Top children's workshops for the Christmas holidays
PARIS AND ÎLE-DE-FRANCE
From December 2, 2026 to January 3, 2027
Sixteen children's and family workshops in Paris and the Île-de-France region, from Monet's series at the Orangerie to the melted chocolate workshop at the Monnaie de Paris, most of which take place during the Christmas holidays.
Updated November 15, 2026
In December, museums bring out the aprons. Chocolate is poured like bronze, lanterns are hung, and a forest populated by imaginary animals is cultivated. All these workshops can be booked online, often several weeks in advance.
TIME IN COLORS
Monet constantly returned to the same motif to capture every change in light. After visiting the exhibition Monet, Painting Time, each family takes up the principle of the series: a single subject, explored in colors, shapes, and variations of light, like so many hours of the day.
MUSÉE DE L’ORANGERIE
Tuileries Garden, 75001 - Metro: Concorde (1/8/12)
Sundays, December 13, 20, and 27, and Wednesdays, December 23 and 30 2:30 pm - Duration: 2 hours
Child price: €6 - Adult price: €20 (entrance included) - Adult required
AGES 6 TO 12
CEZANNE FOR TWO
The Grand Palais entrusts 6-10 year olds to a lecturer from the Centre Pompidou, based on a program designed by illustrator Jérémie Fischer. Half an hour in the Cezanne and Us rooms is enough to open their eyes, then the parent-child duo spends an hour and a half in the workshop, from observation to action.
GRAND PALAIS
17 av. du Général-Eisenhower, 75008 - M° Champs-Élysées-Clemenceau (1/13)
December 2, 9, 16, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30 and 31 at 1:45 pm, December 5, 12 and 19 at 10:15 am and 2 pm, December 26 2 PM - Duration: 2 hours
Price: €39 for an adult + child duo - Additional child: €5
AGES 6 TO 10
MELTED CHOCOLATE
The Monnaie de Paris, which has been working with metal for over a thousand years, replaces it here with chocolate. It is broken, melted, poured into a mold, then a gold or copper patina is applied with a brush. Between steps, the group visits the museum's foundry, and the medal is enjoyed at home.
MONNAIE DE PARIS
11 quai de Conti, 75006 - Metro: Pont-Neuf (Line 7)
Wed. 9, Tue. 22 and Tue. 29 Dec. at 3 p.m. - Duration: 2 hours
Price: €12 per participant - Adult required
AGES 7 AND UP
CITY OF LIGHT
Families first gather their ideas from the models and casts in the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, then sit down to eat. With four hands, parents and children cut, assemble, and layer until light shines through the structure. Each family goes home with its lantern, ready to illuminate the living room.
CITY OF ARCHITECTURE AND HERITAGE
1 pl. Trocadéro-et-du-11-Novembre, 75116 - Metro: Trocadéro (lines 6/9)
December 19, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27, 28, 30, and 31, January 2 and 3, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Child price: €5 - Adult price: €15 - Family package: €35 - Adult required
AGES 4 AND UP
MY CHARACTER IN NATURE
Wool, hair, eggshells, fish bones: the ten artists brought together by Anne Richard, founder of HEY!, at Château du Val Fleury create their works with whatever materials are available. One of them, Frédéric Beauchamp, assembles rose branches, bones, and dried leaves into small figures with the children. Everyone can bring their treasures: pebbles, seeds, or seashells.
CHÂTEAU DU VAL FLEURY
5 allée du Val Fleury, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette - RER B Gif-sur-Yvette
Sun., Dec. 6 3 p.m.
Free, registration required: 01 70 56 52 60, culturel@mairie-gif.fr
AGES 8 AND UP
MY PANTRY
Kerry James Marshall paints Black figures where art history has long forgotten them, with all the pomp of official portraits. Children deconstruct these codes (gaze, posture, symbols of power), then head to the workshop to represent themselves in turn as heroes of today.
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART OF PARIS
11 av. du Président-Wilson, 75116 - Metro Iéna (Line 9)
Wednesdays, December 23 and 30, from 2 pm to 4 pm - Duration: 2 hours
Price: €8 - Without parents
AGES 7 TO 10
THE FOREST OF BOTO
In the Great Gallery of Evolution, illustrator Éva Offredo creates a tropical rainforest on a large mural. Each child imagines their own animal, draws it, makes it, then places it among the others. From one session to the next, the forest becomes populated.
GRAND GALLERY OF EVOLUTION
36 rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, 75005 - Metro: Censier-Daubenton (Line 7)
Wednesdays, December 23 and 30 At 1:45 pm and 3 pm - Duration: 1 hour
Included in the Gallery + Exhibition ticket: €16 - Reduced price: €13 - Registration on site
AGES 6 AND UP
LINES AND GESTURES
Before screen printing, Andy Warhol drew for advertising and magazines. After the visit to Andy Warhol. The line and the image with a visual artist, each child chooses an image and reproduces it by trying out several gestures, like him, before making it their own through line and color.
LUXEMBOURG MUSEUM
19 rue de Vaugirard, 75006 - Metro: Saint-Sulpice (Line 4)
Mon. 21 and Wed. 23 Dec. at 2:30 pm - Duration: 2 hours
AGES 6+
A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY
Shop fronts, country roads, village squares: Raymond Depardon photographed France as one might catch up on the news. After watching it with a facilitator in Remember Me, parents and children work together to create a raised postcard, adding dimension to these slices of life.
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BOURSE DE COMMERCE - PINAULT COLLECTION
2 rue de Viarmes, 75001 - Metro: Louvre-Rivoli (Line 1)
Sat., Dec. 12 At 11:15 am and 3 pm - Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Price: entrance fee + €7 per participant - Free entry for under 18s - Adult required
AGES 6 TO 12
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CHALK PORTRAITS
The Museum of Jewish Art and History dedicates its major winter exhibition to Georges Kars, a painter from Bohemia who settled in Paris. After the visit, children aged 8-12 create their own portrait gallery, using chalk and pastels.
MUSEUM OF JUDAISM ART AND HISTORY
71 rue du Temple, 75003 - Metro: Rambuteau (Line 11)
Tuesday, December 29, 2–4 pm - Duration: 2 hours
Price: €12 - Reduced price: €8
AGES 8–12
TWO VOICES, FOUR HANDS
You start, I finish; you correct, I complete. For two hours, a grandparent and a child take turns writing together, guided by the writer Nathalie Skowronek. A family memory, a tradition, or a completely invented story: the important thing is to keep a record of it.
Museum of Jewish Art and History
71 rue du Temple, 75003 - Metro: Rambuteau (Line 11)
Tuesday, December 22 From 2 pm to 4 pm - Duration: 2 hours
Price: €13 - Reduced price: €10 - Adult and child tandem workshop
AGES 10+
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BEADED FOAM
Pins, beads, sequins: visual artist Sarah Tollec collects these small, shiny scraps to create landscapes. After three-quarters of an hour in the rooms of the Museum of Hunting and Nature, the child and their adult work together to create a small piece of nature on a foam cushion.
MUSEUM OF HUNTING AND NATURE
62 rue des Archives, 75003 - Metro: Rambuteau (Line 11)
Wed., Dec. 23, 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM - Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Price: €15 per participant - Adult required
AGES 6 TO 10
A TOILE DE JOUY HACK
Shepherds, hunters, rural scenes: Toile de Jouy tells stories in a single color. After a fun visit to the Toile de Jouy Museum, each child invents their own design and decorates a Christmas stocking.
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Toile de Jouy Museum
54 rue Charles-de-Gaulle, 78350 Jouy-en-Josas
Wed., Dec. 23 From 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. - Duration: 2 hours
Price: €12
AGES 7 TO 12
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TREASURES IN TROMPE-L'ŒIL
Korean painters covered folding screens with imaginary libraries, where books, vases, and brushes are piled high in trompe-l'œil. The artist Françoise Pelenc introduces them to children, who then invent through drawing, collage, and cutting a world where ordinary objects are transformed.
GUIMET MUSEUM
6 pl. d’Iéna, 75116 - Metro Iéna (Line 9)
Sat., Dec. 12 at 2:30 pm - Duration: 2.5 hours
Child price: €9 - Adult price: €15
AGES 7 TO 12
MY ANIMAL AMULET
After a short visit to Animalia, the bestiary of the Al Thani collection presented at the Hôtel de la Marine, each family chooses its guardian animal. They make it into an amulet with repoussé metal, beads, and feathers, then take it home to hang.
HÔTEL DE LA MARINE
2 pl. de la Concorde, 75008 - M° Concorde (1/8/12)
Saturdays at 2 pm - Duration: 2 hours
Child price: €9 - Adult price: €16 - Adult required
AGES 6 AND UP
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SKETCHING, COPYING ANIMALS
Delacroix spent hours drawing horses, big cats, and felines. In his latest workshop, echoing Delacroix, Horses and Other Animals, young and old alike take their turn sketching, notebooks on their laps, then copying, as was taught in the 19th century.
EUGÈNE-DELACROIX NATIONAL MUSEUM
6 rue de Furstemberg, 75006 - Metro: Saint-Germain-des-Prés (Line 4)
Wed., Dec. 23 10:00 AM - Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Price: €12 - Reduced price: €9 (museum entrance not included)
AGES 10+
Discover the workshop
Exhibitions hosting several of these workshops also have their own page: the Monet, Painting Time exhibition at the Musée de l'Orangerie, the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg, and all the new exhibitions in Paris.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which children's workshops are free in Paris and the Île-de-France region in December 2026? The "Create Your Character in Nature" workshop at the Château du Val Fleury in Gif-sur-Yvette is free with registration on Sunday, December 6. At the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution, the Eva Offredo mural is included with admission. At the Bourse de Commerce, entry is free for those under 18, and only the workshop costs €7.
What children's workshops are available during the Christmas holidays in Paris?
Between December 19, 2026, and January 3, 2027: Monet at the Musée de l’Orangerie, Cézanne at the Grand Palais, chocolate at the Monnaie de Paris, lanterns at the Cité de l’architecture, Kerry James Marshall at the Musée d’Art Moderne, Boto’s forest at the Grande Galerie de l’Évolution, Warhol at the Musée du Luxembourg, Georges Kars at the mahJ, beaded moss at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, and the Christmas sack at the Musée de la Toile de Jouy.
What workshops are available for younger children, from age 4?
The “City of Light” workshop at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine welcomes children from age 4, with their parents, to make a lantern. The other workshops in this selection start at age 6.
Should parents stay during the workshop? In most of the workshops in the selection, an adult participates with the child. However, the "My Pantheon" workshop at the Paris Museum of Modern Art is conducted without parents.
