A trip to the theatre is just magical at any age and Norden Farm Arts Centre in Maidenhead is one of my favourite places to go. They always have a wonderful festive children’s theatre show around Christmas and this year it’s Kipper’s Snowy Day.
Based on the award winning children’s books about Kipper the Dog by Mick Inkpen which my youngest loves, we were really excited to be invited along on Saturday.
My son is five so he’d never last through a big panto production and Kipper’s Snowy Day was a perfect alternative. He was so excited to have a ‘mummy’ day and couldn’t wait to get into the theatre and find our seats. We did manage a quick stop into the little Kipper house first.
The stage was set with what looked like a huge roll of paper unfolding, a subtle link back to the books. It then became the snowy hill backdrop.
Kipper and his friends Tiger and Pig are played by large almost adult sized puppets with three excellent puppeteers and then there’s a smaller Arnold and the most adorable robin puppet too.
My son had a grin on his face throughout the whole performance. As the story unfolds on a snowy Christmas Eve day there’s lots of hilarity with snowball fights and slipping and sliding down the snowy hill.
We both really enjoyed the original music and songs which were woven throughout the story.
The running time was just over 50 minutes which was ideal. Long enough to be fully engaged and short enough not to have fidgety bottoms on seats.
Norden Farm have a lovely cafe/restaurant with everything from main meals and snacks so we made our trip extra special with a hot chocolate and wedge of chocolate cake afterwards.
Ideal for children ages 3 and over, this festive children’s theatre show is a great introduction to the arts for early years kids.
Norden Farm have free parking on site and fantastic shows, cinema and activities running all year around.
