Guides
What's on
Where to go
See all

Guides
What's on
Where to go
See all

Winter Holiday at the Science and Industry Museum

Creative Tourist

Visit now

Winter Holiday at the Science and Industry Museum

Science and Industry Museum, Manchester
20 December 2025-4 January 2026

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

Free
Boy looking at hands behind a shadow wall
Science and Industry Museum
Book now

The Science and Industry Museum is brightening the holidays with a season of hands-on science, playful illusions and family-friendly discovery.

Across the Winter Holiday programme, visitors can explore the science of illumination through interactive activities designed for curious minds of all ages. Create shadowy portraits at the Silhouette Station, experiment with colourful projections in a shadow skyline, and catch live science shows where expert Explainers put your brain to the test with mind-bending illusions.

One part of the programme is only here for a little longer. Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You closes on 4 January, making this your last chance to dive headfirst into its gloriously gross exploration of the senses. Journey through an ear canal slick with wax, squeeze past sticky snot and poke around inside a giant eyeball as hands-on games and challenges turn biology into something tactile, silly and surprisingly enlightening.

Mother and daughter play with smell interactive_Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You
Science and Industry Museum

Rounding out the visit is Power Hall: The Andrew Law Gallery, the museum’s newly reopened permanent space celebrating Manchester’s industrial muscle. Home to iconic historic engines – from early locomotives to mighty steam machinery – the gallery brings the city’s engineering past vividly to life. Model railways and toy trains have been a staple under the Christmas tree for generations — visit Power Hall and see the real-life locomotives that inspired these childhood favourites. Be inspired by these iconic engines and create your own using super-sized building blocks in the Revolution Manchester gallery.

One museum, a full winter programme, and a final chance to catch one of its most popular family exhibitions before it closes.

What's on at Science and Industry Museum

Featured in

Bluecoat
Tours and Activities in the North

Step away from the usual. Tours and activities that spark curiosity, inspire creativity and offer something refreshingly different.
Festive Happening Camerata
Christmas Theatre and Concerts

As the big day approaches, you can count on theatres and concert halls across the North to pull out all the festive stops.
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.

Where to go near Winter Holiday at the Science and Industry Museum

Manchester
Restaurant
Teppanyaki Chinatown

A Japanese teppanyaki restaurant in the centre of Chinatown. The focus is on high-quality food with a minimum of theatrics. It doesn’t disappoint.

Manchester
Music venue
Castlefield Bowl

The Castlefield Bowl is an outdoor events pavilion in the inner city conservation area of Castlefield in Manchester. The 8000-capacity arena is often used for food festivals and music events.

Great John Street Hotel in Spinningfields in Manchester.
Castlefield
Hotel
Great John Street Hotel

A converted Victorian school house nestled on the edge of Spinningfields, the Great John Street Hotel has a relaxed and decadent atmosphere.

Castlefield
Bar or Pub
Cask

Cask is a well-loved pub on Liverpool Road in Manchester. It has an excellent selection of continental beers and a cosy beer garden.

Castlefield
Event venue
Castlefield Viaduct

Launching in summer 2022, the National Trust and Twelve Architects and Masterplanners will be bringing a new lease of life to Castlefield Viaduct.

Campfield Open Day-3
Castlefield
Event venue
Campfield Market Hall

Having undergone years of transformative and restorative work, the complex will now be known as Campfield Mega Campus, Manchester’s most ambitious creative-tech destination.

Saul Hay Gallery
Manchester
Gallery
Saul Hay Gallery

Saul Hay Gallery, located one of Castlefield’s Victorian red brick buildings, is one of Manchester’s most important commercial galleries.

Manchester
Restaurant
Fenix

Modern Greek Mediterranean cuisine from the team behind Tattu.

Altrincham
Shop
IDAHO

Every piece in IDAHO has something special and will guarantee to make your homes, offices and wardrobes feel a little more inspiring.

Castlefield
Theatre
Versa Manchester Studios

Formerly the Old Granada Studios, VERSA Manchester Studios is evolving into a dynamic Studio Campus with TV, Film, Motion Capture and VR / AR Studios alongside a glamorous new Soho House.

See all places

What's on: Activity

Until
Activity
The Medieval Quarter Walking Tour

Explore Manchester’s Medieval Quarter on an architect-led walking tour uncovering the city’s oldest streets, historic buildings and centuries of hidden history.

From £20.00
Foggy trees in Alexander Park, Hulme.
Walking TourManchester
Alexandra Park and Whalley Range Tour

Take a walking tour of both Alexandra Park and wider Whalley Range, uncovering the tales that lie within its mighty buildings, its churches and its people.

From £20.00
Truly Madly Brutal - Jonathan Schofield Tours
TourManchester
Truly Madly Brutal

Explore the fascinating history of Brutalism in Manchester, while also exploring the movement’s wider intentions and ideals.

From £20.00

Culture Guides

Music in the North

Manchester’s starting the new year with a run of gigs from some of the country’s best underground exports.

Textured portrait image of Jarman
Theatre in the North

Theatre across the North West splits between festive escape and sharp, urgent work exploring politics, power and resistance.

A doll with makeup peeks out of a hanging wall of butter yellow fabric. Red and black threads descend and cascade around the doll.
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