5 tips for making Christmas in London extra special for kids

1. Start early
For kids Christmas is truly magical, and to make the most of the festive period, we don’t want to wait until the last week. We keep a special box with all our Christmas books, which we start reading at bedtime in late November, and we do an annual Christmas workshop with a few friends to make homemade Christmas decorations. For the entire December we tend to keep Christmas crafts materials in boxes on the kitchen table, making it easy for my daughter to make Christmas cards and little gifts when she’s at home or has friends over.

2. Personalised letter from Santa
This year my daughter received a very believable letter from Father Christmas. We received it to review from My Letter From Santa Claus, which offers personalised letters in different styles. Parents can choose a general letter with the name of the child, a premium with more personalisation or a bespoke letter written by the person ordering. The premium option (£5.99 including delivery) allows parents to add in what the child wants for Christmas and something he or she has achieved in the past year. The letter comes with a Nice Certificate and a cute colour-in sheet that says ‘Father Christmas Stop Here!’ I think it’s a sweet and inexpensive way to do something fun to keep the magic alive.

3. Create a gingerbread house
Over Christmas our table centerpiece for the past three years has been a gingerbread house, something my daughter adores. I’m far from an expert in making them though, so I loved going to a Mini Harrods gingerbread house event last year where my daughter completed a house. There tends to be several Christmas workshops around London for making or decorating gingerbread houses, and Bluebird in Chelsea has a kids Christmas gingerbread house making workshop on Thursday 15 December.

4. Elf visit
Sense Theatre Parties organises Elf Visits, where an elf comes to your home to surprise the kids, and I can’t wait to review this service later this month. The visiting elf will tell stories from the North Pole and about Father Christmas and deliver a special gift. An elf visit is £30, which includes one gift, and additional gifts can be added for £12 per gift.

5. Raymond Briggs’ classic on stage
To get in the spirit of Christmas I love taking the family to a festive play, and this year we’ve been to review two long-running Christmas classics–the stage adaptations of Raymond Briggs’ Father Christmas at Lyric Hammersmith, now in its fifth year, and Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman at The Peacock, now in its 19th consecutive year at The Peacock. Father Christmas is played in an intimate venue and the fun production is suited for families with children aged 1 to 6, introducing young children to Father Christmas and how he delivers presents all over the world. The Snowman is a magical dance adaptation, which probably mainly attracts families with children aged 3 and over, and the first-class family show features beautiful music, eye-catching props and special effects.