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Spiders, Night Masks & Spooky Pizzas: Half-term activities for children

Join us for four afternoons of free creative workshops for children during the half-term holidays.

Tuesday 27 October, 2-4pm
Spider Puppets
Taking inspiration from Anansi, the spiders in the Garden, and other creatures that live here, puppet-maker Hyunjung Choi will help children transform simple materials into fantastical puppet characters.

Wednesday 28 October, 2-4pm
Autumnal Shadow Lanterns
Artists Hyunjung Choi and Savannah Theis will help children make paper cut outs to decorate jam-jar lanterns* for our ‘Festival of Light’, inspired by Autumn in the Garden.

*Please bring a large jam jar for this workshop.

Thursday 29 October, 2-4pm
Night Masks
Owls, cats, bats and foxes! Children can make their own colourful mask inspired by the creatures that might visit the Garden at night.

Friday 30 October, 2-4pm
Spooky Pizzas
Children can design their own spooky pizza for Halloween, with Chef David from ‘Latto’s Pizzas’, before baking it in the Garden’s wood-fired oven.

The half-term workshops are most suitable for children aged 5 – 11 although younger children are very welcome, as long as their parent or carer works alongside them. Children under the age of 10 should be accompanied by an adult.

Children’s workshops are free but we depend on donations to help us cover our costs, so please help support our work.

Autumn at the Garden

There might be an autumn nip in the air, but the Garden remains open everyday from 11am – 7pm and with late night openings, Friday – Sunday. There are plenty of blankets and hot water bottles to keep everyone cosy and hot chocolate and mulled and spiced drinks from the cafe bar.

You can still join in a volunteer gardening session on Saturday afternoons, 2-5pm, with lots to do, including planting hundreds of bulbs to light up the Garden in Spring.

Of course the big highlight for October is our annual Pumpkin Lantern Show on the last weekend before Halloween. Carving takes place on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25th, with the big light up show taking place as darkness falls on Sunday 25 October. A week of free half-term activities for children follows and a special Halloween evening on Saturday 31 October. The Pumpkin carving weekend launches this year’s Festival of Light at the Garden, with lantern making workshops and Light Nights illuminating the Garden in Winter.