Looking for an alternative to the Pantomime cheer? Feeling a touch Scroogeish over Buttons, Cloots and Cracker Jokes?
Well, Scotland has plenty to offer in the alternative Christmas feasts this festive season. From some returning contemporary classics for kids, to an inspirational new Ballet, and maybe even a touch of cryptocurrency… Our team will be out and about to ensure it isn’t only the Panto getting coverage oh yes they will.
Last year we covered twenty-five pantomimes and Christmas shows across Scotland. And this year the team is looking to increase our coverage. From the Borders, right up to the Highlands and Islands, Scotland’s long tradition of Pantomime and festive shows continues well into 2024.
With many productions offering tickets from as little as £4.00, almost all the shows have a form of availability for all – including several relaxed, signed, touch tours, and captioned performances. For additional information relating to these shows, please get in touch with venues directly.
Continuing to revolutionise, while maintaining a tranquil grace associated with tradition, Christopher Hampson choreographs Scottish Ballet’s new festive treat. Featuring stunning art-nouveau-inspired sets and costume design by Elin Steele, with Prokofiev’s irresistibly melodic score, this sparking re-telling of the enchanted tale is both familiar and strikingly different.
Scottish Ballet’s Cinders will have a surprise for audiences each evening for audiences as the curtain rises: for some performances, Cinders will be a woman, swept away by the dashing Prince, while on other shows, Cinders will be a man, swept off his feet by the Princess.
If you’re unable to make the Glasgow Theatre Royal dates, the show will become a New Year’s special for the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh, opening there from January 5th, 2024.
December 9th – 31st
Audio Described Performances – Saturday 16th December, 14:30pm
282 Hope St, Glasgow G2 3QA, UK
Tickets from £15.00
Following on from the successful return of their Edinburgh Christmas Carol, the Royal Lyceum is proud to present a new classic, The Snow Queen.
But no as ya ken it…
When the fearsome, but strikingly beautiful Snow Queen steals away young Kai to her frozen kingdom, she leaves behind the brave and brilliant Gerda, an Edinburgh lassie who will stop at nothing to rescue her best friend.
With shards of cruel and magical ice lodged into Kei’s heart, can Gerda turn her now cold and distant friend into the person he once was? Meeting friends along the way through the enchanted, wintery world of the Snow Queen, can they melt his now frozen heart?
Join audiences for a touching, festive, and musical adventure as we follow Gerda and her friends on a quest to save Kei, and discover a world of eternal winter, songs, snow, and a pink unicorn.
Told you that you didn’t know this story.
November 23rd – December 31st
Audio Described and Touch Tour Performances – Thursday 7th , 19:00pm & Saturday 9th 14:00pm
Captioned Performance – Saturday 2nd December, 14.00pm
Relaxed Performance – Friday 22nd December, 19.00pm
Grindlay Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9AX
Tickets from £22.00 (Adults), £10.00 (Children)
The staple of Christmas magic returns, as the Dundee Rep presents their critically acclaimed A Christmas Carol!
Following a successful run in 2021, the show returns once again, bigger and better, for Christmas 2023. With a cast of eleven to capture some of Dicken’s best rogues and heroes, the team once again team up with celebrated musical theatre writers Noisemaker.
With an original take on the classic with all your favourites, from Tiny Tim to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, this wonderfully sharp and heart-warming re-telling of redemption is the perfect way to celebrate the festive season and immerse yourself in the magic of a Rep Christmas this year!
November 25th – December 30th
Captioned and BSL Performances – Tuesday 12 December, 19:00pm
Relaxed Performances – Saturday 9th December, 14:00pm
Tickets from £15.00
First produced and presented by the Citizens Theatre, join Eric the Elf in his adventure to save Christmas.
A very special show for the wee ones this Festive time; audiences join Eric for his first day at Santa’s Grotto. But what starts as a magical day, filled with fun, soon goes wrong, as Eric is left all alone with the future of Christmas on his rather small, and jingling shoulders.
But thankfully, a whole host of his human pals are around to help the day, with children from all over Scotland and beyond here too!
A fun-filled, interactive, inspiring musical adventure with lots of laughs and songs to join in with this Christmas.
December 5th – 31st
BSL Performances – Wednesday 13th December, 10:00am & Saturday 23rd December, 13:00pm
Relaxed Performance – Wednesday 27th December, 14:30pm
Tickets from £10.50
There’s always another chapter hidden within the pages of a story, the other characters’ tale; stuck on the sidelines of someone else’s story. Hackit, crabbit, and a bit fed-up, the Ugly Sister is looking for some change.
And before the Fairy Godmother can even THINK about kicking up her feet and enabling the now glowing and glittering Cinderella to enjoy their happily ever after, this sister’s got some other ideas in mind. Finding herself stuck at the Wondernauld Christmas Ball, her fairy senses start a-tingling that there’s a wish still to be granted…
In this magical makeover journey from Gary McNair, directed by Jo Rush, the Fairy Godmother and Ugly Sister must work together to achieve a transformation worth doing right and discover that true worth is on the inside, not the outside. But will the Ugly Sister accept the help she needs, or has she been wearing this ‘ugly’ label too long to change?
An unforgettable spin on the classic Cinderella fairy tale, step into the magical world of Wondernauld for a festive treat that will have you laughing, singing, and dancing in the aisles.
November 25th – December 30th
Relaxed Performance – Monday 4th, 10.30am, Saturday 9th, 11:00am & Wednesday 13th December, 14:00pm
BSL Performances – Thursday 21st December, 10:30am & 19:00pm
Audio Described Performances – Thursday 21st December, 19:00pm
Lanternhouse, South Kildrum Ring Road, Cumbernauld, G67 2UF
Tickets from £7.50
It’s time to find your inner unicorn and join glittering, fabulous unicorns, Melody and Lane, as they bring a little touch of winter sunshine, moonlight, the best of times, and plenty of boogie into everyone’s lives.
Featuring a soundtrack of Christmas classics: Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Run Run Rudolph, Merry Christmas Everyone, All I Want for Christmas is You, there’s something from the smallest of hoofs to the biggest prancers!
Starring Sarah Rose Graber and Ruxy Cantir. A co-production by Capital Theatre, and Raw Material, Unicorn Party was originally commissioned by Aberdeen Performing Arts, Capital Theatres and Eden Court Inverness with support from Creative Scotland’s Performing Arts Recovery Fund.
December 8th – 24th
Relaxed Performances – Sunday 17th December, 10:30am
The Studio, 22 Potterrow, Edinburgh EH8 9BL
Tickets from £12.50
A Very Crypto Christmas & Summerhall Big Christmas Weekend
A weekend of perfect day adventures, and work night out events, Summerhall kicks off the festive season with an almighty BANG this December with the Big Christmas Weekend.
Watch at the venue fills itself with stalls featuring local, specially curated businesses, including ninety independent makers each day.
With bar service throughout, featuring festive treats like mulled wine and cider, as well as plenty of food vendors, there will be carol singing, community choirs, wreath–making, and a ceilidh!
While each night from the 1st – 3rd, Glasgow-based street theatre company Adrenalism brings anarcho-slapstick with their new piece A Very Crypto Christmas. Middling corporate hacks Warren and Stew present a Christmas theatre show that is part business edu-tainment, part investment seminar but fully doomed to fail. Expect slapstick violence, physical theatre, clunky metaphors, and razor-sharp satire of our current grotesque political reality.
December 1st – 3rd
1 Summerhall, Edinburgh, EH9 1PL
Tickets: £15.00 (A Very Crypto Christmas) £3.00 door entry for Big Christmas Market (Free for children)
Created by multi-award winners Tortoise in a Nutshell, in association with Lyth Arts Centre and Platform, Ginger is a mixture of puppetry performance and play. An interactive show designed for those ages 3 – 7.
The tale of a misshapen gingerbread person, tossed aside, marked for the bin. Audiences are asked to follow our biscuity friend as they inspire a picture-perfect kitchen to the brim with life in a cacophony of chaos and crumbs.
Ginger consists of a one-hour event, consisting of a thirty-five-minute show, followed by twenty-five minutes of gingerbread decorating.
December 6th – 16th
Tramway, 25 Albert Drive, Glasgow, G41 2PE
Tickets: £6.oo/£4.00
Hansel & Gretel – Scottish Opera
A departure from the theatre and dance on offer over Scotland, Scottish Opera turns Engelbert Humperdinck’s classic fairy tale Hansel & Gretel into a concert performance helping to celebrate the reopening of Paisley Town Hall.
Join audiences in entering a world of magic, fireflies, and fairies which come to life through Humperdinck’s lush and majestic music, which has something for every listener – from the beautiful ‘Evening Prayer’ to enchanting folk-inspired melodies.
It features the Scottish Opera Choir, children’s chorus, and The Orchestra of Scottish Opera, who come together to tell the story of Hansel and Gretel’s immense adventure deep in the enchanted forest where not everything is as it seems.
The young pair will need every ounce of courage, cleverness, and hope if they’re to escape the lure of the Witch and her gingerbread hut. A magical journey for all, in celebrating a much-loved venue.
December 14th & 15th
Town Hall, Abbey Close, Paisley PA1 1JF
Tickets: £22.00
You know, bunnies get a bad rap. Everyone assumes they’ll steak your carrots and poo everywhere. And while this might be partially true, these rabbits are growing their own delicious veggies for a huge festive feast and there’ll be plenty for everyone!
A real turn-ip for the books, audiences are invited to help these two playful rabbits get ready, set, and grow grow grow. But what happens when one of these vegetables gets a touch too big…?
The critically acclaimed show returns, this time to Eden Court where you are invited to join for a magical, musical rollercoaster of a Christmas dinner party like no other!
December 13th – 23rd
Eden Court, Bishops Road, Inverness IV3 5SA
Tickets from £5.50
Interested in being featured? With many previews and Q&As lined up, we’re always happy to chat about including your show in future articles. Please do get in touch through the contact page to feature in an upcoming ‘Have A Gander’