Christmas activities in Manly

[smaug77]

Spending christmas with relatives in Manly. Have a toddler & baby to entertain.
Is there any events/place to go with a christmas theme in the area.

What are the best playgrounds in Manly?

Also can anyone recommend some child friendly restaurants in the area.

Apologies if you already know this but Ella's List is a good site, if you select Northern Beaches (which I think includes Manly, but I'm new here!) it will list local activities and there's a list of playgrounds and restaurants with reviews. Also if you go into Events and select the date range you will be in Manly for, it should bring up a list of things to do... like The Wiggles Birthday Party, woohoo!

There's also the new website mainlymanly which is pretty useful. And Sydney's Child may have some good stuff in it even though it's for the whole city.

The council has a guide to playgrounds here. The Lagoon Park playground has recently reopened and is pretty good. There is a small playground on North Steyne which is always useful for breaking up a long walk along the ocean. The East Esplanade just has a couple of swings. There is another nice playground near Little Manly.

Re restaurants, I generally avoid the ones along the front (ocean side) as they are a bit too touristy for me. However most of them offer kids' meals of the standard chicken and chips type, which may suit your toddler. If it's good weather (which I hope it will be ) you could get fish and chips from Mongers or the Manly Fish Market and sit on the beach. 'Bench' is in the same area and is very child friendly, serving brunch or Mexican. It's open during the day but not generally during the evenings.

In general most of the places in Manly are pretty child friendly and you usually see a child in a high chair when you go out. You can look up reviews on www.eatability.com.au Service in most places can be a bit hit and miss, which I think is due to the high turnover of staff.

If you want something Christmassy that you would never find as a tourist (and you have a car) take a drive to Borgnis Street in Davidson (about half an hour from Manly) once it gets dark for the most amazing Christmas light display. People drive from all over Sydney for this and apparantly when houses are sold on the street new residents are expected to keep up the tradition! With kids head for the Belrose Hotel afterwards (Hews Parade) for a family friendly bistro with a great soft play area.

Christmas lights and other stuff on this listing:
kidsactivitiesnorthernbeaches.com.au/Christmas.html