Ally Pally's Santa's Grotto runs 4 to 23 December at £14 a child, the Festive Skate from 9 December to 4 January, and Cinderella On Ice 3 to 6 December.
Alexandra Palace has now published its 2026 Christmas programme. Santa’s Grotto is in the East Court from 4 to 23 December at £14 a child, the Festive Skate runs on the rink from 9 December to 4 January 2027, the skating pantomime Cinderella On Ice is on from 3 to 6 December, and a festive murder mystery fills the Victorian theatre from 24 November to 17 January 2027 (Alexandra Palace).
Updated 7 October: the Palace has rewritten its Christmas page for 2026 and dated the grotto, the Festive Skate, two children’s workshops, an adult painting evening and two carol concerts. Until this week the page still described last year’s shows. Details below.
Santa’s Grotto, 4 to 23 December
The grotto is in the East Court and costs £14 per child. You book one ticket per child under 16, and each child’s ticket admits up to two adults; every child must come with an adult. A session lasts five minutes and includes a meeting with Santa and a small gift. A 6x4 photo print with Santa costs £15 and can be pre-booked at checkout, with other photo packages sold on the day (Alexandra Palace).
The Palace has not published daily grotto opening hours on the listing; times appear when you pick a date in the booking calendar.
The Festive Skate, 9 December to 4 January
From Wednesday 9 December 2026 to Monday 4 January 2027 the rink becomes the Festive Skate: a Christmas tree over the ice, festive music and “a sprinkle of falling snow”, with mince pies, mulled wine and hot chocolate at the East Court Café. The minimum age is 3. Any adult supervising under-16s without skating needs a spectator ticket, chosen after the skating tickets (Alexandra Palace).
The listing does not print Festive Skate prices or session times; they show in the booking calendar. The year-round prices below are the published baseline.
Workshops and carols
- Festive Card Making and Collage Workshop, Sunday 29 November, 11am to 1pm (doors 10.45am), Creativity Pavilion, with the artist Virginia Sutton. All ages; under-16s with an adult (Alexandra Palace).
- Adult Creative Painting Workshop, Christmas Edition, Saturday 12 December, 7pm to 9pm (doors 6.45pm), Creativity Pavilion, ages 12 and over, under-18s with an adult (Alexandra Palace).
- Make and Race Your Own Toy Car, Sunday 20 to Tuesday 22 December, East Court, £11 per child, adults free. Sessions at 10am, 12pm and 2pm each day, 90 minutes each; drop-ins welcome (Alexandra Palace).
- Carols: Haringey Music Service primary school Christmas carol concerts on Wednesday 9 December, 2.30pm to 3.30pm, and Thursday 10 December, 5pm to 6pm (Alexandra Palace).
- Christmas at Summit, the roof walk, on selected Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays between 13 November and 6 December, 12 per cent off with the code XMAS12, plus a hot chocolate and mince pie.
Until this week the same Christmas page opened with last year’s shows (A Christmas Carol and Sleeping Beauty on ice) and a carol table whose weekdays fitted 2025. That is fixed: 9 December 2026 is a Wednesday and 10 December a Thursday, as now listed.
The ice rink: what it actually costs
The rink is open all year, not just at Christmas, and its prices are published.
| Ticket | Off peak | Peak |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | £11.75 | £12.75 |
| Under 12 | £10.50 | £11.50 |
| Under 5 | £7.75 | £8.75 |
| Over 65 | £10.50 | £11.50 |
| Accessible | £11.75 | £12.75 |
| Essential companion | £11.75 | £12.75 |
| Essential companion, under 12 | £10.50 | £11.50 |
| Spectator | £2.50 | £3.00 |
Source: Alexandra Palace, Book a Skate.
Two rules that catch people out. Anyone going onto the rink side with a group without skating must buy a spectator ticket, at £2.50 or £3.00. And skate aids, the seal, penguin and snowman frames at £7.50 each, cannot be booked online: since 30 March 2026 they are sold in the rink itself, first come first served. Turning up at 11am on a December Saturday expecting one is a gamble.
Session lengths differ. Term-time weekday sessions run two hours, except the last one of the day at 90 minutes; every weekend and holiday session is 90 minutes. The rink advises arriving 15 minutes early.
Opening times: Monday 11:00 to 16:30, Tuesday 13:15 to 17:00, Wednesday and Thursday 11:00 to 17:00, Friday 13:15 to 17:00, Saturday and Sunday 11:00 to 16:30. Those are the published year-round hours; the Palace has not published a separate Christmas timetable.
Ice discos are listed as running from 12 September 2026 right through to 3 April 2027.
Cinderella On Ice, 3 to 6 December
This is the rink’s own production, “performed by our talented community of amateur skaters, who train throughout the year”, presented by Alexandra Palace Ice Rink Amateur Productions. It runs two hours with an interval and is billed as suitable for children aged 3 and over.
| Date | Doors | Starts | Ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu 3 Dec | 17:00 | 19:00 | 21:00 |
| Fri 4 Dec | 17:00 | 19:00 | 21:00 |
| Sat 5 Dec | 12:30 | 13:00 | 15:00 |
| Sat 5 Dec | 17:00 | 17:30 | 19:30 |
| Sun 6 Dec | 12:30 | 13:00 | 15:00 |
| Sun 6 Dec | 17:00 | 17:30 | 19:30 |
Source: Alexandra Palace.
Note the weekend times move: the Saturday and Sunday evening shows start at 17:30, an hour and a half earlier than the Thursday and Friday ones. Three separate school-only performances run on Monday 30 November, Tuesday 1 December and Thursday 3 December, bookable only by phone or email through the rink reception, which means the Thursday has a schools matinee and a public evening show on the same day.
The theatre show
Sherlock Holmes and the 12 Days of Christmas takes the theatre’s Christmas slot from 24 November 2026 to 17 January 2027. We have broken down its 68 performances, its two access dates and its dark days on our Christmas shows near Crouch End page.
Getting there and parking
Alexandra Palace station is at the Wood Green gate, on the Great Northern line from Moorgate and King’s Cross. Wood Green on the Piccadilly line is the nearest Tube, and the W3 runs to the ice rink door.
Car parking is charged seven days a week, 365 days a year: free for the first 30 minutes, then £2.20 an hour up to 48 hours, with Blue Badge holders exempt if they scan the badge at the machine (Alexandra Palace car parking). You can pay on leaving or within 24 hours; after that it is a penalty charge. The East Court car park, the one for the rink, runs 05:30 to 00:30 with last entry at 20:00, and hours change on event days.
Be careful in the first week of November: the car parks close entirely for the fireworks festival, which this year is Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November. Street parking nearby is inside a controlled zone, and Muswell Hill’s zone runs on Sundays too. See parking in Crouch End and the roadworks and travel page.
We will update this page when the Palace publishes Festive Skate prices and session times, daily grotto hours, and any more carol dates.
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