December city break with children

[BoysRule]

We'd really like to get away between Christmas and New Year and are thinking a European/Scandinavian city break would be good. There would have to be enough to keep small children entertained (ours are pretty good with museums, galleries, coffee shops etc) and a decent hotel with a pool would be good too.

We went to Copenhagen last year without the children so not there. I was thinking somewhere where we could get a good chance of snow and sledging for a day trip or something. Christmas Markets seem to finish by Christmas Eve so that doesn't look like a possibility.

Has anyone done anything like this or have any suggestions?

Thank you

We always do this, but only in the UK. Bristol, Birmingham and Exeter are all recent ones. Also, some of the London attractions are worth a visit at that time of year - Hampton Court did an amazing Tudor Christmas thing a couple of years back that the DCs still talk about.

It makes good use of a really flat few days, I find!

Watching to see if anyone recommends a European location...

Yes, we find the days between quite flat and we both have time off work so it seems a shame to waste them.

We were thinking about Bath as it seems there are a lot of good things to do with children in the area. We live very near to London so do those things anyway.

Thanks

We did this last year but in the UK. We went to Bristol, it was great, really recommend it. It's a lovely city to walk round. We went to Brunel SS Great Britain, a museum in that area (name escapes me), the @Bristol Science Centre and Planeterium, ice skating.

We stayed in the Marriott City Centre which has a pool. Very near to Cabot Circus, we went to the cinema there one day.

Did this in Manchester - it was great apart from the fact we went on Boxing Day and hardly anywhere was open to eat in the evening.

Last year we set off on Boxing Day with DS7 and DD5 for our first city break as a family. We went via Eurostar to Bruges. Honestly, it rates as one of my favourite holidays ever. We hired a little house on the river side as didn't want the rigidity of a hotel stay. It was lovely. We stayed for 3 nights. The journey there was fun and easy. Bruges still has a Xmas market at that time albeit a bit tacky sadly but the city itself is beautiful and very atmospheric. We enjoyed wandering around, a very interactive museum about the city which was told like a film, eating nice food and the pretty shops full of xmas decorations. But our highlights were the Ice Sculpture exhibition, a whole ice world at minus 5 degrees complete with an ice slide and ice skating. We took a short train ride to Ostend to do this on an amazing, huge indoor rink, so good we went twice! Bruges had a rink in the square but not big and no kids rink. It didn't snow by it was cold and frosty.

If you fancy being adventurous you might consider one of the cities that follow the Orthodox religion. I'm thinking specifically about Belgrade in Serbia as I love it there but of course there are others. Christmas isn't until early January and I think the idea of Christmas markets are starting to develop there so they might be on. Everything will be open as normal. Have never been at that time of year but food / accommodation/ transport is cheap and good and it's very safe.