Festive Happenings Across Stoke 🎅 🎁 🎄

Spode Museum's Holiday Craft Club, free festive event at Hanley Park, all aboard Churnet Valley's Polar Express to the North Pole and more Christmassy goings-on…

WHAT’S ON/THINGS TO DO ✅

HIGHLIGHTED ⬇️ (FULL EVENTS LISTINGS BELOW)

🎨 Join Spode Museum's Festive Crafting. 01/12 and every Sat until 22/12, 11am-3pm. Get creative at Spode’s Holiday Craft Club, which is centred around one of Spode's most famous patterns, ‘Christmas Tree’, designed by Harold Holdway in 1938. First up is patchwork decorations (01/12), then it’s handmade collage cards (07/12) followed by festive wreaths (14/12) and ceramic decorating (21/12).

Get creative this Christmas at Spode with its festive craft club

🎍Christmas at Hanley Park. 30/11, 10.30am-1pm. Let the kids tell Santa their Christmas wishes, meet the Elves and reindeers, then enjoy a live music brass band playing carols. There’s also face painting and stalls. More info here. Admission free.

🖌️ Get Creative at Kiln at Number 12. Various dates and times. Join a Christmas table decoration workshop (05/12), children’s Christmas pottery painting (12/12) and winter magic event plus artisan market (14/12). There’s also late-night shopping on 07/12 within Longton Exchange so you can shop for cool ceramics and more.

🎅 Jingle Bells! Santa’s Here. 01/12, 11am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm, Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. Meet Santa, Crumpet the elf and Blitzen the reindeer at the museum’s Jingle Bells event. Children can also make a pot in the shape of a Christmas Elf for £3. Admission free. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Character appearances at 11am, 12.30pm & 2.30pm.

🚂 All Aboard The Churnet Valley’s Polar Express. 29/11-23/12. Journey to the North Pole from Froghall Station on the Churnet Valley Railway, where you’ll travel through the Northern Lights, meet the hobo, have a hot chocolate and cookie served by the singing chefs and meet Santa. Journey lasts around an hour. Tickets £36.95 standard class, £47.95 premium class, passengers under 2 years, £3.

Journey on the Polar Express at Churnet Valley. Pic: Churnet Valley website

🎶 Rejoice! It’s Carol Time. 21/12, 7.30pm. New Vic. Get in the Christmas spirit by watching a cool yule of a performance by Wales’ world-famous Fron Choir, which has won the prestigious Male Voice Section in Llangollen four times against choirs from all over the world. Tickets from £23, £2 discount for concessions.

🧑‍🎄 A Staffordshire Christmas 01/12, 10am-6pm, The Quarter @ Pot Bank. Just in case you haven’t had your fill of our Christmas market listings yet, here’s another for this weekend featuring local maker stalls, crafts, Santa’s Grotto and live entertainment. Other festive events coming up at The Quarter include Sing-Along with Santa (08/12) and Santa Meet and Greet (15/12). Full event listings here.

🎻 Russell Watson Comes to Stoke. 24/10, 6.30pm. Victoria Hall. Here’s a future date for your diary: one of the UK’s biggest classical artists will be performing in Stoke next October, and tickets have just gone on sale. Russell will perform some of his best-known tracks and favourite pieces both old and new including Va, pensiero, Nessun Dorma, Caruso, Where My Heart Will Take Me plus new songs Shine and Grow. Tickets from £38.23.

EVENTS LISTINGS

• Potteries Centre Events Series, ongoing, Potteries Centre

• Throw a Pot Sessions, ongoing, LoveClay

• Maurice Wade – A Painter from No. 57, until 26/01/25,
  Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

• Guided Walks in the Peak District, Various, Multiple (Peak District)

• Titanic Brewery Tour, Multiple Dates, Titanic Brewery

• Spitfire Comedy Open Mic, Multiple Dates, Old Post Office, Burslem

• Electric Tentacle Electronic Music Open Mic, Multiple Dates, Captain’s Bar

• The Three Musketeers, until 25/01, New Vic

• The Longest Yarn, 21/11-05/12, Stoke Minster

• Chicago, 25/11-30/11, Regent Theatre

• A Christmas Carol, 27/11, Middleport Pottery

• The Zutons, 28/11, Keele University

• One Night of Elvis, 29/11, Victoria Hall

• Churnet Valley Polar Express, 29/11-23/12, Froghall station

• Magical Days Out, 29/11-05/01, Alton Towers

• Winter Light Trail, 29/11-31/12, Trentham Estate

• Santa Sleepover, 29/11-24/11, Alton Towers

• Christmas at Hanley Park, 30/11, Hanley Park

• Candelight: Tribute to Queen, 30/11, Stoke Minster

• Stone Christmas Market, 30/11, Stone town centre

• Jingle Bells, 01/12, Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

• A Staffordshire Christmas, 01/12, The Quarter @ Potbank

• Spode Museum Holiday Craft Club, 01/12-22/12

• Christmas Wreath Making Workshop, 07/12, Gladstone Pottery Museum

• Candlelight: Hans Zimmer’s Best Works, 30/11, Stoke Minster

• Luminate, 29/11-31/12, Shugborough Estate

• Leek Live Advent Calendar, 01/12-24/12, various locations in Leek

• Only Fools & Horses The Musical, 02/12-07/12, Regent Theatre

• Christmas Decoration Workshop, 05/12, Kiln at Number 12

• Dick Whittington, 13/12-05/01, Regent Theatre

• Absurd Person Singular, 10/12-14/12, Stoke Repertory Theatre

• Abdulrzak Gurnah reading and book signing, 11/12, Keele University

• Sam Ryder, 13/12, Victoria Hall

• Fron Male Choir, 21/12, New Vic

• Bat out of Hell, 30/06-05/07, Regent Theatre

• Russell Watson, 24/10, Victoria Hall

---

Want to support The Knot? 👋 Consider upgrading to become a paid member and supporting the local writers who bring you good news and information.

Want to sponsor The Knot? 🎯 Your business could reach our audience. Find out more.

Looking for great stuff to do and places to go? 📍Yes? Of course, you are. Check out The Knot Life. Our new directory of places, events and things to do across Stoke-on-Trent & North Staffordshire.

Do you know something we don’t? 🤫 Got a story idea? Respond to this email and tell us your secret.