A Winter Party with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

What is full of sausage, smells of garlic and is sitting on the front row at Town Hall Birmingham waiting for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to strike up a medley of winter cheer? Us!

On a chilly Saturday afternoon, Birmingham city centre doesn't always feel like the place you want to be. Not so at in the run up to Christmas. Parking at the Snow Hill station car park allowed us a slow stroll through the village of stalls, eateries and kids' activities that have taken root around St Philips's cathedral - spotting penguins on the way. We were then swept up New Street past gluhwein, Christmas decorations, chocolate covered marshmallows and a singing reindeer. Birmingham's German Market proved a good lunch stop before our final destination: Town Hall Birmingham.

On entering the building, we were ushered downstairs to take part in a free children's craft session. Although it was a bit crowded we were able to locate a template of a mask, as well as feathers, glitter, sticky tabs, sequins and such like. Our girls then had very enjoyable half an hour creating the kind of masks that would not look out of place in Downton Abbey. What were they for? We were about to find out....

If all that hadn't got us in the seasonal mood, then the CBSO was always guaranteed to deliver something special for us and our young children to bring a bit of relaxation and winter cheer after a busy week of work and school. So, although we felt a bit sorry for the people sitting around us after our pre-show garlic fix outside, we were ready and waiting as the orchestra struck up Silvestri from Polar Express. With Lucy Drever leading us through the performance we were taken to experience winter with Vivaldi in 18th Century Lombardy and on to 19th century Germany to dance with the Sugar Plum Fairy and the amazing violin of Jonathan Martindale. We whizzed through Arendelle and waltzed to a masked ball with the kids waving their glittered and feathery masks that they had just made pre-concert. Our 10 year old was relaxed and our 3 year was transfixed when she wasn't throwing some ballet moves in the aisle.

So, all in all, a great afternoon in lovely Birmingham. Penguins, coffee, garlic, sausage with gorgeous orchestral winter themed pieces to bring us a bit of hygge courtesy of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Seal. Now where did I put the Christmas card list....

Take a look at what's coming up for families with CBSO here: https://cbso.co.uk/take-part/families

Special thanks to CBSO for inviting us along to review the show.

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