Christmas activities might be taking centre stage across the capital, but there’s plenty of non-festive entertainment on offer too. These are the best things to do in London this weekend (5 – 7 December 2025).
There’s festive cheer throughout the city – ice-skating rinks have opened up everywhere from Somerset House to Canary Wharf, larger-than-life decorations cover the capital’s facades, and there are plenty of gift-buying opportunities too – including a chance to swerve the season’s sometimes consumerism-led nature and buy something for those who really need it instead.
Want to swerve the season altogether? Book a table at South London’s newest Caribbean restaurant, spend time at a thought-provoking exhibition. or settle into an underground listening bar. This is where to find it all this weekend.
1. Catch a Christmas movie on the big screen
As Buddy in Elf famously said: “the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!” and what better way to honour the season (and our favourite oversized elf) than in full surround sound at a Christmas movie screening? London is awash with festive film screenings this week (and month) including The Muppet Christmas Carol at the BFI (6 December); Love Actually at W London (6 December); The Muppet Christmas Carol at Prince Charles Cinema (6 December); and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas at Joia Battersea (7 December). Just add popcorn (or mince pies).
Various addresses
2. Shop With Purpose at Choose Love’s Regent Street Pop-Up Store
“At a time when the world can feel especially dark, it’s more important than ever that we come together in solidarity, compassion, and action to support refugees and displaced people this winter,” says Josie Fernandez-Marelli who co-founded Choose Love ten years ago. This year, their seasonal pop-up store has opened on Regent Street and is bigger than ever. Spread over two floors, find Choose Love merchandise like hoodies, tote bags and Christmas baubles, but also an opportunity to purchase items most needed by refugees and displaced people globally: emergency blankets, sleeping bags, shoes, nappies and more. Importantly, all money spent and raised in the store right now will be doubled as part of an ongoing 10th anniversary match fund aiming to reach £100,000 (to be doubled to £200,000).
3. Browse a Festive Market
The Toklas Bakery Christmas Market
Joining the festive market crowd this weekend (and for one-day or one-weekend only) are Toklas Bakery pairing a foodie-led line up with arts and crafts (6 December from 10am); the Black Culture Market – Christmas Winter Market in Brixton spotlighting Black businesses (6 and 7 December from 5pm); and the Sherbet Dab: Festive Market at Mason & Fifth showcasing independent crafts (6 December, midday until 6pm). On the banks of the River Thames in central London, the Southbank Centre’s Winter Market is serving up mugs of hot chocolate and mulled wine, plates of Himalayan dumplings, Yorkshire Pudding wraps, and hotdogs – alongside gift-inspiration from independent vendors including Old Maps Library, Linnet Jewellery and Handmade Stories, a female-owned slow fashion brand and social enterprise that supports women in rural Andean communities.
Southbank Centre’s Winter Market: Open now until Sun 4 Jan 2026, 11am – 11pm
Closed on 25 December, 31 December and 1 January
Address: The Queen’s Walk, South Bank, London
– See more ways to celebrate Christmas in London here
4. Take a walking tour of London’s biggest and best Christmas decorations
London’s Christmas lights are in full sparkle this weekend – an ideal time to take a walking tour of them all. There’s no shortage of route options, but we’d recommend starting at Green Park tube station and walking along Piccadilly, stopping at The Ritz and Fortnum & Mason before veering off through the twinkling Burlington Arcade towards New Bond Street, where all the big designers (Dior, Cartier, Ralph Lauren) have gone all out on their storefronts for Christmas 2025. Then it’s onwards to Berkeley Square to see the always-awaited floor-to-ceiling Annabel’s festive transformation which is inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia this year, before continuing to spot the Regent Street angels. If you’re up for strolling a little further, it’s worth the walk towards the always-festive Covent Garden too.
– See more ways to celebrate Christmas in London here
5. Step into the wonderful world of Wes Anderson at The Design Museum’s latest exhibition
Wes Anderson’s characteristic visual symmetry, funky colour schemes, tongue-in-cheek exaggeration, but often serious plot lines, are known to all – avid fans or not, his films are inescapable. The Design Museum’s new exhibition is a behind-the-scenes snapshot into the incredible productions, as over 700 items from the archives are on display for the first time ever in the UK, marking the first ever retrospective of the filmmaker. The exhibition is arranged largely chronologically, sectioned out by film. In each, marvel over everything from the colourful costumes, clips from the movies, mini set replicas (the entire Darjeeling Express included), on-set BTS stills, soundtrack snippets, and all the props you could think of, from sketches, to books, to type writers to perfume bottles, and even the iron tasseled keys from The Grand Budapest Hotel near a scaled model of the entire hotel. As co-curator and chief curatorial director of the Design Museum, Lucia Savi explains, Wes Anderson’s “extraordinary archive is testament to his unique cinematic approach,” and this exhibition is a wonderful prompt to revisit your favourites from his work.
Wes Anderson: The Archives is open now until 26 July 2026 at The Design Museum.
Address: 224-238 Kensington High St, London W8 6AG, United Kingdom
Book tickets here.
6. Shop for gifts at Buckingham Palace’s first ever Christmas Shop
For the first time ever, you can shop for Christmas gifts at Buckingham Palace: the palace’s Royal Mews store has opened up as the Royal Mews Christmas Shop for the 2025 season. Stop by between 10am and 5pm every day to pick up decorative Christmas Tree trinkets including some depicting royal scenes like guardsmen, crowns and the Buckingham Palace facade; under-the-tree gifts including jewellery, teacups and Palace Collection slippers; and seasonal foodie treats like chocolate truffles, shortbread biscuits and Royal Windsor Pink Gin. Once you’re shopped out, step into the Courtyard Café for a festive pick-me-up (we recommend the mince pies).
14 November to 5 January, open 10am-5pm
Address: Buckingham Palace Rd, London SW1W 0QH, United Kingdom
7. Book a table at London’s newest Caribbean restaurant
Image credit: Harriet-Langford
Raised in Peckham and with Guyanese, Bajan and German heritage, chef Nathaniel Mortley – aka NattyCanCook – was inspired to experiment with flavours and dishes by his grandmother, and his much-anticipated restaurant, 2210 By NattyCanCook, opened last month. “This ain’t Grannies kitchen but she would be proud,” reads the opening line of the restaurant’s website, its name – 2210 – commemorating the date of Mortley’s grandmother’s passing. Bringing pan-Caribbean flavours to dishes like the jackfruit skewers with a cassava crumb, jerk chicken with a mango and pineapple salsa, and a plantain sponge cake, Nathaniel’s menu offers a fresh take on both fine dining and London’s Caribbean restaurant scene. Natty’s journey hasn’t all been smooth sailing, though. He worked at some of the capital’s top restaurants including The Arts Club and Jason Atherton’s City Social before spending time in HMP Brixton, where he worked as sous chef at the prison’s The Clink restaurant. At 2210 NattyCanCook, he’s vowed to continue his collaboration with The Clink and to help ex-offenders find careers in hospitality.
Address: 75 Norwood Road, London, SE24 9AA
Book a table here
8. Hunker down in a Soho Listening Bar
Image Credit: Eleonora Boscarelli
Inspired by the Tokyo-style underground bars of the 1960s, listening bars have become all the rage across the world – including right here in London. One of the city’s newest is The Listening Room, which opened in October inside Wardour Street’s MOI restaurant, a Japanese-inspired grill and omakase bar (that itself only opened earlier this year). An intimate lounge-bar on the lower ground floor of the restaurant, this new space serves small plates, sushi and low-intervention wine, sake and cocktails – and all with music at its centre. Live DJ nights at weekends are a mix of digital and vinyl sets, and the sound system is sharp – boosted by the expertise of London-founded audio specialist Friendly Pressure.
Address: The Listening Bar, MOI , 84 Wardour St, Soho, London, W1F 0TQ
Walk-ins welcome, or book a table here
9. Visit These Two Exhibitions At The Royal Academy Of Arts
Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (Porch Deck), 2014. Acrylic on PVC panel, 180.3 x 149.9 cm. Kravis Collection. © Kerry James Marshall. Image courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner, London
Head to The Royal Academy of Arts to see two of London’s standout exhibitions this winter. Start with the incredible contemporary American painter Kerry James Marshall, whose large-scale canvases paint colourful vignettes of life. Marshall draws influence from classical painting techniques, positioning Black subjects as the focal point in scenes and styles through art history, from which they have been previously excluded. After soaking these in (leave a good hour, they are worth every minute) head upstairs to the newly opened A Story of South Asian Art: Mrinalini Mukherjee and Her Circle for a multi-disciplinary exhibition spanning a century of South Asian art. Indian Modernist art movements are presented in their many forms through approximately one hundred artworks, spanning collage, sculpture, painting, prints, textiles, and more. Ella Mansell
Address: 6 Burlington Gardens, W1S 3ET
Book tickets here
10. Go ice skating
‘Tis the season: Canary Wharf’s ice rink was the first of London’s festive ice rinks to open this year, and it’s bigger than ever. Find it (and us) at Canada Square Park for a 45-minute skate session, starting at 10am every day until 23 February 2026. Afterwards, head to the ring-side bar or take advantage of the many bars and restaurants nearby – we’ve got our sights set on a Badiani hot chocolate to refuel and warm up post-skate. Skate Leicester Square, Hampton Court, Skate at Somerset House, Glide at Battersea Power Station (with a view across the Thames and London’s skyline) and Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland are all open for seasonal skating now too.
11. Visit the Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion exhibition
Dirty Looks, Paolo Carzana, Spring/Summer 2025, How to Attract Mosquitoes. Headwear and creative consulting by Nasir Mazhar. Styling and creative consulting by Patricia Villirillo. Photograph by Joseph Rigby. Courtesy of Paolo Carzana.
Does high-gloss equal high-end fashion? That’s one of the questions being explored at the Barbican’s first fashion exhibition in seven years – and the answer comes courtesy of a curated selection of dirty, sweaty, decaying clothes. Among the 120 objects on display are Helmet Newton’s paint-splattered jeans; Hussein Chalayan’s 1993 garden-buried graduate collection; plus “torn, worn and artificially aged fashion”, like Vivienne Westwood’s distressed denims and Balenciaga’s 2022 “destroyed” sneakers. The exhibition opened in late September and will run until 25 January 2026.
Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion: until 25 January 2026
Address: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
Book tickets here
12. Browse the UK’s largest ever retrospective of Lee Miller, fashion and war photographer
Fashion-model-turned-war-photographer (one of very few female war photographers, too), Lee Miller lived an extraordinary life. Her work has previously been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery (2005), the Victoria and Albert Museum (2007) and Imperial War Museum (2015), but the largest retrospective of her photographic work in the UK is now on display. More than 250 of her prints – including many never-showcased-before – are on display at Tate Britain, and take us on a chronological journey through her remarkable life and contributions to French surrealism and fashion and war photography, displayed alongside her still life and landscape shots from Egypt, where she lived between 1934 and 1939. Eye-opening, daring and emotional – this is an exhibition well worth carving out time for. You might even find you need to visit more than once.
Address: Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG
Tickets cost £20 / free for members
Book tickets here
13. Dine on Aji Akokomi’s menu at the Tate Modern, inspired by the gallery’s Nigerian Modernism exhibition
Aji Akokomi, founder of London’s Akoko and Akara restaurants, has collaborated with the Tate Modern to create a very special three-course lunch menu in celebration of the gallery’s stand-out Nigerian Modernism exhibition. Paying homage to Nigeria’s modern art through his menu, Akokomi says, “I have long been inspired by the artistry of Ladi Kwali, whose ceramics embody both tradition and modernity,” continuing that he wants his dishes to “tell a story that bridges heritage and creativity.” The result? Dishes like the BBQ Prawn Akara, served with sosu kaani as a modern take on the traditional akara; a Lagos street-style poussin plated with a chilli-mop sauce; and a Nigerian take on the Bloody Mary, served with a jollof twist.
Menu available daily between midday and 3pm and priced at £36, or £56 with an exhibition ticket included. Nigerian Modernism runs at Tate Modern until 10 May 2026.
Address: Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG
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