Movies

Stranger Things: The final stand in Hawkins – Why the world is still hooked

The wait is almost over, and the beginning of the end is officially in sight. Netflix’s flagship sci-fi horror phenomenon, Stranger Things, is returning for its fifth season and part two of the final season, bringing the story of Hawkins, Eleven and the Upside Down to a close. The Duffer Brothers have confirmed that the concluding season will premiere on Christmas Day 2025 in the US, landing in…
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Entertainment

What if Scottish Bagpipes were… Italian?

Every Christmas in Italy, a familiar figure appears in nativity scenes and town squares: the zampognaro (bagpipes musician). Wrapped in a heavy cloak, moving slowly, playing a sound that feels older than memory itself, he seems suspended in time. For Italians, that sound means Christmas – anticipation, devotion, winter, faith. Yet behind this apparently simple, folkloric image lies a far…
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Movies

The festive films that officially switch Christmas on

Here’s a London Mums guide to the festive films we watch every year – and still love. There’s a very precise moment when Christmas actually begins. It’s not when the lights go up on Oxford Street, not when the kids start counting down advent calendars, and not even when Mariah Carey thaws. Christmas starts when that film goes on. You know the one. The ritual watch. The film you’ve…
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Books

What Now? Autism and Learning Difficulties: A book that speaks for families still fighting to be heard

There is a particular exhaustion that comes with parenting a child with additional needs into adulthood. It is not loud or dramatic. It is quiet, cumulative, and deeply familiar to thousands of families who spend years navigating systems that promise support but rarely deliver it in ways that truly help. Alicia Cook’s What Now? Autism and Learning Difficulties is written from exactly that place…
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Entertainment

A gentle, Christmassy introduction to theatre: Christmas comes to Moomin Valley at Jacksons Lane

On Friday 12th December London Mums Magazine spent an evening where the children were treated to something a little bit special – a 7.30pm performance of Moomins at Jacksons Lane Theatre in Archway. Going to the theatre in the evening instantly made it feel like a proper occasion, and driving home afterwards in pyjamas only added to the magic. From the moment we walked into the auditorium…
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Books

The Boy Who Turned into a Butterfly… and Back Again: A new children’s book that lets curiosity take flight

There are children’s books that entertain, and then there are those rare stories that quietly open a door to wonder, curiosity and big questions about the world around us. The Boy Who Turned into a Butterfly… And Back to a Boy Again Just in Time for Dinner! by Mitchell Lee Mednick firmly belongs in the second category – a joyful, imaginative adventure that feels as at home on the bedtime…
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Books

Mission to the Moon: The inclusive children’s book taking young readers on a multi-sensory space adventure

If you have a little astronaut-in-training at home – the sort who gazes up at the night sky and asks perfectly reasonable questions like “How do you eat breakfast upside down?” – then Mission to the Moon – A Sensory Space Story may be the next family must-read. Written and illustrated by David Grigor, a lifelong space enthusiast with more than a passing history of…
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Books

Books we love: A Christmas Tale with Whiskers: Two Little Mice Who Witness the Very First Christmas 

If you’ve ever wondered what the Nativity might have looked like fromground level, Janet McBride has the answer – and it comes with whiskers, twitchy noses and more curiosity than your average toddler on Christmas morning. A Christmas Tale: What Harriet and Henrietta Mouse Saw in the Stablereimagines the very first Christmas Night through the eyes of two adventurous little…
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Books

FESTIVE BOOKS: We’re Going on a Christmas Hunt. It’s a Magical Night! We’re Not Scared

A mum of six from Canterbury is finally seeing a twenty-year publishing dream come true thanks to her eldest son and youngest daughter. Tracy Quinton-Rose, who’s 62, wrote We’re Going on a Christmas Hunt when she was working as an early years’ practitioner at a local nursery. Now, thanks to the publishing prowess of her son, Chip Colquhoun and the illustrating skills of her daughter…
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