All weekend
- Enjoy free ice skating as a Christmassy market starts up at the Scoop, More London, Friday-Sunday.
- You've still time to get to the Pigs Ear Beer Festival in Hackney's Round Chapel - open noon to 11pm, Friday and Saturday. Read our review (entry £4, £2 CAMRA members).
- It's the Crafty Fox Weekender at the Dogstar, Brixton (free entry).
- Spitalfields Winter Music Festival begins.
- There's shopping, drinking and free workshops at the Architecture Foundation on Tooley Street SE1 all weekend (launch party Friday night).
- Chocoholics should flock to Southbank Centre Square for the Chocolate Festival (free entry).
- Oxford Street and Regent Street are traffic free on Saturday and Sunday for the Shop West End VIP, featuring a carol-a-thon.
- Visit the Moomin shop in Covent Garden.
- Feeling too hectic? Find some peaceful places around town.
Friday:
- Late at Museum of London celebrates their ace new Dickens exhibition and you'll find Londonist Matt hosting a fun yet fiendish Dickens quiz 6.30-9.30pm (£10).
- Midnight Movies' bring a Messy Christmas to Hackney Picturehouse with a twisted mix of short films and trailers then a sleazy party from 10pm (£10, members £8).
Saturday:
- Watch out for hundreds of Santas in the West End.
- Dulwich Picture Gallery puts on a Christmas show for children at 10.30am with magic, fruit and shadow puppets (£5).
- Shop with a conscience at the green and ethical Christmas Fayre in Clapham, 10am-3pm.
- Indie music takes over Old Spitalfields Market for the Independent Label music market.
- The Spitalfields Vintage Fair will be in Christchurch on Commercial Street, Spitalfields from 12-5pm.
- We Make London will be at Battersea Arts Centre Christmas Market with art and craft wares from 80 designers, plus workshops and wrapping (entry £2).
- The Sister Sledge Christmas Fete brings out the creative types in Peckham for shopping, live music and DJs from midday till 7pm at Sassoon Gallery (free entry).
- The Waterpoet Christmas Fayre means a barn full of food, a Christmas singalong and Christmas films in the Underground Picturehouse (free entry).
- Continuing the Dickensian theme, if you like Little Dorrit watch 2 films of the story at Sands Film Studios, Rotherhithe from 1pm (email littledorrit@sandsfilms.co.uk to reserve your seat).
- Take a free LGBT tour of the British Museum at 2pm.
- London Rockin' Rollers are in roller derby action at York Hall, Bethnal Green from 4pm and it's girls vs boys (good luck boys, you'll need it) (£12, kids £6).
- London choir Voce put on their Christmas Cracker concert at St Paul's, Knightsbridge from 7pm (£15).
- We recommend the A Guided Missile Christmas with We Are the Physics, No Cars Christmas gig at the Buffalo Bar, Highbury (£5).
- Duckie's Copyright Christmas show starts at Barbican (£19.99) and you can have a look round their alternative Christmas market while you're there.
Sunday:
- Fowlers Molly Dancers start their new season bringing the morris to the Royal Albert, New Cross Road SE14 at 12.30 and the Dog and Bell, Prince Street, SE8 at 2.30pm.
- While you're there, support New Cross People's Library Xmas Fayre between 1-5pm.
- The Campaign for Horror hosts a Christmas double bill at Roxy Bar and Screen, Borough with The Curse of the Cat People and Tales from the Crypt from 3pm (£6).
Other good stuff:
- More on Christmas markets
- Books and spoken word
- Sci/tech/nerd stuff
- Theatre, dance, opera, classical music and exhibitions
- Things to do for a fiver or less
- Museums and Galleries
- Cabaret, parties and alt-performance
- Stand up and sketch comedy
- Gigs to go to
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What did we miss? Let us know in the comments.
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