9 dated events coming up in and around Keswick, Cumbria. Collected from the organisations running them, not from anyone paying to appear.
Stay and Discover at Keswick Museum, a story with Becky and Digby followed by a creative session for under 5s. Free, one booking per family, every term time Wednesday.
Stay and Discover at Keswick Museum, a story with Becky and Digby followed by a creative session for under 5s. Free, one booking per family, every term time Wednesday.
Keswick's big Christmas show, made in-house with the music company Goblin: Scrooge, Marley's ghost and the full Dickens, age 6 and up. There is a relaxed performance on 24 November, an audio described show on 5 December, and captioned and signed shows on 12 December.
Santa, underground. A bus takes you up to a hidden entrance, you walk lit tunnels past the elves' workshop and the sleigh chamber, make a wish and get a gift, then come down an underground sledge slope. The mine's own words are that it sells out every year without exception, and at the top of Honister Pass in December, check the road before you set off.
A working farm on the edge of Keswick: a tractor trailer tour past the Highland cows, sheep, pigs and goats, then crafts, face painting and a Santa visit with gifts in the cafe. Only two adults per child fit on the trailer, spare grown-ups wait in the cafe, which in a Keswick December is not the worst job.
The quarry's railway runs Santa trains through December, seven departures a day from 10.15am. The page does not say what is included or what it costs, so check before you promise a present.
Keswick town centre goes Victorian for the day, with entertainment on the Market Square stage and in Pack Horse Court, and free children's costume competitions every hour. Put them in something Dickensian and layered, it is December in the Lakes.
A 55 minute Christmas show for ages 3 and up in the Studio, with magic, music and a malfunctioning robot helping save a forgotten town's Christmas spirit. No interval and under an hour, which is exactly the right length for a first theatre trip. Under 16s must be with an adult ticket holder.
A 45 minute Santa experience at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick with a story, a present and a photo. The 11am slot is just for under 5s. Ages 18 months to 11.
An hour of puppetry and shadow play from Indefinite Articles: Geppetto carves Pinocchio on stage and brushes turn into a fox. Age 4 and up, and a good one for the week after Christmas.
Places you can turn up to whether or not anything is on.
Thirty-eight standing stones in a field above Keswick with the fells all round. Free, open any time in daylight, and exactly the right size for children to count, run between and not get bored.
Keswick's park between the town and the lake: gardens, a bird hide, remote-control boats on a model Derwentwater, crazy golf, pitch and putt and Cafe Hope. Free to walk through, the games cost extra, and there are no swings.
England's only true mountain forest: the Room on the Broom trail, Gruffalo orienteering, the WildPlay trail, red squirrels if you are lucky, and Go Ape for older kids. Views over Derwentwater thrown in.
Keswick made the world's first pencils and the museum sits on the works. About an hour indoors: secret wartime pencils with maps hidden inside, and a coloured pencil close to eight metres long.
Indoor climbing wall near Castlerigg with 120-plus routes and an instructor-led kids' hour, plus Rookery Woods next door: outdoor zip line, slides, maze, castles and soft archery for under-nines at £6 a day. Cafe and free parking.
Fifty minutes round Derwentwater on the launch, or use the ticket to hop off at a jetty and walk a stretch of shore. Rowing boats for hire until 1 November. Sailings thin out from 9 November and stop in December and January.