Feeling festive but want to indulge in the Christmas spirit off the beaten tracks? We've put together a list of alternative Christmas-themed events for you to enjoy! From markets in our favourite creative spaces to theatre, screenings and a lesbian strip club, these are fun experiences not to miss whether you actually celebrate Christmas or not.
THEATRE
SÉAYONCÉ'S PERKY NATIVITITTIES
THE YARD THEATRE
Hackney Wick I 4 December to 21 December
The majestic mystic Séayoncé (aka Dan Wye) and her thoroughly inappropriate sidekick Leslie-Ann (Robyn Herfellow) present the only gift you won't need a receipt for (or exorcise).
When Séayoncé lands her big break—a live TV Christmas special—she thinks she’s finally made it and has left those cabaret basements for good. But suddenly—just as the cameras start rolling, Christmas magic hijacks everyone’s favourite medium from her own festive frolics. An epic battle between the hags and the Christmas spirit ensues, but who will win?
Get your bells joyously jingled by the award-winning, critically acclaimed Ghost Whisperer as she belts out twisted carols, summons the sauciest ghosts of Christmas past, and leads you through thoroughly blasphemous XXXmas games, in the hope of beating the Christmas spirit into a perfectly seasoned pulp.
More information and tickets here.
CHRISTMAS SHOP
ARO ARCHIVE'S CHRISTMAS GIFT SHOP
ARO ARCHIVE
Shoreditch
Aro Archive, known for their curated selection of pre-owned clothing by avant-garde designers, has opened their Christmas Gift Shop with a selection of kooky objects, jewellery and collectables.
SCREENING
THE NICKEL PRESENTS: FUCK CHRISTMAS
ALL IS JOY
Soho I 13 December 20:00
The Nickel presents a strictly adults-only evening of festive psychotronic cinema, featuring mind-melting mystery feature films, shorts and trailers, plus a private bar in the heart of Soho.
We will be screening edited cutdowns of seldom screened features. Expect a bizarro Mexican-produced fever dream, an X-rated 70s yuletide porno, along with other weird surprises.
Get all the details and your tickets here.
STUDIO SALE
PAGE MASTERS: STUDIO SALE
PAGE MASTERS STUDIO
Lewisham I 14 December 12:00 - 19:00
Page Masters, the risograph printing and publishing house, is hosting a one-off Saturday clearance party at their studio with zines, books, prints, festive drinks, and music.
LESBIAN STRIP CLUB
HEAUX HEAUX HEAUX!
EARTH
Dalston I 14 December 23:00
They say it's the most wonderful time of the year. If you don't agree, then you haven't had a festive season with Sex and Rage ;)
Blow away the winter blues with an evening under the mistletoe. Don't know what to get your loved ones for Christmas? Give them the gift that keeps on giving with an evening at the Sex and Rage Lesbian Strip Club. The hottest immersive pole, floor and private dances on (high) demand throughout the night. Make it rain (or snow) on the baddest strippers you've ever laid your eyes on and dance the night away to music by the some of the sickest DJs on the circuit. You'll never see about the holidays in the same way…
More information and tickets here.
DONATION
SONDR'S ANNUAL XMAS DONATION STATION
BEAUBEAUS
Aldgate East I 14 December 11:00
Join us at BeauBeaus for Sondr's annual Christmas donation station.
We accept donations within the following categories: food, toiletries, clothing, toys & books. All donations will be directly delivered to charities the following morning.
If you are unable to donate, we still welcome you too add to the Christmas spirit and join our festivities. Expect activities throughout the day.
sondr.io is a creative platform designed to connect artists, writers, musicians, and other creatives.
All details here.
LIVE MUSIC
NOISEMAS 4
LOKI
Brixton I 15 December 12:00 - 00:00
Iklectik presents a 12-hour music marathon of 40 live acts playing back-to-back, plus VJs and DJs. Proceeds will go to Medical Aid For Palestinians and to Lebanon.
Noisemas is a celebration of community, music and solidarity.
Book your tickets here.
MARKET
THE RIO CINEMA'S CHRISTMAS FAYRE
RIO CINEMA
Dalston I 15 December 11:00-18:00
The Rio Cinema is opening up thearchive for an all-day Cinema Treasure Christmas Fayre with arts, crafts, zines, memorabilia, foodrink, fashion.
MARKET
CAFE OTO CHRISTMAS FAIR
CAFE OTO
Dalston I 15 December 11:00-18:00
Find books, zines, records, pipes, ceramics and more at the Christmas fair of Cafe Oto, a café and experimental live music venue. Mulled goods and hot foods will be served from midday.
Find more information and the full list of participating sellers here.
MARKET
PHOTOBOOK CAFE PRESENTS: WINTER MAKERS' MARKET
PHOTOBOOK CAFE
Old Street I 15 December 10:00-18:00
Artists and creatives will gather at Photobook Cafe as part of their makers' market, selling photobooks, handmade papers, hair accessories, paper gifts and more. The day will also see mulled wine, grateful pies and special toasties. Evening music from 18:00 till late to be announced.
Find more information here.
SCREENING
QUEER CHRISTMAS DOUBLE BILL: BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE & CAROL
RIO CINEMA
Dalston I 15 December 14:20
Pink Palace X Rio Cinema present a Queer Christmas in Screen One!
Join for a wonderfully festive double bill screening, showing two absolute christmassy classics - starting with Bell, Book and Candle, followed by Carol.
Bell, Book and Candle, is one of the finest and most criminally underrated festive movies of all time. Witches and warlocks, bongos and beatniks, and classic golden age Hollywood pairing of Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart, who were reunited after starring together in Hitchcock's Vertigo.
Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 lesbian love story Carol, originally a pseudonymously published million-selling pulp fiction, The Price of Salt, is the only non-crime novel she wrote. Yet Todd Haynes’s masterfully intelligent and meticulous screen adaptation links it smartly to her transgression-packed oeuvre from the get-go. For love is the crime here. Wealthy housewife Carol and callow shopgirl Therese’s slow-burning passion is an offence against society, for which they are hunted, and Carol punished.
Pink Palace is a highly relaxed event that normally takes place in Rio's basement bar, but this time it's all about Screen One for Christmas. Its a safe queer space so come along and catch some queer film and pop culture history and feel free to stay and chat afterwards.
All details and tickets here.
MARKET & WORKSHOPS
SET SOCIAL COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS MARKET
SET SOCIAL
Peckham I 15 December 12:00-17:00
A Christmas market at arts and social club SET Social with all types of traders and goods from makers, creators, hustlers and hoarders. There will also be free workshops to attend, including a zine workshop with hate zine, a Christmas card link printing workshop, and a printing workshop with Peckham Keffiyeh, making banners, bags and keffiyehs for a free Palestine.
All details here.
POP-UP
XMAS QUEER PRINT POP-UP
28 PETER STREET SOHO
Piccadilly Circus I 15 December
Tom Selmon, photographer and founder of the erotic magazine Sensored, is hosting his very first queer print pop-up with the magazine. Come by, have a browse, and discover a stunning selection of independent artwork from a beautifully curated roster of artists.
All details here.
SCREENING
BAR TRASH: CHRISTMAS EVIL
BEER MERCHANTS TAP
Hackney Wick I 15 December 18:00
Cult film night BAR TRASH returns to Beer Merchants Tap with deranged Santa slasher Christmas Evil (1980), part of BANNED!, an uncensored season of the Video Nasties.
Lewis Jackson’s Christmas Evil is a festive fever dream that’s got something powerful to say about family, rejection and yearning. Brandon Maggart gives Robert De Niro vibes in his descent into madness, and Jackson’s film looks stunning as it veers from Taxi Driver alienation to full-blown Universal monster movie in the final reel.
Cult film fanatic Token Homo also invites you to take part in his annual ‘Christmas Confessional’ as part of our show. Let the audience be your judge as you spill your (jelly)beans in the interval. Prizes for the most outrageous/wondrous confessions!
A proportion of proceeds from this screening will be donated to Switchboard LGBT to help provide services to tackle LGBTQIA+ loneliness and isolation throughout the festive period and beyond.
[Polite notice/content warning: Christmas Evil “contains strong violence”(BBFC) and was seized and confiscated in the UK under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 during the Video Nasties moral panic in the 1980s.]
Find all information and tickets here.
ART SHOW
IT DOESN'T GET BETTER THAN THIS!
THE BOMB FACTORY ART FONDATION
Marylebone I 17 December - 7 January
Six artists and collectives have responded to the iconic lyric, “So this is Christmas, and what have you done?”, with a playful twist on the traditional holiday window displays seen at Selfridges. Lit from within the gallery, the works will be visible 24 hours a day, offering a surreal commentary on the commercialisation of Christmas.
SCREENING & PARTY
REBEL REEL CINE CLUB: A MOST UNHOLY CHRISTMAS
RIO CINEMA
Dalston I 17 December 19:00
Celebrate an alternative Christmas with a screening of the shocking surrealist classic The Holy Mountain. With DJs before and after the films, including Pam Hogg and Pips Taylor - this is a screening and a party! There will be an opening performance by Charlie Jiminez and shorts from the Magick Lantern Cycle by Kenneth Anger before the main feature. Agne Qami is co-curating a selection of Ghosts of Christmas Past and most Unholy images projected on to the screen whilst you dance, including the work of Pavel Anuska. There's a late licence to party and Rebel Reel friend Jeanie Jean Photos will be on hand to record it all.
The scandal of the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, The Holy Mountain is a sprawling phantasmagoria of sacrilegious visual excess and existential yearning - and what could be more Christmassy than that. Jodorowsky's most ambitious film sees the director himself play The Alchemist, a guru who guides a troupe of pilgrims, each representing a planet of the Solar System, on a magical quest to Lotus Island where they must ascend the Holy Mountain in search of spiritual enlightenment.
Get all the details and your tickets here.
CHRISTMAS PARTY
THE TOE RAG CHRISTMAS PARTY
SET SOCIAL
Peckham I 19 December 19:00 - 23:00
The Toe Rag is a quarterly, print magazine covering contemporary non-profit and independent culture. Celebrate their first birthday with an evening of readings, live music and a Christmas raffle.
