The Great Christmas Puppet Making Workshop

The Great Christmas Puppet Making Workshop is on at the Scottish Mask and Puppet Centre on Saturday 12 December, with sessions at 10am and 2pm. It's a festive family craft morning or afternoon: you design and make your own Christmas puppet — an elf, a reindeer, a snowman, or even Santa himself — with the centre's staff on hand to help you through it.

If you're not familiar with the place, the Scottish Mask and Puppet Centre is tucked away in Glasgow's West End at 8-10 Balcarres Avenue. It's a proper puppet hub, housing an 80-seat theatre, a museum, and an education unit, alongside an extensive mask and puppet library and archive. There are permanent exhibition areas, a cafe, a film and FX unit, a mask studio, and a marionette carving workshop all under one roof. Between September and June, they run a regular family Saturday Show programme, plus workshops, birthday parties and outreach to schools and community groups. Their children's programme covers a fair few styles, too: glove, rod, marionette, shadow, table-top and black light theatre.

This workshop sits within that festive family strand, so it's one aimed at families doing something together. You'll spend the session designing and building your puppet from scratch, and the staff are there to guide you along the way. It's a good one if you've got kids who'd rather make something than just watch it.

Tickets are £8.50 to £8.95, and all materials are included in the price. One thing to keep in mind: adults need to book a ticket if they're going into the workshop rather than just dropping the kids off. There are two sessions on the day, one at 10am and one at 2pm, so you can pick whichever fits your Saturday best.