Pantomime opinions please

[Treezan82]

Hello everyone. Our local theatre pantomime tickets are selling fast so I am looking at booking soon. I have not been since I was a child so wanted some opinions. Firstly, it is a lot of money! Worth it and integral part of Christmas or not so much? Secondly, dd5 would love it but not sure about ds3. I think he might be a bit young -what is a good age to start going? Lastly, when to book for? Run up to Christmas, between Christmas and New Year or in the New Year? Thanks!

Is it worth it... some are good, some bad. It might be good one year, bad the next. Some are just the headline celebrities plugging themselves.

Age... 5yo perfect age. 3yo..depends so much on their personality. My younger one went at that age and got a bit scared.

When... we usually do between Christmas and New Year.

At those ages I would go for a smaller theatre/amateur dramatics pantomime. You get good and bad pantos even when paying top whack so why not pay less. They are in smaller venues so more chance of getting wet/sweets or whatever audience participation bits there are etc. Also if you end up missing some ferrying kids back and forth to the toilet you won't mind as much. Also less likely to try to flog you overpriced lighty up tat on your way in.

Hmmmm ds doesn't like loud noises and can get scared easily. I think I might be better off taking just dd.

Are they quite Christmassy in general?wondering whether to do as part of the build up...

They are generally not very Christmassy, you may get the odd Christmas song but they generally just stick to whatever fairy tale etc they are based on.

Hmmmm could be good for new year then, or in between...

We always tend to go in the first few days of January as a way of having something to look forward to in the New Year.

We went with friends on NYD which was a great thing to do, none of the flat feeling I normally get after NYE. 6 and 5yo loved it, 3.5yo was ok and the just turned 3yo hated it. Depends on your child I think. But lots of people were up and down with small children during the performance so you don’t need to worry about that.

I live and work in a village and our Parish Council are putting on a panto before Christmas. It’s a proper production company, tickets are only £8 for adults and £5 for children. Maybe check if there’s anything local to you to see if your dc enjoy it without shelling out loads of money.

We always go to our local one and children have loved it since they were 2. We go in the lead up to christmas as everything is more exciting then!!

Thanks everyone! Where we live, the Panto at the local theatre is a big celeb one - don't have a village hall or Parish council type set up as we are quite central. That said, I know dd5 will love it so not worried about ticket price for her, but it seems like it might be a bit much for ds3.

Are there any other Christmassy theatre shows on near you?

I took DD to a performance of the Snow Dragon when she was 3.5 and she loved it. This year the same theatre is hosting Stick Man which is aimed at ages 2-7 so going to take both DD (will be 5.5) and DS (3.8). For all four of us, the tickets came to just under £50 so probably comparable to panto? They're both really excited about it!

Also from a personal perspective I hate panto so I'm quite happy too!

Stick Man is a good shout. Very tempted.