artist and a different project, so the sessions don't repeat.
Språkfesten (The Language Party) is Stockholm City Library's day about growing up with more than one language. Authors and illustrators read picture books aloud, often in two languages, and kids can ask them questions and get a book signed. A book fair carries children's books in Swedish and about 20 other languages. It suits multilingual families most; the main stage leans adult, so head for the kids' stage.
A pig who can only say "moo" baffles the other farm animals, then falls for a curious goat and goes silent. Two actors tell the story through mime, movement and music, with no spoken lines, so kids follow it in any language.
A gentle romantic comedy about being different and being liked as you are. It suits preschoolers who enjoy silly animals more than older kids after a big plot.
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.
Two mimes and their puppets take toddlers down into a glittering underwater world of two seahorses, singing fish and a cheeky axolotl. Then a yellow boot comes bobbing by, and someone is hiding inside.
There is no talking at all. The story runs on movement, music and the set, like a picture book acted out, so kids who don't speak Swedish follow it as easily as anyone.
A day at the Swedish History Museum about how people have lived through climate change, from the ice ages on, and what that history can teach kids today.
Kids and adults go together: a guided look at prehistoric objects, a short talk on climate made for children, and a drawing workshop where everyone adds a picture or message about the future to a shared board.
A solo physical theater show for toddlers and preschoolers about how hard it is to learn something new, and how proud you feel when you suddenly can. Per Dahlström sweeps, stumbles, whistles and rides a unicycle, losing heart along the way until a small green horn turns into a cheeky bird that won't let him quit. It suits kids learning to try again when something goes wrong.
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.
Lorpan längtar (roughly "Lorpan longs") is a puppet play from Dockteatern Tittut, a Södermalm theater that has made stage shows for the very youngest since 1977.
It is performed in Swedish, so it works best for kids who understand the language. A good first theater trip for toddlers and preschoolers.
Hansel and Gretel, told from the witch's side. Late one evening in a small library, the librarian tells a very different version of the story: who is this witch, who decided she was one, and do witches exist at all? Two actors mix puppets, shadow play and music in a story about fear and superstition, and about friendship and courage. It suits kids who already know the fairy tale.
A physical comedy loosely based on Barbro Lindgren's books about Loranga, Masarin and Dartanjang. Kids follow Masarin home through the forest, past the junk heap and the giraffe, to where Pappa Loranga sleeps under the kitchen table. Then something rumbles in the distance. It must be tigers! The play tumbles through tiger hunts, pike shoals, bullfights and car races, all about being strong, scared and almost happy.
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.
Each Advent the Royal Stables (Hovstallet) in Östermalm hosts a Christmas market, with around seventy craft makers from across Sweden selling handmade gifts in every material.
For kids, the draw is the King's horses: the stable stays open to visitors, so they can say hello to the horses trained for royal processions on state visits. It suits kids patient enough for some gift browsing between horse visits.
Sagan som rymde (The Tale That Ran Away) is a family play by Pygméteatern, a theater company in Vasastan. The story is told with puppets, shadow play and music, and performed in Swedish.
It suits preschoolers and early school-age kids, and works well as a first trip to the theater. Kids who follow Swedish get the most out of the story.
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.
Torekällberget, Södertälje's open-air museum, turns back the clock for a Christmas market in the style of the 1800s. Kids can step into the historic homes as the households get ready for Christmas, browse the market stalls on the square and catch live Christmas music around the grounds, with a sing-along too.
It suits families who like to wander at their own pace, and the weekend closes with a Lucia procession.
A touring exhibition about James Cameron, the director of Titanic and Avatar, and his other life as a deep-sea explorer. Kids see props from his films, film projections, rare objects and the underwater cameras and technology he used to explore the ocean depths.
It suits kids curious about the deep sea, underwater technology or how films get made.
Soft textiles, sculptural furniture and handmade objects fill this design exhibition, including a giant plush orangutan and armchairs with bear ears. More than 100 designers from 23 countries show work about play and making things by hand. Two Dutch designers planned the rooms with their children, Ko and Puk. It is a gallery show, not a play area, so it suits kids who like looking closely at strange, colorful things.
Gräv (Dig) is a new puppet musical by Miriam Forsberg. Every morning Billie walks past a building site on the way to preschool, until one day the digger turns and looks back. A friendship grows from feeling different, and Billie's fascination brings back the digger's lost spark.
Songs carry the story. The director calls it a tribute to kids with special interests, so it lands well with machine-obsessed preschoolers.
London's Natural History Museum runs this yearly wildlife photo competition, and this is the exhibition of the results: 100 photos picked from 65,403 entries from 121 countries. Kids get a dung beetle shot at eye level by the young winner, along with animal moments few people ever see. It is all looking and no touching, so it suits animal fans more than toddlers who need to move.
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.
A hands-on chemistry session in the workshop of the Nobel Prize Museum, in the middle of Gamla Stan. Kids run two experiments: they start a chemical reaction inside a plastic glove and make a substance that wasn't there before, then use what the museum calls "fart juice" to watch liquids change in front of them. It suits kids who like to mix things and see what happens.
The museum switches off the lights in its Gold Room, and kids explore the ancient treasures with a headlamp as their only light. The guide ties the objects to Viking-age tales, following Beowulf through his fights with the swamp monster Grendel and the dragon.
A good fit for kids who like myths and legends. The room is dark, though the tour itself has no scare effects.
A hands-on craft workshop at the Swedish History Museum, where kids make their own Viking-style bracelet. Vikings wore arm rings, mostly silver or bronze, and the old sagas tell of heroes swearing oaths on them or earning one as a reward for something brave.
Each kid decides what their own ring stands for, and the real ones are on show in the museum's Viking World exhibition.
A program the Royal Swedish Opera runs for kids, and what happens changes by date. Kids try on costumes from the opera's costume store during a tour of the opera house, discover their voice in a short opera-singing session, or sit in on a musical story time in the scenery workshops.
The try-out sessions suit kids who are fine being away from their parent for a short while.
Mamma Moo, the cow from Jujja Wieslander and Sven Nordqvist's Swedish picture books, plans a Christmas surprise for the farmer: she'll jump until her milk turns to whipped cream. Crow, meanwhile, rushes home to sort out presents for himself, in case nobody else gives him any. It's a funny, warm play about friendship and what counts at Christmas.
#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.
Dröse & Norberg's own stage version of The Jungle Book, with Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, Kaa and Shere Kahn alongside a troop of monkeys and their King Gibbon. It mixes original songs, humor and acrobatics, played by a large cast of Swedish musical performers in big fur-and-feather costumes. The show has drawn over 200,000 people and suits kids who can sit through a full-length theater show with an intermission.
Astrid Lindgren's Emil comes to life as a family musical at Intiman, a small theater on Odenplan where every seat is close to the stage. Kids meet Emil, Ida, Alfred, Lina and Lukas the horse, and watch one prank follow another, each ending with an angry Papa and another wooden figure carved in the shed.
It's performed in Swedish, so it lands best with kids who already know the stories.
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.
Gröna Lund opens Lilla Området, the small-kids corner of the amusement park, for a new winter season built around Christmas. Kids ride winterized carousels, watch ice-skating shows and Gnutt performances, meet the Ice Queen, and hand their wish lists to Tomten, Tomtemor and their elves.
Made for families with younger children. Kids hoping for the big thrill rides should know only the little-kids area is open.
A playful music session built around The Little Prince, the French classic about a boy from the tiny planet B612 who travels between planets. A Dramaten actor and young musicians from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic's Orchestra Academy tell the story to live classical music on flute, bassoon and violin.
It's made for toddlers with a grown-up beside them, so expect joining in more than watching from afar.
Tomtebobarnen is a dance and music show for toddlers, loosely based on Elsa Beskow's picture book Children of the Forest. Three performers in red mushroom hats play siblings through a year in the woods: they grow, squabble, play and learn about each other. Teater Tre tells it through dance, movement, music and play, and the room is small, so the youngest sit close to the action.
A Christmas market on Djurgården that has run since 1903, with stalls of crafts in textile, wood, ceramic and wool, plus marzipan, Christmas bread and hand-dipped candles.
For kids, the draw is Santa's workshop, where they make their own Christmas craft, then dancing around the tree and carols in Seglora church. Much of it is outdoors, so dress for the cold.
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.
Pär Isberg's Nutcracker is the Royal Swedish Ballet's Christmas classic, retold with Elsa Beskow's storybook characters. Petter and Lotta live with Aunt Green, Aunt Brown and Aunt Lavender and are celebrating Christmas for the very first time.
The children want to sleep under the Christmas tree, and that night an enchanted world opens up around them. It suits kids who can sit through a full evening ballet with an intermission.
Babblarna, the colorful Swedish characters, star in an interactive musical set at Klonk's birthday party. There's cake, balloons, a fishing game and party hats on stage, and the kids join in: clapping the beat, babbling, pretending to drive a car and dancing along.
The cast tells the story with speech, signs, song and dance. It's made for the very youngest, so school-age siblings may find it too young.
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.
Need a plan for the kids soon? This list pulls together the family events coming up around town, soonest first: children's theater and puppet shows, museum workshops, festivals and seasonal weekends. It refreshes on its own as new events are added and past ones drop off, so it's worth checking back before each weekend.
Klara has forgotten her name and can't find her way home. On her search she meets an egg that refuses to hatch, a wind that longs to be a stone and a tree that wishes it were water. It's a short, dreamlike opera in the spirit of Alice in Wonderland, sung in Swedish, with music by composer Andrea Tarrodi. Critics and young audiences loved its 2024 premiere.
Häpp! is a gentle dance show by ZebraDans about two friends, two wooden stools and the simple joy of dancing together. With soft live music, a bit of humor and a little magic, the friends make the stools float and spin.
There is very little talking, so kids who don't speak Swedish can follow it. It suits toddlers and preschoolers who do better with a calm show.
Kurt and Kio are bored, the stare-at-the-ceiling kind of bored, until Kio decides a fort will fix everything. They just don't have one. What follows is an adventure around the living room, told mostly through movement and humor by two mime-trained actors. It's based on Lisen Adbåge's Swedish children's book Kurt och Kio vill ha koja, and suits kids who like silliness more than a long story.
One of Sweden's biggest Christmas fairs fills Taxinge Slott in Sörmland, with more than 100 Swedish craftspeople selling handmade work. It's a day for ticking off Christmas gifts while kids wander the stalls with you.
The castle calls itself Kakslottet, the cake castle, and has its own café for fika. It's a browsing day, so it suits kids happy to look around more than ones expecting a program of activities.
A family circus show by Swedish company Below Zero. Seven acrobats move across a set that suggests mountains, waves and a glacier, while two musicians play newly written folk music live, from whispering fiddles to drums and club beats.
Expect risky balancing acts, flips, a haute couture catwalk and bodies thrown meters into the air. It is told through bodies and music rather than words, so kids need no Swedish.
Birkagården, a culture house, brings a theater group or other children's performers to its stage each year. This fall's last show is Totoo trollkarl, a magic show led by a slightly goofy magician whose spells sometimes go wrong, which only makes it funnier. It is easy to follow and full of laughs, for kids and the adults who bring them.
Omfamnad is a hands-on exhibition at Kulturhuset where you can step inside a six-meter stone sculpture, lean on a giant textile octopus and wear the paintings. On Art Saturdays, one of the exhibition's artists walks kids and parents through their own work, then runs a making workshop built on it. Each Saturday has a different artist and a different project, so the sessions don't repeat.
Språkfesten (The Language Party) is Stockholm City Library's day about growing up with more than one language. Authors and illustrators read picture books aloud, often in two languages, and kids can ask them questions and get a book signed. A book fair carries children's books in Swedish and about 20 other languages. It suits multilingual families most; the main stage leans adult, so head for the kids' stage.
A pig who can only say "moo" baffles the other farm animals, then falls for a curious goat and goes silent. Two actors tell the story through mime, movement and music, with no spoken lines, so kids follow it in any language.
A gentle romantic comedy about being different and being liked as you are. It suits preschoolers who enjoy silly animals more than older kids after a big plot.
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.
Two mimes and their puppets take toddlers down into a glittering underwater world of two seahorses, singing fish and a cheeky axolotl. Then a yellow boot comes bobbing by, and someone is hiding inside.
There is no talking at all. The story runs on movement, music and the set, like a picture book acted out, so kids who don't speak Swedish follow it as easily as anyone.
A day at the Swedish History Museum about how people have lived through climate change, from the ice ages on, and what that history can teach kids today.
Kids and adults go together: a guided look at prehistoric objects, a short talk on climate made for children, and a drawing workshop where everyone adds a picture or message about the future to a shared board.
A solo physical theater show for toddlers and preschoolers about how hard it is to learn something new, and how proud you feel when you suddenly can. Per Dahlström sweeps, stumbles, whistles and rides a unicycle, losing heart along the way until a small green horn turns into a cheeky bird that won't let him quit. It suits kids learning to try again when something goes wrong.
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.
Lorpan längtar (roughly "Lorpan longs") is a puppet play from Dockteatern Tittut, a Södermalm theater that has made stage shows for the very youngest since 1977.
It is performed in Swedish, so it works best for kids who understand the language. A good first theater trip for toddlers and preschoolers.
Hansel and Gretel, told from the witch's side. Late one evening in a small library, the librarian tells a very different version of the story: who is this witch, who decided she was one, and do witches exist at all? Two actors mix puppets, shadow play and music in a story about fear and superstition, and about friendship and courage. It suits kids who already know the fairy tale.
A physical comedy loosely based on Barbro Lindgren's books about Loranga, Masarin and Dartanjang. Kids follow Masarin home through the forest, past the junk heap and the giraffe, to where Pappa Loranga sleeps under the kitchen table. Then something rumbles in the distance. It must be tigers! The play tumbles through tiger hunts, pike shoals, bullfights and car races, all about being strong, scared and almost happy.
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.
Each Advent the Royal Stables (Hovstallet) in Östermalm hosts a Christmas market, with around seventy craft makers from across Sweden selling handmade gifts in every material.
For kids, the draw is the King's horses: the stable stays open to visitors, so they can say hello to the horses trained for royal processions on state visits. It suits kids patient enough for some gift browsing between horse visits.
Sagan som rymde (The Tale That Ran Away) is a family play by Pygméteatern, a theater company in Vasastan. The story is told with puppets, shadow play and music, and performed in Swedish.
It suits preschoolers and early school-age kids, and works well as a first trip to the theater. Kids who follow Swedish get the most out of the story.
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.
Torekällberget, Södertälje's open-air museum, turns back the clock for a Christmas market in the style of the 1800s. Kids can step into the historic homes as the households get ready for Christmas, browse the market stalls on the square and catch live Christmas music around the grounds, with a sing-along too.
It suits families who like to wander at their own pace, and the weekend closes with a Lucia procession.
A touring exhibition about James Cameron, the director of Titanic and Avatar, and his other life as a deep-sea explorer. Kids see props from his films, film projections, rare objects and the underwater cameras and technology he used to explore the ocean depths.
It suits kids curious about the deep sea, underwater technology or how films get made.
Soft textiles, sculptural furniture and handmade objects fill this design exhibition, including a giant plush orangutan and armchairs with bear ears. More than 100 designers from 23 countries show work about play and making things by hand. Two Dutch designers planned the rooms with their children, Ko and Puk. It is a gallery show, not a play area, so it suits kids who like looking closely at strange, colorful things.
Gräv (Dig) is a new puppet musical by Miriam Forsberg. Every morning Billie walks past a building site on the way to preschool, until one day the digger turns and looks back. A friendship grows from feeling different, and Billie's fascination brings back the digger's lost spark.
Songs carry the story. The director calls it a tribute to kids with special interests, so it lands well with machine-obsessed preschoolers.
London's Natural History Museum runs this yearly wildlife photo competition, and this is the exhibition of the results: 100 photos picked from 65,403 entries from 121 countries. Kids get a dung beetle shot at eye level by the young winner, along with animal moments few people ever see. It is all looking and no touching, so it suits animal fans more than toddlers who need to move.
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.
A hands-on chemistry session in the workshop of the Nobel Prize Museum, in the middle of Gamla Stan. Kids run two experiments: they start a chemical reaction inside a plastic glove and make a substance that wasn't there before, then use what the museum calls "fart juice" to watch liquids change in front of them. It suits kids who like to mix things and see what happens.
The museum switches off the lights in its Gold Room, and kids explore the ancient treasures with a headlamp as their only light. The guide ties the objects to Viking-age tales, following Beowulf through his fights with the swamp monster Grendel and the dragon.
A good fit for kids who like myths and legends. The room is dark, though the tour itself has no scare effects.
A hands-on craft workshop at the Swedish History Museum, where kids make their own Viking-style bracelet. Vikings wore arm rings, mostly silver or bronze, and the old sagas tell of heroes swearing oaths on them or earning one as a reward for something brave.
Each kid decides what their own ring stands for, and the real ones are on show in the museum's Viking World exhibition.
A program the Royal Swedish Opera runs for kids, and what happens changes by date. Kids try on costumes from the opera's costume store during a tour of the opera house, discover their voice in a short opera-singing session, or sit in on a musical story time in the scenery workshops.
The try-out sessions suit kids who are fine being away from their parent for a short while.
Mamma Moo, the cow from Jujja Wieslander and Sven Nordqvist's Swedish picture books, plans a Christmas surprise for the farmer: she'll jump until her milk turns to whipped cream. Crow, meanwhile, rushes home to sort out presents for himself, in case nobody else gives him any. It's a funny, warm play about friendship and what counts at Christmas.
#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.
Dröse & Norberg's own stage version of The Jungle Book, with Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, Kaa and Shere Kahn alongside a troop of monkeys and their King Gibbon. It mixes original songs, humor and acrobatics, played by a large cast of Swedish musical performers in big fur-and-feather costumes. The show has drawn over 200,000 people and suits kids who can sit through a full-length theater show with an intermission.
Astrid Lindgren's Emil comes to life as a family musical at Intiman, a small theater on Odenplan where every seat is close to the stage. Kids meet Emil, Ida, Alfred, Lina and Lukas the horse, and watch one prank follow another, each ending with an angry Papa and another wooden figure carved in the shed.
It's performed in Swedish, so it lands best with kids who already know the stories.
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.
Gröna Lund opens Lilla Området, the small-kids corner of the amusement park, for a new winter season built around Christmas. Kids ride winterized carousels, watch ice-skating shows and Gnutt performances, meet the Ice Queen, and hand their wish lists to Tomten, Tomtemor and their elves.
Made for families with younger children. Kids hoping for the big thrill rides should know only the little-kids area is open.
A playful music session built around The Little Prince, the French classic about a boy from the tiny planet B612 who travels between planets. A Dramaten actor and young musicians from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic's Orchestra Academy tell the story to live classical music on flute, bassoon and violin.
It's made for toddlers with a grown-up beside them, so expect joining in more than watching from afar.
Tomtebobarnen is a dance and music show for toddlers, loosely based on Elsa Beskow's picture book Children of the Forest. Three performers in red mushroom hats play siblings through a year in the woods: they grow, squabble, play and learn about each other. Teater Tre tells it through dance, movement, music and play, and the room is small, so the youngest sit close to the action.
A Christmas market on Djurgården that has run since 1903, with stalls of crafts in textile, wood, ceramic and wool, plus marzipan, Christmas bread and hand-dipped candles.
For kids, the draw is Santa's workshop, where they make their own Christmas craft, then dancing around the tree and carols in Seglora church. Much of it is outdoors, so dress for the cold.
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.
Pär Isberg's Nutcracker is the Royal Swedish Ballet's Christmas classic, retold with Elsa Beskow's storybook characters. Petter and Lotta live with Aunt Green, Aunt Brown and Aunt Lavender and are celebrating Christmas for the very first time.
The children want to sleep under the Christmas tree, and that night an enchanted world opens up around them. It suits kids who can sit through a full evening ballet with an intermission.
Babblarna, the colorful Swedish characters, star in an interactive musical set at Klonk's birthday party. There's cake, balloons, a fishing game and party hats on stage, and the kids join in: clapping the beat, babbling, pretending to drive a car and dancing along.
The cast tells the story with speech, signs, song and dance. It's made for the very youngest, so school-age siblings may find it too young.
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.
