Festival Place runs free Christmas crafts, shows and face painting on six Saturdays from 14 November to 19 December, 11am to 4pm. Updated November 2026.
Festival Place is putting on free Christmas activities for families on six Saturdays in 2026, from Saturday 14 November to Saturday 19 December, between 11am and 4pm, with something different each week. There is no charge and nothing to book.
The shopping centre calls the season Where Christmas Comes to Life. It describes it as “a packed programme of free Christmas craft workshops, live entertainment, festive characters, face painting and seasonal performances, with different activities every Saturday.”
The six Saturdays
| Saturday | Make or do | Watch |
|---|---|---|
| 14 November (launch) | Nuts for Nutcrackers craft workshop, free face painting, makers market | The Grinch, Tinseltastic Breakdancers, VoxFresh and Sing Now Choir |
| 21 November | Letter writing to Santa | Nutcracker Brass Band |
| 28 November | Snowy Suncatchers, a winter decoration | Joyful Jugglers |
| 5 December | Bauble Blitz, make your own bauble | Merry Tumblers, festive acrobatics |
| 12 December | Christmas cookie decorating | Tinsel Breakdancers |
| 19 December | Penguin Puppets | The Wish Collector |
The line-up for each day is the one published on Festival Place’s Christmas events page and its launch page, checked on 7 November.
Launch day, Saturday 14 November
The opening Saturday is the busiest. Festival Place lists a Nuts for Nutcrackers craft workshop, where children make a Christmas decoration to take home, and says the Grinch will be wandering the centre, “everyone’s favourite Christmas troublemaker”. Tinseltastic Breakdancers perform, a makers market runs in the Creative Emporium on the upper level, and face painting is free.
Two choirs sing: VoxFresh at 11am, and Sing Now Choir with sets at 2pm and 3pm.
One thing to note on timings: the centre’s launch page gives the day as 11am to 5pm, an hour longer than the 11am to 4pm in the details Festival Place sent us for the season. If you are aiming for the late afternoon on 14 November, check the launch page on the day.
What else is on
Festival Place says local choirs will sing in the centre through the season and that the FP Express Train will be running for children; it has not published times or a price for either.
Santa’s grotto is the one part of the centre’s Christmas that is not free. It is on the ground floor in front of Santander, open at weekends until 22 November and then every day from Friday 27 November to Christmas Eve, at £8 a child including a present. Our Santa’s grotto guide has the booking details and the alternatives at Milestones and Hatch Warren.
The town’s own Festive Friday, also free, is at the Top of the Town on the evening before the second Saturday, Friday 20 November; the stage times are in our Christmas lights switch-on story, and the rest of the month is in what’s on in Basingstoke.
The details
- What: Where Christmas Comes to Life at Festival Place
- When: Saturdays 14, 21 and 28 November, and 5, 12 and 19 December 2026, 11am to 4pm (launch page: 11am to 5pm on 14 November)
- Where: Festival Place, Basingstoke town centre
- Cost: free
- More: festivalplace.co.uk
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