Birmingham city centre has ideal places to keep families entertained over the Christmas holiday, especially during Twixmas. Here’s a few to make sure you get the most out of the festive season.
1. Brum’s Christmas Reindeer Trail 2025
You’ll have great fun finding our nine lovable reindeer across the city centre in a trail that takes you from Grand Central to Victoria Square and Bullring.
Find Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen in Central BID’s Brum’s Christmas Reindeer Trail until Tuesday January 6.
There’s a map to download of Brum’s Christmas Reindeer Trail here and it even raises money and awareness for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity.
2. See Lee Child Reacher Exhibition
Reacher fans and book lovers alike will enjoy Central BID’s free exhibition on world-renowned Birmingham-raised author Lee Child and the author’s action hero.
Lee Child: Creating Reacher offers an exclusive look inside the mind of one of the world’s best-selling writers and you can even measure up against his creation Jack Reacher. It is in Grand Central, above Birmingham New Street Station near Foyles book store over the festive season and into 2026.
Commissioned by Central BID Birmingham, curated by art historian Ruth Millington and designed by Matt Smith, the exhibition showcases rare, never-before-seen material from Child’s personal archive and the Lee Child Archive. Read more about it here.
3. Stranger Things Cafe
Primark’s Stranger Things Cafe is only in Birmingham until January, so fans of the Netflix show still have time to try a menu of aptly named options.
Based on the first floor of the world’s biggest Primark in High Street, there’s Benny’s Diner Burger, Surfer Boy Margherita Twist and even The Void shake. That is wonderfully dark like the hit show as it’s made with Black vanilla ice cream and has a gummy sweet shaped like a large spider on top, as pictured above.
The cafe is decorated with characters from Stranger Things and a must for fans excited about seeing the final series.
4. Ozzy Osbourne tribute wall, mural and album exhibition
This will be the first Christmas without heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne and fans can reflect on his legendary life across Birmingham for free. There is also a new tribute wall featuring fans’ memories, which was unveiled on what would have been his 77th birthday.
It’s part of the Ozzy Osbourne: Working Class Hero exhibition in Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, which includes one of the final photographs of the heavy metal star on stage at Villa Park, along with Ozzy’s global achievements and awards.
There are also outdoor Black Sabbath attractions by Central BID to explore. In Navigation Street, there’s the stunning Black Sabbath Mural, signed by band members Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. It was created by Mr Murals ahead of the band’s final Back To The Beginning concert this Summer.
Fans can also find an outdoor exhibition of Black Sabbath album covers at the front of Mailbox, in the underpass at the junction of Navigation Street and Suffolk Street.
5. See a show
Birmingham is overflowing with entertainment this Christmas for all ages and tastes from comedy to the Brum panto and a hit West End musical.
The Alexandra always has a famous musical over the festive season and this year it’s one of the best. This Olivier Award-winning Fiddler On The Roof is packed with timeless songs along with romance, comedy and emotion. It runs until January 3 and you can find out more and buy tickets here.
Birmingham Town Hall has family show Brainiac Live! running over two days on December 28 and 29. It won an Olivier Award win as Best Family Show and is packed with mischief, thrills and science-fuelled mayhem.
Elsewhere, Birmingham Rep has comic twist on one of Britain’s best loved detectives. Sherlock Holmes and the 12 Days of Christmas runs until January 18 and is a laugh a minute, but also features a cunning murder mystery.
It’s a musical, madcap adventure written and starring comic duo Humphrey Ker and David Reed and with new songs by legendary musical theatre duo Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
It wouldn’t be Christmas without a panto and Birmingham Hippodrome’s offering this year is Robin Hood, which runs until February 1.
It’s a racous, feel-good show with a big name cast joining Brum favourite Matt Slack as Robin Hood. This year there’s TV fashionista Gok Wan as Gok Scarlet, Steps’ singer Faye Tozer as Maid Marion and Christopher Biggins as King Richard treading the boards.
Matt Cardle plays the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham, Sandra Marvin is The Spirit of Sherwood and panto dame Andrew Ryan returns as Henrietta Hood.
6. Watch the world go by with amazing cakes
EL&N cafe in New Street is a perfect spot to sit back with a festive hot drink and treat and watch the world go by through its large windows.
It’s a calm oasis as the busy world of shoppers and families rush by.
Even better, the swanky cafe has an Apres Ski menu for the season, featuring luxurious hot chocolates, chocolate polar bear cake, Alpine Tree Meringue Cake and even a white chocolate snowball martini.
Famed for being the “most instagrammable cafe”, it serves up picture perfect snacks that taste delicious too.
7. Get a bargain in the Boxing Day and New Year sales
Birmingham is one of the UK’s top shopping destinations with world famous brands, department stores galore and the world’s biggest Primark – so you won’t want to miss out on the sales.
Department stores Selfridges at Bullring, House of Fraser in Corporation Street and Harvey Nichols at Mailbox are a favourite with shoppers, as are Next, Sephora and M&S in Bullring.
Many stores have extended hours for the sales, which will be music to the ears of bargain hunters.
We have all the Christmas week to New Year shopping times for Bullring and major stores in Birmingham city centre here.