Top Picks
Guides
What’s on
Where to go
See all

Horrible Histories: Horrible Christmas

Shekina Rose, Families Editor

Book now

Horrible Christmas: Horrible Histories

The Bridgewater Hall, City Centre
26 December 2023

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

From £21.50
Horrible Christmas: Horrible Histories at The Bridgewater Hall
Horrible Histories at the Bridgewater Hall
Book now

This festive season it’s time to learn about what Christmas is really all about, in a family celebration of Christmas the horrible way at Horrible Histories: Horrible Christmas at The Bridgewater Hall.

This is your chance to find out about all the true horrors of Christmas. Those facts about the special day that deep down you always wanted to know, but you were always too stuffed with joy and love and of course – turkey – to find out. Horrible Histories: Horrible Christmas will gladly and without any holding back provide all the foul and fearsome festive facts for you to take home and tell all your friends. Expect yucky yules, manky mince pies, stinky stockings and lots and lots of pooey presents…

This hair-raising, eye-opening, and quite frankly horrific adventure in Manchester will take you through the history of Christmas as it really was! You will learn about the vicious Victorian villains and the mean Medieval monks, the pukey Puritan parties and the terrible Tudor treats.

You will laugh in hysterics and you will cry out in disgust at this hilarious, moving, yet absolutely YUCKY performance for families with children aged 7 and up to enjoy together, just before the long-awaited truly terrible Christmas day itself arrives. Forget sparkles, festive lights and niceties – this show will be packed with blood and gore and Christmassy facts that make you groan and feel sicker than you do at the end of Christmas dinner!

Featuring some familiar guests: Charles Dickens, Oliver Cromwell, King Henry VIII and St Nicholas – can they they work together with one young but very brave boy to save Christmas from a crafty jolly man dressed in red…?

Celebrate Christmas the horrible way, at Horrible Histories: Horrible Christmas, at the Bridgewater Hall this December.

What's on at The Bridgewater Hall

NYE-Bridgewater-2023-20-2048
MusicCity Centre
New Year’s Eve: Love is in the Air

Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall will be once again putting on their annual New Year’s Eve celebration. The theme this year? Love is in the Air.

From £40.00

Where to go near Horrible Histories: Horrible Christmas

Manchester
Restaurant
Midland Tea Room

Dating back to 1903, Manchester’s stately Midland Hotel now has its own dedicated tea room. Expect traditional offerings in elegant surroundings.

City Centre
Hotel
The Midland Hotel

With 312 luxurious bedrooms, the Grade II-listed Midland Hotel occupies one of the most beautiful and storied buildings in Manchester.

Society Manchester
City Centre
Society Manchester

Society Manchester is a glorious indoor and outdoor space in the very heart of the city, with five street food vendors to choose from and a range of high-quality drinks.

Manchester
Restaurant
Friska

Latest branch of Friska, the independent healthy fast food chain.

Manchester
Restaurant
Don Giovanni

Traditional Italian restaurant, serving everything from pizza to steak. All this in a large modern venue with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Haunt MCR
Manchester
Bar or Pub
Haunt MCR

Haunt MCR is a speciality coffee shop and wine bar located on Manchester’s bustling Peter Street.

Manchester
Restaurant
Exhibition

Exhibition hosts three of the city’s most celebrated independent kitchens: Osma, Baratxuri, and Jaan by Another Hand.

City Centre
Restaurant
ONDA Pasta Bar

ONDA is a treat for the tastebuds. Long dark wood tables are shared by eager diners, as tapas-style plates of fresh pasta and other Italian dishes are ferried around the restaurant.

Manchester
Restaurant
Jaan

Serving up exceptional Persian cuisine, this new food concept from the team behind Another Hand is a must-try.

City Centre
Restaurant
Nudo Sushi Box

Nudo Sushi Box on Manchester’s Oxford Road specialises in freshly-prepared boxes of – you guessed it – sushi.

See all places

What's on: Families

Until
FamiliesCity Centre
Manchester Christmas Markets

The Manchester Christmas Markets are back for 2025, with many dozens of stalls in front of the town hall, and hundreds of traders spread across city-centre squares.

Free entry
Two young visitors looking up at a banner in a case, holding pencils and an activity sheet.
Until
ActivityManchester
2025 Banner Bingo at PHM

Explore the People’s History Museum with your banner bingo card in hand as you navigate their galleries through the lens of craftivism.

Free entry
A performer in a bright red costume sits on a snowy stage set, holding a large snowball between their legs with a surprised expression. The colourful winter backdrop features snowflakes, hills, a snowman, and a traffic light with glowing lights.
Until
FamiliesManchester
The Snowy Day at Z-arts

This winter, families with little ones are invited into a shimmering world of snow and discovery with the new production of The Snowy Day.

From £10.00

Culture Guides

Sepia image of a courtroom with the words 'Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird’
Theatre in the North

Winter brings a huge haul of seasonal shows, as well as productions that resolutely veer away from the fairy lights.

Music in the North

Manchester’s closing out the year – and looking to the new one – with a run of gigs from some of the country’s best underground exports.

Exhibitions in the North

This season, exhibitions across the North West feel attuned to the world beneath the world – the forces and stories shaping how we see, feel and imagine.

A performer in a bright red costume sits on a snowy stage set, holding a large snowball between their legs with a surprised expression. The colourful winter backdrop features snowflakes, hills, a snowman, and a traffic light with glowing lights.
Family things to do in the North

Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Cinema in the North

There's no shortage of great films out at the moment, whether you're looking for the latest blockbuster, that hot arthouse flick fresh from Cannes or a cosy classic.

Food and Drink in the North

Hear ye, hear ye. Take some eating-out tips from our wintertime guide to food and drink in Manchester and the North.

See all guides