Gunnersbury's Victorian Father Christmas is £19 a child, 5 to 13 December, with a wooden toy and a craft session. Craft market 28 Nov, festive films 19 Dec.

Christmas at Gunnersbury Park runs from a free craft market on 28 and 29 November to two festive film screenings on Saturday 19 December. The centrepiece is a Victorian Father Christmas in the museum’s Historic Kitchens, 5 to 13 December, £19 a child, which includes a wooden toy and a place on the museum’s Christmas craft session. All of it is published and on sale now on the museum’s own pages.

The park and museum are free to walk into. You only pay for the ticketed events below, and for parking.

Gunnersbury Christmas 2026 at a glance

Date Event Time Price
Sat 28 and Sun 29 Nov Christmas Craft Market 10am to 4pm Free, no booking
Sat 5 to Sun 13 Dec Victorian Father Christmas 10.30am to 4.30pm, booked slots £19 a child, adults free
Sat 5, Sun 6, Sat 12, Sun 13 Dec A Very Merry Make & Take 10.30am, 12pm, 1.30pm, 3pm £5, free with a Father Christmas ticket
Sun 13 Dec Duck Pond Christmas Market 10am to 4pm Not stated, outdoor market
Sat 19 Dec Festive Films: The Muppet Christmas Carol 2pm to 4pm From £8
Sat 19 Dec Festive Films: The Holiday 7pm to 9pm £8 to £10

Gunnersbury Park & Museum is on Popes Lane, W5 4NH, on the Ealing and Hounslow border, and is run jointly for the two boroughs.

Victorian Father Christmas, 5 to 13 December

Gunnersbury’s Father Christmas is the traditional kind: green robes, not red, in a cosy study in the museum’s Historic Kitchens. Every child gets a traditional wooden toy, and the museum asks you to send the children’s names, ages and interests when you book so he can tailor his greeting (Gunnersbury).

How the tickets work, from the museum’s page:

  • The “First Child” ticket, £19, secures a timeslot for one child.
  • You can bring up to four children in total. Each extra child is £19, paid on the day, by card only.
  • Adults go free, but the museum asks you to keep the number of adults down because the grotto is small.
  • If no First Child ticket is left in a slot, that slot is sold out.
  • Refunds up to one week before your visit.
  • The ticket also gets you into the Make & Take craft session below, so do not buy a separate one.

The museum gives the run as 5 to 13 December, 10.30am to 4.30pm, and its booking page on Eventbrite lists it as multiple dates in that range. It does not print the individual days on its own page, so check the calendar when you book. The Historic Kitchens normally open Thursday to Sunday only.

If you want the shopping-centre version instead, Ealing Broadway’s grotto runs from mid November to Christmas Eve at £7.50 a child; both are compared on our Santa’s grotto page.

A Very Merry Make & Take, 5, 6, 12 and 13 December

A family craft session in the Mansion House: children make orange pomanders and beeswax candles to take home. It is for ages 4 and up, adults go free and must stay with their children, and aprons are provided (Gunnersbury).

  • Dates: Saturday 5, Sunday 6, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 December
  • Sessions of 45 minutes at 10.30am, 12pm, 1.30pm and 3pm
  • £5 a child, or included with a Father Christmas ticket

The museum’s page gives three different opening times for this event, 10am in its header, 11am to 4pm in its details box and a first session at 10.30am in its own timetable. We have used the session times.

Christmas Craft Market, 28 and 29 November

Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 November, 10am to 4pm, free entry, no booking. Stalls of handmade crafts and gifts, plants and food, set out by the Rothschild Rooms (Gunnersbury). The event header on the same page says 11am, so allow for an 11am start if you are going for opening.

Duck Pond Christmas Market, 13 December

Duck Pond Market’s monthly artisan and food market at Gunnersbury has a Christmas edition on Sunday 13 December, 10am to 4pm, outside the museum with handmade, local stalls. The organiser calls it its first Christmas at Gunnersbury in five years (Duck Pond Market). The regular market is also there on Sunday 8 November, same hours. Every Christmas market in the borough is on our Christmas markets page.

Festive Films, 19 December

Two screenings inside the museum, each with a bag of popcorn in the ticket:

  • The Muppet Christmas Carol, rated U, Saturday 19 December, 2pm to 4pm. Tickets from £8; the booking page’s top price is £30 (Eventbrite).
  • The Holiday, rated 12A, Saturday 19 December, 7pm to 9pm, £8 to £10 (Eventbrite).

Under-16s must come with an adult. The council’s culture site lists both films on 19 and 20 December (Ealing Council), but on 13 October the museum’s booking pages sold only the Saturday, so do not plan around a Sunday screening until one is on sale.

Carols

The museum’s Make & Take page says community choir carol singing is part of the Christmas programme in the museum. No date or time has been published yet; this page will add it when it is.

Opening times, parking and access

  • Park: every day, 7am until dusk. Museum and shop: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 4.30pm, closed on Mondays. Historic Kitchens: Thursday to Sunday, 10am to 4.30pm (Gunnersbury).
  • Parking: two car parks; the main one is off Popes Lane next to the Sports Hub (sat nav W3 8LQ), about five minutes’ walk from the museum, and the small museum car park has 19 spaces. The first 30 minutes are free if you register on the RingGo app or the machine, then £1 up to an hour and £1 an hour after that. Charges apply every day, including bank holidays. Blue badge parking is free.
  • By tube: Acton Town (Piccadilly and District) is about ten minutes’ walk along Gunnersbury Lane; South Ealing (Piccadilly) about ten minutes via Popes Lane. The E3 bus stops by the Popes Lane entrance.
  • Access: on 13 October the museum said its lift was out of order. Check before you book if anyone in your party cannot manage stairs.
  • The museum, shop and donations are cashless, and the extra-child Father Christmas fee is card only.

Before driving, check our parking in Ealing page and roadworks and travel for anything shut on the way.

Not published yet

  • The individual Father Christmas days within 5 to 13 December.
  • Carol singing dates and times.
  • Whether the festive films get a Sunday 20 December showing.

For everything else on in the borough over the next six weeks, see what’s on in Ealing.

Sources