Best New Year’s Eve events and things to do in London

Prepare for a feast for the eyes, but resist the urge to nibble! The sweetest festive event you’ll find, the Museum of Architecture’s edible exhibition tasks leading architects and designers to ditch their conventional building materials for dough bricks and sugar paste mortar to construct a miniature biscuit metropolis erected in King’s Cross’s Coal Drops Yard for the festive season. With a new theme each year, the exhibition aims to encourage innovation and future-forward city planning, and this year’s ‘Playful City’ theme has resulted in some really fun designs, from school buildings with slides between classrooms to candy-coloured climbing walls. As well as marvelling at all the confectionary craftsmanship on display, visitors can take part in a series of hands-on gingerbread house workshops where they’ll be able to construct a delicious souvenir to take home. 

Rising star Jordan Fein’s sumptuous revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods is the first actual proper major Sondheim revival to be staged in this country since the great man’s passing. It’s a clever send up of fairytales that pushes familiar stories into absurd, existential, eventually very moving territory, but it’s also a fiddly musical with a lot of moving parts. You need to get it right, and Fein smashes it, largely thanks to exceptional casting. The whole thing looks astonishing: Tom Scutt’s astonishingly lush, vivid woods are glistening, eerie and primal. The costumes are similarly ravishing. It’s just great, really, a sublime production of a sublime musical with a sublime cast.

Somerset House’s annual ice rink pop-up has long been one of the city’s favourite festive traditions, with thousands of Londoners and tourists alike making it part of their celebrations each year, and for good reason. Gliding (or nervously shuffling) around the rink, gazing upon the surrounding Georgian architecture and the courtyard’s magnificent 40ft Christmas tree feels like you’ve skated onto a movie set, ready to be watched by families settling in for their post-turkey food coma. There’s more to this rink than just skating, though. There are seasonal drinks and warming food options available from a rinkside chalet, alongside a Shelter Boutique. 

If you've ever watched curling during the Winter Olympics and thought, 'pass me that broom, I could do better', you're in luck. This winter, the Curling Club will be taking up residence in both London Bridge's Vinegar Yard and in a new Waterloo location, giving you the chance to have a go at this eccentric team sport. Both venues will be given a proper apres-ski makeover with wintry cocktails, Alpine-inspired street food and entertainment on hand.

Say auf wiedersehen to 2025 in style at central London’s Bavarian pleasure palace Albert’s Schloss, which is celebrating New Year’s Eve with a time-hopping party featuring some of history’s biggest party animals, with performances by ornately costumed artistes. Guests can expect kabaret and haus band performances from 7pm until the early hours, with free-flowing bier and plenty of schnacks available to keep you going, plus an indulgent three-course NYE offering in the Cook Haus. Catch us dancing on das benches! 

Once again, Hyde Park has had its annual transformation into a dazzling, snow-covered, Alpine-themed, 350-acre festive funscape. One of the largest Christmas events in the UK, Winter Wonderland returns for its eighteenth year in 2025, and is expected to welcome around 2.5 million visitors over six magical weeks. As you make your way around the space, you’ll find fairground rides, a child-friendly Santa Land (including a Santa’s Grotto, where presents lie in wait) and traditional Christmas markets where you’ll be able to buy gifts for all your loved ones, which has been freshly extended for 2025 with the addition of premium, artfully lit shopping spot Luminarie Lane.

A humongous light trail that takes over south west London’s 300-acre World Heritage Site botanic garden, Christmas at Kew has become a key date in London’s festive calendar since its first iteration in 2013. Visitors embarking on the 3km trail will get see the space lit up with dozens of larger-than-life illuminations, with both the venue’s glass houses and the trees that cover its grounds drenched in different hues. The whole thing is stunning, but don’t miss the lake, where you’ll catch reflections of the vibrant bulbs dancing on the water, taking the magical feeling to another level. For 2025, Kew’s iconic Great Pagoda will be adorned with festive lights for the very first time, too. Keep yourself toasty along the way with warming winter snacks from food vendors curated by Kerb. 

Flit to north London this Christmas and you'll find a magical light trail inspired by the world of Peter Pan. Glowing installations will let you follow Tinkerbell's fairy dust path from the Darling's family home in London to Neverland, a pirate-filled land of adventure. There'll be dramatic lighting and sound design to sweep you into the world of J M Barrie's story, plus street food stalls and hot chocolate vendors so you can warm up chilly hands. £1 from every  ticket will be donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital, the charity that Barrie gifted the Peter Pan rights to.  

The Barbican will be awash with festive spirit in the weeks before and after Christmas as the annual Raymond Gubbay Christmas Festival returns. Each year, it puts on a wealth of Crimbo cultural events not to be missed, whether you’re a big film fanatic, pop head or love the spine-tingling beauty of a candlelit carol sesh. Thankfully, 2025 is no different. This New Year’s Eve catch a tribute to the iconic scores of John Williams and Hans Zimmer, including music from ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Jurassic Park’. 

Nessa is taking it back to the ‘70s this New Year’s with a dinner party that will pay homage to the decadence of Biba-era Soho. Expect golden lighting, velvet textures, disco balls and a live DJ spinning disco, funk and soul classics through to the midnight countdown. There’ll be two sittings for the decadent three-course dinner – one at 5pm for the early birds and again at 9.30pm for the night owls. On the menu will be contemporary British dishes, with optional festive add-ons including caviar, Champagne and steak. 

Coq d’Argent’s New Year’s Eve bash is a refined affair full of Francophone luxury. Come for a five-course tasting menu that typically includes delights like champignon sauvage, fletan and petits fours, stay for the private fireworks display on their terrace with views over the City, accompanied by live music and dancing. If you want to join the party but can’t justify £200 for a big dinner, the restaurant offers a an early bird option for £150, or £50 bar tickets so you can still be part of the fun without breaking the bank.

Backyard Cinema is back with a mega immersive cinema to give you all the festive feels. Roam through a fairylit winter forest and you'll find screenings of Christmas classics including Elf, Home Alone, Love Actually, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Holiday, The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, The Grinch, and It’s a Wonderful Life.

This swanky immersive dinner theatre experience from swanky immersive dinner theatre gurus The Lost Estate is based on an opulent ’30s New York venue created by socialite and ‘queen of the speakeasies’ Belle Livingstone. Unless you opt for the cheaper late entry tickets, your experience will revolve around a six course ‘Park Avenue tasting menu’, endless old school cocktail opportunities, and live jazz compered by Livingstone herself (NB probably in fact an actor playing Livingstone).