Science and Industry Museum: Seasonal celebrations meet sensational fun

From shadowy science to gooey family fun, the Science and Industry Museum is offering something for everyone this December.

Don’t miss the last chance to see the museum’s latest blockbuster exhibition, Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You before it closes on Sunday 4 January 2026. Since opening in February this year, more than 78,000 budding biologists have come to explore human senses from the inside out, making it one of the museum’s most popular family experiences to date.

The exhibition is inspired by the hit BBC Children’s and Education TV series Operation Ouch! Visitors still have time to get involved in the sense-sational fun that sees them squeezed through an ear canal before entering different rooms dedicated to each of our senses and packed with interactive activities.

After a hands-on mission to understand more about sight, sound, smell, touch and taste, the experience comes to a suitably snotty end as adventurers don a bogie hat and get sneezed out of a giant nose. While stocks last, visitors in December with a child ticket can also collect a free gift from the exhibition shop (visit the website for more information).

In celebration of the final weeks of Operation Ouch: Brains, Bogies and You, free interactive activities will challenge visitors’ minds. From Saturday 20 December – Sunday 4 January, guests can explore the senses of sight and sound through interactive experiences led by the museum’s Explainers, unpicking optical and audio illusions that bamboozle our brains.

If you can’t hang on until December, visit Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You on Sunday 23 November when Dr Chris, one of the presenters of the Operation Ouch! television show and contributor to the exhibition, will be hosting a Mini Medics Sensory Challenge.

Visitors will be able to meet Dr Chris at the end of their journey, where he’ll be waiting to reward them with a special gift. Tickets are now available to book.

Sensational adventures will be accompanied by seasonal celebrations from 20 December – 4 January, when visitors can brighten up the grey winter days by exploring the magic of light, dark and illumination. Discover how shadows are cast, draw the faces of friends and family in a Silhouette Station, or play among colorful projections in a shadow skyline. 

Those looking to evoke festive feelings this December can step inside the newly reopened Power Hall: The Andrew Law Gallery.

Model railways and toy trains have been a staple under Christmas trees for generations – visit Power Hall and see the real-life locomotives that inspired these childhood favourites, or rediscover iconic engines that powered everything from cotton mills to chip shops, electricity generators to railways, and perhaps even toy workshops in the North Pole!

Visitors to Power Hall will be immersed in the sights, smells and sounds of the engine-driven ideas and industry that started in Manchester and went on to change the world, and discover the people whose skills and determination have shaped our relationship with energy, from the Industrial Revolution to greener futures.

The festive holiday will also see young visitors given the chance to create their own engines inspired by Power Hall’s collection using super-sized building blocks in the Revolution Manchester gallery.

Tash Camberwell, Interpretation and Content Developer at the Science and Industry Museum, said: “It’s great to be offering something for everyone to enjoy this December. There’s bucket-loads of family fun to get stuck into in Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You. I’d urge anyone who’s not been before, or anyone who has and loved it, to come and enjoy it for a final time ahead of Sunday 4 January.

“Our free galleries, including the iconic Power Hall, and additional holiday activities make the museum a perfect destination for everyone looking to make some magical memories over the winter holiday.”

Alongside the museum’s special events and exhibitions, visitors can continue to enjoy its free galleries this December, including the interactive Experiment, the Textiles Gallery with original working mill machines, and Revolution Manchester, where world changing ideas are ready to explore . Incredible objects from Professor Stephen Hawking’s office are also on display in its highlights display.

Those looking to escape to new worlds can dive into five decades of computer gaming in ultimate interactive experience, Power Up, exploring computing history and the evolution of gaming gadgets and classic consoles.

The Science and Industry Museum will be open daily from 10.00 – 17.00 throughout December, except for 24 -25 December and 1 January, when it will be closed. The museum’s shop will also be open during this time, offering a diverse selection of fun souvenirs, pocket money purchases, clothing and accessories, serious science kits and much more.

Pic: Dave Bewick