A Christmas Carol: The Panto runs 11 to 20 December at Putney Arts Theatre, evenings 7.15pm (weekends 6pm). Plus BAC's Dear Santa from 28 November and grotto.

Wandsworth has one pantomime this Christmas: A Christmas Carol: The Panto at Putney Arts Theatre, from Friday 11 December. It is an amateur production on the theatre’s main stage, and it was added to the theatre’s programme after this page first said the borough had none. Battersea Arts Centre’s Christmas programme has three shows and none of them is a panto.

Alongside it, the borough has a proper family Christmas programme at Battersea Arts Centre on Lavender Hill, all three parts of it already on sale, and two professional pantomimes within about twenty minutes of most of the borough.

Updated 2 November: Putney Arts Theatre has fixed its dates: the panto runs Friday 11 to Sunday 20 December, evenings at 7.15pm on weekdays and 6pm at weekends, matinees at 2pm. Booking is not open yet.

Updated 26 October: Putney Arts Theatre has listed A Christmas Carol: The Panto for 11 December onwards, so the borough does have a panto this year. Its Group 64 youth company also stages Peter Pan on 3 to 5 December.

Putney Arts Theatre: A Christmas Carol: The Panto

Putney Arts Theatre’s listing calls it Dickens’ classic given “the full pantomime treatment”, written by Ian Wainwright and Rob Wallis and directed by Richard Seedhouse, following the theatre’s Peter Panto. Scrooge still meets his ghosts, Marley is the villain with a gang of urchins, and there is plenty of audience participation and “family-friendly silliness”. It is at Putney Arts Theatre, Ravenna Road, SW15 6AW, a short walk from Putney station.

The run is Friday 11 December to Sunday 20 December. The theatre has now corrected its text: evening performances at 7.15pm Monday to Friday and 6pm on Saturday and Sunday, with afternoon matinees at 2pm. The listing box above it still shows a 7.45pm start, so check the time on your ticket. The “Buy Tickets” link still did not lead to a booking page on 2 November, and no prices are published.

The theatre’s youth company, Group 64 Theatre for Young People, also stages Peter Pan on its main stage from Thursday 3 to Saturday 5 December, at 7.45pm with a 12.30pm matinee on the Saturday, performed by members aged 8 to 18 (Putney Arts Theatre). It is the J.M. Barrie play, not a panto.

Battersea Arts Centre, all three confirmed

Dear Santa, 28 November to 24 December. Rod Campbell and Norwell Lapley Productions’ stage version of the book by the author of Dear Zoo. Performances at 11am, 2pm and 4.30pm, in the Council Chamber, which has step-free access by lift on the first floor. It runs 55 minutes with no interval and is aimed at ages 2 to 6, though all ages are welcome. Every performance is a relaxed performance.

Prices step up as December goes on, and the opening weekend is the cheap one:

  • 28 and 29 November, pay what you can, recommended £15
  • 1 to 17 December, £16.50
  • 19 to 24 December, £18

Add £2 transaction fee per order. School and nursery groups have their own performances on Tuesdays to Fridays, 1 to 17 December, at 10.30am and 1.30pm.

Santa’s Grotto, 4 to 24 December, 9.30am to 5.30pm. £15 per child and accompanying adults go free, up to two adults per child ticket, plus the £2 transaction fee. Children get their name on the nice list and a present. The venue warns that there may be a queue before you reach Santa, that the space is dimly lit with bright fairy lights, and that there is audience participation and contact with performers. Suitable for all ages. Southside’s cheaper grotto (from 20 November, £7.50) and the power station’s Santa’s Workshop are on our Santa’s grottos in Wandsworth page.

Festive Soft Play, 1 to 24 December, for ages 0 to 5. Entry at 9.30am, 11.30am, 1.30pm or 3.30pm, and a session runs up to 90 minutes. One child and one adult is £10, an extra adult £2.50, an extra child £5, plus the £2 transaction fee. This is the cheapest Christmas outing in the borough by a distance.

The nearest professional pantomimes

Peter Pan, New Wimbledon Theatre, Saturday 5 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, 93 The Broadway, SW19 1QG. Jessie Wallace plays Captain Hook, Aston Merrygold is Peter Pan, Tom Read Wilson is the Magical Merman and Pete Firman returns as Smee. This is the one most of the borough will default to: it is a straight run down the District line from Southfields, or a short hop from Tooting and Balham.

Cinderella, Lyric Hammersmith, 14 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, Lyric Square, King Street, W6 0QL. Age guidance 6 and over, tickets from £10 to £48, and the theatre warns that prices rise with demand. The Lyric’s panto has a long-standing reputation for being the affordable, sharply written one.

Polka Theatre in Wimbledon usually programmes family shows across the same weeks but has not yet put its Christmas listings on its own What’s On page, so we are not quoting dates for it.

Booking notes

Battersea Arts Centre’s £2 fee is charged once per order, not per ticket, so book the grotto, the soft play and Dear Santa together if you are doing more than one. The grotto and Dear Santa both sell out in the week before Christmas; the first weekend of Dear Santa is pay what you can and is the value pick.

Battersea Arts Centre is a two-minute walk from Clapham Junction station. If you are driving, read parking in Wandsworth first, because Lavender Hill is inside a controlled zone, and check Wandsworth roadworks and travel for closures. Albert Bridge remains shut to vehicles until further notice.

For the rest of the season, see our Christmas lights switch-on page and the Battersea Power Station ice rink, which opens on 6 November.