Eight things to do with LittleHumans in London this November
November is kinder to small children than it looks from the window. The fireworks start early enough for bedtime, the first Christmas things open their doors, and the parks put on their best colour of the year. Here are eight things to do with kids in London this November, chosen for LittleHumans aged 0 to 7, with every date checked against the organiser's own listing.
1. The Jolly Christmas Postman Challenge at the Postal Museum (from 3 November)
Follow the much-loved picture book through the Postal Museum: make all six deliveries, stamp your Christmas post and earn a Christmas Postie badge. It runs until 10 January, the first Christmas thing of the season and one of the gentlest.
2. Free early fireworks at Coram's Fields (5 November)
Bloomsbury's children's park puts on free fireworks timed for small people: gates at 3.30pm, live performances from about 4.15pm, fireworks at 6pm, and everyone home by 7. General entry needs no ticket but is first come, first served, and as always at Coram's Fields, grown-ups only get in with a child. The display is also shown to the children on the wards at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
3. Diwali day at the National Maritime Museum (7 November)
A free day of Diwali in Greenwich, 10.30am to 5pm: music, dance, storytelling, lantern-making and the museum's first Diwali Bazaar, finishing with a lantern parade. Make a lantern in the workshops and carry it in the parade, and use the AHOY! children's gallery as a calm base between the busier moments.
4. Battersea Park Fireworks, Sunday night (8 November)
Sunday is the night to pick with little ones: gates from 4.30pm, last entry 6.30pm, fireworks from around 7pm. Under-5s go free but still need a ticket added when you book. Tickets are sold online only through the official site, with no gate sales and no waiting list once a date sells out.
5. Autumn maples in the Kyoto Garden, Holland Park
November is the Kyoto Garden's month: the Japanese maples around the waterfall and koi pond turn red and gold, and a still weekday morning there feels a long way from Kensington High Street. Free, with the rest of Holland Park and its playgrounds to run off in afterwards.
6. Christmas Lights at Polka Theatre (11 to 22 November)
Wimbledon's children's theatre opens its festive season with Christmas Lights, a playful, visually dazzling 50 minutes for ages 1 to 4 about friendship lighting up the dark. £16 a ticket, and some of the early sessions have already sold out.
7. The Lord Mayor's Show (14 November)
The procession sets off from Mansion House at 11am: free, with a gilded state coach, horses and marching bands. With small children, skip the crush at the start and catch it on its way back along the Embankment in the afternoon, with Victoria Embankment Gardens behind you for snacks and a run about.
8. A family barn dance at Cecil Sharp House (22 November)
A called dance with live folk musicians in the home of English folk, 3 to 4.30pm on a Sunday afternoon. Under-5s dance partnered by a grown-up and can be carried through the trickier bits. £11 adults, £9 under-18s, £2.50 under-2s, and it often sells out.
Planning ahead? Our December guide has the Christmas shows and Santa trains worth booking now.
Spontaneous days, seamlessly planned
Every place in this guide lives in Little Atlas, our free and calm map of London for families: curated spots, this week's opening hours, prices, toilets and baby change, pram access, and monthly guides like this one, all in your pocket for the days you decide where to go on the way out the door.
Image credits: Kyoto Garden in autumn by Roger Jones (CC BY-SA 2.0); Coram's Fields by ClemRutter (CC BY-SA 4.0); the Lord Mayor's carriage by Matt From London (CC BY 2.0), all via Wikimedia Commons.