Things to Do in London in December: Carols, Pantos, Winter Lights and the Christmas Day Shutdown

December has four beats. The Christmas machinery starts properly with the Trafalgar Square tree on the 3rd, and the pantos, Nutcrackers and carols fill the run to Christmas Eve. Christmas Day closes most of the city. The football and the darts carry the days between to New Year’s Eve. The sun sets before 4pm for the whole month.

💡 The Short Version: The Trafalgar Square tree is lit on Thursday 3 December, the night the Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker opens. Carols at the Royal Albert Hall run 19 to 24 December, and St Paul’s carol services are free but balloted. The PDC World Darts runs at Alexandra Palace from 11 December. Christmas Day has no TfL service, London Paddington is shut from 25 December to 3 January, and the British Museum, Natural History Museum, Science Museum and V&A close 24 to 26 December. Boxing Day football is Fulham v Brighton and Spurs v Bournemouth at 3pm. The Bayeux Tapestry is sold out to 31 December, and the New Year’s Eve fireworks go on sale at noon on 23 October.

The Bayeux Tapestry: sold out to 31 December

British Museum, Room 30 · to 11 July 2027

You cannot buy a ticket for a December visit. Every ticket for 10 September to 31 December 2026 is gone, members’ priority allocation included. General booking for 1 January to 31 March 2027 opens on 21 October 2026, and April to July 2027 opens in early 2027. Tickets are on the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry page. The room is open Sunday to Wednesday 10am to 6pm and Thursday to Saturday 10am to 9pm.

Bayeux Late is free on Friday 4 December: an evening of digital art and technology inspired by the artistry of 1066, on the museum’s events page. The museum is closed on 24, 25 and 26 December. The rest of it is in our British Museum guide.

The tree, the carols and the churches

Trafalgar Square tree — Thursday 3 December

The Trafalgar Square tree is a Norway spruce, given to London by the city of Oslo every year since 1947. It is lit on Thursday 3 December, and carol groups sing beneath it on most evenings until Christmas, with no ticket and a collection for charity. Sunset on the 3rd is at 3.56pm. The Christmas lights walk ends here.

Carols at the Royal Albert Hall — 19 to 24 December

The Hall runs 15 carol performances over six days. Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th have 3pm and 7.30pm concerts, Monday 21st to Wednesday 23rd add an 11am one, and Thursday 24th has 11am and 3pm. A relaxed Friendship Matinee is at 11am on Sunday 20th. The audience sings. Tickets are on the Hall’s carols page. Earlier in the month the Hall has Sir John Rutter’s Christmas Celebration on Friday 4th, Christmas with the Royal Choral Society on Monday 7th and Jamie Cullum on the 10th and 11th.

St Paul’s Cathedral

Most services are free and need no ticket; the carol services that fill are balloted. The ticketed events are Handel’s Messiah on Wednesday 2nd and A Celebration of Christmas on Thursday 10th, both paid. Family Carols on Saturday 19th (11am) and the 4pm Christmas Carol Services on Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th are free but allocated by ballot, which opens in November, and any tickets not claimed are released to the public.

Everything else is unticketed: Britten’s Ceremony of Carols on Saturday 12th (5pm), the Blessing of the Crib with the lighting of the Christmas trees on Sunday 20th (3pm), the Midnight Eucharist on Thursday 24th (11pm), and on Christmas Day the Choral Eucharist at 11am and Festal Evensong at 3pm. Doors open an hour before, queues form outside, seating is unreserved, there is no cloakroom and bags over 450 x 300 x 250mm are not allowed. Details are on St Paul’s Christmas page.

Westminster Abbey

Tickets for the Abbey’s Lessons and Carols services are released on Monday 16 and Wednesday 18 November, at 9.30am and 2.30pm. The choir’s ticketed concert, Christmas with the Choir of Westminster Abbey, is on Saturday 19 December at 7pm, with doors at 6.15pm: £51 in the front nave down to £16 for an unreserved Quire seat with no view, plus a booking fee. The Abbey’s services and times are on its Advent and Christmas page; our Westminster Abbey guide covers a daytime visit.

The Tower of London

Carols by Candlelight is on Thursday 10 December, 7pm to 8pm, in the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula, sung by the choir of the Chapels Royal; tickets are £30 and you arrive at the West Gate from 6.30pm. Christmas at the Tower, a trail of Victorian Christmas scenes, runs from 27 November to 3 January and is included in admission. See the Tower of London guide.

Lights, trails and rinks

Winter Wonderland — every day except Christmas Day

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland runs to 3 January 2027 and is open every day except 25 December, with the final day a Family Fun Day. Entry needs a timed ticket, and the gates open at 11am on 3 and 4 December, 7 to 11 December, 14 to 18 December and 28 December to 1 January (12pm on 2 December and 2pm on 1 December, 10am otherwise). It closes at 10pm, including on New Year’s Eve. The Winter Wonderland guide has the gates and prices.

Light trails

• Christmas at Kew, to 3 January. A ticketed 3km trail through the gardens, with timed entry and last entry between 7pm and 8pm (up to an hour earlier on Christmas Eve). Adults-only evenings are on 3 and 9 December. It is closed on Christmas Day. Adults pay from £29.50 off-peak and £37 at peak. Kew’s page has dates; our Kew guide covers the daytime gardens.
• Chelsea Winter Village & Illuminations, at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, 25 November to Monday 28 December, closed on Christmas Day. Gates are open from 4.30pm and the trail closes at 10pm; adults from £19. chelseawintervillage.com.
• Winter Palace: The Christmas Beast Ball, Hampton Court Palace, 28 November to 3 January, included in palace admission with pre-booking. The Festive Fayre has more than 100 artisan producers on 4 to 6 and 11 to 13 December, 10am to 5pm. See our Hampton Court guide.
• Victoria’s Countryside Christmas at Kensington Palace, 25 November to 3 January, is included in palace admission.

Chiswick House’s Christmas programme runs 1 November to 24 December and is a grotto, markets and theatre rather than a light trail: Father Christmas on selected dates from 28 November, markets at the Duck Pond, and a Georgian-style opera, The Duchess’s Christmas, in the house on 12 and 13 December.

Ice rinks

Somerset House stays open longest, to 10 January, and Hampton Court’s rink runs to 3 January with sessions from 10am to 8pm. Both close on Christmas Day, as does the rink at Winter Wonderland. Alexandra Palace’s Festive Skate opens on 9 December and runs to 4 January, indoors, for ages 3 and over; adults supervising children need a spectator ticket. Every rink, price and children’s rule is in our ice skating guide.

Markets

Borough Market is open daily from 30 November and shuts from 25 to 27 December. The chalet markets are in the Christmas markets guide, and the full picture is in Christmas in London.

Shows

Pantomime

The London Palladium’s Cinderella runs 5 December to 10 January, from £25 with no booking fees. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders play the Ugly Sisters. The theatre says it is not tailored to young children and admits nobody under four. Hackney Empire’s Jack and the Beanstalk runs 21 November to 31 December. Stratford East, the Lyric Hammersmith and the cheaper smaller houses are in the Christmas shows guide.

Nutcrackers

The Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker opens at the Royal Opera House on Thursday 3 December and runs to 13 January 2027, with tickets from £10 to £238. Peter Wright’s production lasts about 2 hours 20 minutes with one interval, is for ages 5 and over, and uses flashing lights and dry ice. English National Ballet’s Nutcracker is at the London Coliseum from 17 December to 10 January, from £27.25 including fees, with 25% off for under-16s.

Other Christmas nights

Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella opens at Sadler’s Wells on 1 December, set in the Blitz. Cirque Alice, an acrobatic Alice in Wonderland, is at the Royal Festival Hall from 12 December to 3 January. Christmas Carol Goes Wrong opens at Wyndham’s Theatre on 18 December. Our Christmas shows guide lists the rest with prices, running times and age guidance, and the London theatre guide covers everything that isn’t Christmas.

Exhibitions

These opened in November and run into the new year or spring.

• Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires, V&A South Kensington, opened 7 November. £25 on weekdays, £27 at weekends.
• Van Eyck: The Portraits, National Gallery, 21 November to 11 April 2027. The first time all of Jan van Eyck’s portraits have been shown together; £18 including an audio guide, and under-18s go free.
• Peggy Guggenheim in London, Royal Academy, 21 November to 14 March 2027, £17.
• Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury, Tate Britain, 12 November to 11 April 2027, £20.
• Nan Goldin: You Never Did Anything Wrong, Hayward Gallery, 24 November to 14 March 2027.
• Es Devlin: Other Worlds, Design Museum, to 4 April 2027: the first European retrospective of her 30-year practice across sculpture, stage design, music, language and light.

Closing soon: Frida: The Making of an Icon at Tate Modern on 3 January; The Music is Black: A British Story at V&A East Museum (£22.50 weekday, £24.50 weekend), Rising Voices at V&A South Kensington (£17) and LAIKA presents Wildwood at the Design Museum all on 10 January; Renoir and Love at the National Gallery on 31 January. The best museums guide lists those with free entry.

The London Museum at Smithfield

The Museum of London’s new home opened its permanent galleries on Saturday 28 November in Smithfield’s Victorian General Market, and they are free. December is its first full month. Inside are the Cheapside Hoard of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery, the Lord Mayor’s Coach and a six-metre window onto the Thameslink line. The temporary exhibition space in the Poultry Market opens in 2028.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich

The whole site, Flamsteed House and the Meridian Courtyard included, is closed from 2 November 2026 for the First Light refurbishment, so it is shut throughout December. Royal Museums Greenwich says the Meridian Courtyard reopens in summer 2027, with tickets on sale in January, and the project finishes by spring 2028. The National Maritime Museum, the Cutty Sark and the view from the hill stay open. The rest of Greenwich is in our Greenwich guide.

Sport

Premier League over Christmas

Six London clubs are in the Premier League in 2026-27: Arsenal, Brentford, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Fulham and Spurs. These are the home games, with the Premier League’s listed kick-offs; broadcasters move some of them.

Chelsea play away at Coventry on the 27th, and Brentford are away at Ipswich on Boxing Day. How to get a ticket is in our Premier League tickets guide, and Boxing Day transport is covered below.

PDC World Darts Championship — Alexandra Palace

The tournament runs from 11 December 2026 to 3 January 2027 and moves into the Great Hall for the first time, with a record 180,000 tickets. They were allocated by ballot, which has closed, and the organiser says any resale must go through See Tickets’ official Fan-to-Fan platform. Evening doors open at 7pm. Details are on Alexandra Palace’s page.

The Peter Pan Cup swim — Christmas Day, Serpentine

The Serpentine Swimming Club’s Christmas morning handicap is a 100-yard swim in the lake for the Peter Pan Cup. It has been held every year since 1864 except 2020. The race starts at 9am, with swimmers marching to the board from 8.45am. Entry is limited to club members with a handicap. See the club’s page.

Christmas Day, Boxing Day and the days between

Transport

TfL runs no service on most of its network on Christmas Day, as it does every year. On Boxing Day 2025 it ran a Sunday service on the Tube, buses and trams, with no Elizabeth line, and Christmas Eve services finished early. TfL published its 2025 festive plan on 2 December 2025, and it puts the festive plan at tfl.gov.uk/christmas-travel.

National Rail runs almost nothing in England on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and Network Rail uses the days after for engineering:

• London Paddington is closed from Christmas Day. No Elizabeth line or Heathrow Express trains run to or from Heathrow from Sunday 27 to Wednesday 30 December, and the Piccadilly line is the only rail link to the airport. Both resume on New Year’s Eve, but Great Western Railway trains cannot use Paddington until Monday 4 January: long-distance services start and finish at Reading, and some divert to Euston.
• The Great Eastern Main Line is closed for 10 days from Christmas Day for track renewal at Forest Gate, so no Greater Anglia or Elizabeth line trains run through the area until the early hours of Monday 4 January.
• The railway through Redhill is closed from 20 December to the early hours of Monday 4 January, with buses between Reigate, Earlswood and Purley; Brighton and Gatwick Airport trains still run.

National Rail’s Dolphin Junction page has the Paddington dates, its engineering works calendar shows every date, and Network Rail’s announcement lists the major projects. Our airport guides and transport guide cover the usual routes.

What closes

⚠️ The British Museum, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, V&A and Wallace Collection are all closed on 24, 25 and 26 December, and the National Gallery is also closed on 1 January.

Winter Wonderland, Chelsea Winter Village, Christmas at Kew and the rinks at Somerset House and Hampton Court Palace close on 25 December only. Hampton Court’s Wilderness garden is open free on 26 December with no ticket. St Paul’s holds its Christmas Day services at 11am and 3pm, and the Peter Pan Cup is at 9am. For a meal out, see Christmas Day restaurants; it needs booking by late October.

New Year’s Eve

The Mayor’s fireworks on Thursday 31 December run 8pm to 12.30am, and the first batch of tickets goes on sale at noon on Friday 23 October through Ticketmaster, with a second batch to follow. Category A (Blue, Pink and White areas) is £55, or £35 with a London postcode; Category B (Red, Green and Orange) is £40, or £20. You can buy up to four tickets. Winter Wonderland is open on New Year’s Eve until 10pm. Viewing areas, free viewpoints, getting home and the 1 January Parade are in our New Year’s Eve guide.

Practical: December in London

Weather. The Met Office’s Heathrow average for the month (1991 to 2020) is a daily high of 8.8C and a low of 3.1C, with 57.0mm of rain, 7.2 air-frost days and 53 hours of sunshine, the least of any month. January is colder by a fraction (8.4C), but December has more days of frost than any other month. Our London in the rain guide has the indoor fallbacks.

Daylight. Sunset is 3.57pm on 1 December, about 3.53pm from the 10th to the 15th, 3.55pm on 21 December and 4.02pm on the 31st. Sunrise moves from 7.41am to 8.04am. The shortest day is 21 December: sunrise at 8.01am, sunset at 3.55pm, 7 hours 54 minutes of daylight. Anything outdoors that needs light belongs before 3pm.

Working out which month suits you best? Best time to visit London compares December against the rest of the year, and November’s guide covers the month before. With children, see London with children.

What’s on in December 2026

One evening pick a day: music, comedy, theatre, classical and dance, each at a different venue.

Looking ahead to January

The Bayeux Tapestry’s general booking for 1 January to 31 March opens on 21 October, and Winter Wonderland closes on 3 January with its Family Fun Day. The London New Year’s Day Parade is on Friday 1 January, 1pm. For the rest of the Christmas run see Christmas in London.