Easter is round the corner and you may be frantically working out what to do with the younglings this upcoming holiday. Well, Daily Info has you covered with our breakdown of the best shows, films and actvities to take part in.
The Great Outdoors
Easter means Spring has sprung and you may want to get some outdoor fun under your belt. A terrific trail is the Hungry Birds Easter Trail (Tue 2nd to Thu 4th & Tue 9th Apr) at the Sutton Courtenay Environmental Education Centre. The trail is suitable for 4 to 11 year olds and includes a chocolate prize and bird-based crafts. Attendees can play and picnic on site.
We’re big fans of the Earth Trust here at Daily Info, and this Spring break they have three Little Acorns sessions (Tue 2nd, Thur 4th & Mon 8th Apr), packed with nature-based activities and crafts.
And lambing season is almost here, which means you can head down to Bishop’s Court Farm for their lambing open days on Sunday 31st March or Sunday 14th April, where you can meet their new-born lambs and the other residents (alpacas, sheep, goats and pigs).
There are animals a-plenty to be seen at Millets Farm, with the venue also opening up their Maze Courtyard for Spring Family Fun (Mon 1st to Sun 14th Apr), which includes go-karting, hay bales to play on, fete-style games, and woodland instruments to play. Or you can head to Beale Wildlife Park, which has steam train rides, animal egg hunt, face painting and more!
Our House
Oxford is surrounded by country houses, which can be good locales to spend a few hours entertaining younglings. Waddesdon Manor (out near Aylesbury) have an Easter Adventure Trail (Wed 27th Mar to Sun 14th Apr) around their grounds, plus picnic spots and a Woodland Playground.
Blenheim Palace’s Easter Eggstravaganza (Fri 29th Mar to Mon 1st Apr) promises eggstraordinary fun, with a trail, fairground rides, mini golf, balloon modelling, chances to meet the Easter bunny and more.
And while technically not a country house, Cogges Manor is a great family spot, with an Easter egg hunt (Fri 22nd Mar to Sun 14th Apr), sessions to meet the animals and crafts throughout the holiday (including baking, paper flower making and story times).
Pandas, Pixar and Dahl
The big release this Easter is Kung Fu Panda 4 (in cinemas from Thu 28th Mar). The Jack Black-fronted martial arts animation sees Po trains a new ally whilst facing a shape-shifting threat. It promises a mix of laughs and kick-ass action.
Dreamworks have the big release but there’s still chance to see a handful of Pixar re-releases. Soul sprawls out across a plane of existence as the soul of a music teacher seeks a second chance, while fish-out-of-water coming of age fantasy Luca goes beyond the seas, as a pair of nautical creatures explore dry land.
Alternatively there are still showings of the mega-hit Wonka, perfect for those with a sweet tooth or wanting some toe-tapping show tunes. And there’s even more musical Dahl in the form of sing-along showings of Matilda at the New Theatre (Sun 31st Mar) and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre (Sat 6th Apr).
A Day at the Museum
Oxfordshire’s rich community of museums comes in handy during school holidays, running events perfect for the whole family. The Museum of Oxford are running a quartet of special workshops, taking in city gardening (Tue 2nd Apr), oven-based science (Thu 4th Apr), exotic creatures (Mon 8th Apr) and mask making (Tue 9th Apr), all run by local experts.
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History have a pair of hands-on workshops. The April Fools-themed Fun and Foolery Workshop (Sat 6th Apr) offers a creative look at the museum’s specimens, whilst Easter Eggstravaganza (Mon 8th & Tues 9th Apr) is an afternoon of crafts and specimen handling.
Banbury Museum have crafting sessions throughout the holiday, where participants can make hot air balloons, fluffy friends and sun catchers, as well as several opportunities for Lego-building (Tue 2nd, Thu 4th, Mon 8th, Thu 11th Apr).
Lego has also be found at the Story Museum. Lego Master Builders Club (Thu 4th Apr) is open to all young engineers, architects and inventors whose imagination can run wild with the tiny bricks. Also at the Story Museum is Emma Boor’s Suitcase Stories with April’s session (Sat 13th) focusing on Aladdin and the Magic Lamp. And there’s also a Story Explorer course (Tue 9th to Thu 11th Apr) with three days exploring the sky and space in stories.
Science Oxford also has a number of workshops for the family to get involved with. On Sat 30th Mar there's their Sensory-friendly Family Day, where they reduce their capacity and gear activities towards those with autism and/or those with other additional needes. Science Oxford are also running an Egg Drop Challenge (Sat 6th Apr) to test all fledgling engineers and a Moving Micro:bots workshop (Sat 13th Apr).
Over in Aylesbury, Discover Bucks Museum, as well as being home to the rather fabulous Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, Easter activites throughout the holiday (Fri 29th Mar to Sun 14th Apr) including fossil making, ink drawing and sculpting. And while technically not a musem, crafty children can spend hours at The Pottery Place, Oxfordshire's longest running paint-your-own pottery and craft studio.
The Play's the Thing
Finally, theatre land offers a host of family friendly productions. A trio of shows tour to the Oxford Playhouse, starting Easter weekend with the rabbit-centric Northern Ballet take on the Tortoise & the Hare (Fri 29th & Sat 30th Mar). This is followed by an adaptation of children’s classic In the Dead of the Night (Sat 6th Apr) and the award-winning play with clay, Claytime (Sat 13th Apr).
For those who want to get active, Creation Theatre are running a pair of Put on a Play in a Week Workshops. Suitable for ages 6 to 8, these offer five days of games and creative activties as participants put together a play for friends and family.
A pair of dog stories come to town this April. The biggest show in children’s TV right now is Bluey and the first stage show is currently touring the UK. Bluey’s Big Play (Tue 2nd Apr) is 50 minutes of Bluey-tastic fun, complete with new music from the show’s composer, Joff Blush. And at the North Wall, the Little Angel Theatre’s adaptation of Dogs Don’t Do Ballet (Tue 9th & Wed 10th Apr), mixing puppetry, ballet music and comedy for a joyful 45 minutes.
Pegasus Theatre has a trio of shows visiting across the Easter period. Kaleidoscope (Sat 30th Mar) is a multi-coloured journey for babies and their parents/guardians, The Three Bears (Tue 9th Apr) is a relaxed puppet-filled retelling of the classic Goldilocks and the Three Bears for ages 6 and under, and Family Dancy Party (Sat 13th Apr) is a 45 minute blast of disco fun for the whole family.
Another adaptation arriving at a nearby theatre is The Tiger Who Came to Tea, with Judith Kerr’s popular story coming to the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre (Sat 30th & Sun 31st Mar). And finally the Cornerstone Arts Centre in Didcot has the interactive, puppet-tastic, music-filled The Museum of Marvellous Things (Sun 7th Apr) and the 50th anniversary re-telling of There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly (Fri 12th Apr).