Attending a Pantomime is also a special Christmas treat for both adults and children. Pantomimes are performances based on traditional folk and fairy tales, such as Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella or Dick Whittington. Normally starring a well-known television personality, they are a lively mix of song, dance and slapstick in which a man plays the dame and a girl takes the part of the 'Principal Boy'. A mixed up world in which good always overcomes evil and everyone lives happily ever after.

The 'Jack and the Beanstalk' story has its origins in folk tales of giant slaying, and it was first performed in Pantomime version in the early 19th century.

His mother, the Dame, sends Jack to market to sell their cow Daisy. Two actors who spend a long time inside a hot and heavy cow suit play Daisy. On the way back from the market Jack is tricked out of his money, and returns home with a handful of beans. His mother is furious with Jack and throws the beans out of the window. However, they are magic beans and in the morning a giant beanstalk has grown in the garden. Jack climbs the beanstalk and finds himself in the land of the Giant, Blunderbore.

Everybody in the audience waits expectantly for the Giant's cry of 'Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman'. After numerous adventures, the Pantomime ends with Jack, now in possession of the Giants treasure, chopping down the beanstalk, having slain the Giant with his magic sword.

Another theatrical tradition, enthusiastically attended by the parents of the children involved, is the infant children's school performance of the Nativity play which celebrates the birth of Jesus by re-enacting the scene in the stable at Bethlehem.