Elf Cadets runs at the RAF Museum on 5, 6, 12 and 13 December, £7 a child, with candlelit Christmas jazz on 19 December. Entry is free, 10am to 5pm.

The RAF Museum in Colindale is Barnet’s biggest free day out, and it stays open through the winter: 10am to 5pm every day, entry free with a booked ticket. The days it shuts are around Christmas. The museum’s own festive notice closed the London site on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and on New Year’s Day, opening again in between. This year’s Christmas family event is now on sale: Elf Cadets, on 5, 6, 12 and 13 December, £7 a child. The 2026 festive opening hours have not been announced yet; this page will carry them.

The quick answer

  • Free, open daily 10am to 5pm, last entry 4.30pm. Book a free ticket online before you go (RAF Museum, opening times).
  • Christmas closures: the museum’s standing pattern is shut 24, 25 and 26 December and 1 January, open 27 to 31 December (RAF Museum, festive opening hours). 2026 dates not yet confirmed.
  • Christmas event: Elf Cadets, Saturday 5, Sunday 6, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 December, Hangar 1, 30-minute sessions from 10.30am to 3.30pm, £7 a child aged 4 and up (RAF Museum, Elf Cadets).
  • Christmas jazz by candlelight: Saturday 19 December, 5pm and 7pm, under the Lancaster in Hangar 5, ages 8 and up, £20 to £45.

Updated 3 October: the museum has put Elf Cadets 2026 and a Christmas jazz night on sale. Festive opening hours are still to come.

Opening hours

The museum is open every day from 10am to 5pm, with last entry at 4.30pm, and admission to every hangar is free (RAF Museum, opening times). Not everything stays open to 5pm:

Area Weekdays Weekends
Hangar 1 10am to 5pm 10am to 5pm
Hangars 2 to 6 10am to 4.30pm 10am to 4.30pm, last entry 4pm
Hendon Kitchen cafe 10am to 4.30pm, takeaway only from 4pm same
AeroPlay! Cafe 10am to 4.30pm same

In winter the light goes by about 4pm, so the outdoor playground is a morning job.

Christmas and New Year opening

The museum’s festive notice, published on its own news page, set out the pattern: the London site closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, 24 to 26 December, reopened at 10am on 27 December, was open 27, 28, 29, 30 and 31 December, closed again on New Year’s Day, and reopened on 2 January (RAF Museum, our festive opening hours). That notice was for Christmas 2022, the most recent the museum has kept online.

What it means for 2026: if the pattern holds, the museum is shut from Thursday 24 to Saturday 26 December and on Friday 1 January 2027, and open on Sunday 27 December, on the bank holiday Monday 28 December, and up to New Year’s Eve. Christmas Eve is the one to watch: it is the day most families would expect it to be open, and it has not been. Check the opening times page in December.

Elf Cadets 2026: four December days

The museum’s Christmas family event is back as Elf Cadets, on Saturday 5, Sunday 6, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 December in Hangar 1 (RAF Museum, Elf Cadets). Sessions last 30 minutes and start at 10.30am, 11am, 11.30am, 12pm, 12.30pm, 2pm, 2.30pm, 3pm and 3.30pm. There is no session between 12.30pm and 2pm, so plan lunch around it.

  • £7 a child, ages 4 and up. Adults do not need their own ticket but must stay with their children throughout.
  • Four tasks: the Loadmaster Challenge, a Precision Present Drop, Festive Formation Flying, and, new this year, an Elf-Made Label Station where children make a shipping label from four festive materials.
  • The price is up 50p on last year’s £6.50, and the dates sit a week earlier, on the first two December weekends.

Christmas jazz by candlelight, 19 December

For adults and older children, the museum is staging A Christmas Jazz Candlelight Experience on Saturday 19 December in Hangar 5, underneath its Lancaster, S for Sugar (RAF Museum, Christmas jazz). There are two performances, at 5pm (doors 4.15pm) and 7pm (doors 6.30pm). Tickets run from £20 to £45 across Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze bands, the event is for ages 8 and up, and it is wheelchair accessible. The set list the museum gives includes The Christmas Song, White Christmas and Last Christmas.

What was on last Christmas

In 2025 the museum ran Elf Cadet Training in Hangar 1 on Saturday 6, Sunday 7, Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 December. Children aged 4 to 11 worked through four tasks, a present drop, a loadmaster challenge, festive formation flying and a pick-a-plane challenge, in 30-minute sessions from 10.30am to 3.30pm. Tickets were £6.50 a child, and adults did not need a ticket but had to stay with their child (RAF Museum, Christmas Elf Cadet Training).

Last year’s event was limited to two weekends and the museum told families to book fast. This year’s is on sale now, so book early for the Saturdays.

Other winter dates already on sale

  • October half term, 24 October to 1 November: Jet and Space Week, with a £5 clone hunt for ages 3 and up, a £6.50 planetarium show and £6.50 laser tag (RAF Museum). More in our Barnet half term guide.
  • Remembrance Sunday, 8 November: a free 11am service at the museum, booked through its Remembrance service page. See Barnet Remembrance Sunday.
  • From Barnet with Love festival day, Saturday 21 November, 10am to 3.30pm: free postcard printing, a Historic Hendon talk, storytelling and live music from BEAT in Hangars 1 and 2, part of the Light + Flight festival (RAF Museum).
  • Hangar Nights, adults only, £100: after-hours cockpit access. Friday 11 December is “Royal Flight”, an extended tour with access to the Wessex and Sea King cockpits; the 13 November bombers night is sold out (RAF Museum, Hangar Nights).
  • AeroPlay! soft play, Hangar 4: from £1.75, 90-minute sessions for children from 6 months, listed through to 31 December. The museum says it often fills at weekends and in school holidays, so book (RAF Museum, AeroPlay!).
  • Battle of Britain Cockpit Experience is £32 and the Battle of Britain Fighter Four Tour £12. The 4D Theatre is temporarily closed for refurbishment (RAF Museum, family activities).

Getting there and parking

The museum is on Grahame Park Way, London NW9 5LL. The nearest station is Colindale on the Edgware branch of the Northern line, about a 10-minute walk: turn left out of the station. Take a train marked Edgware, not High Barnet or Mill Hill East. The 303 bus stops outside the main entrance, and Mill Hill Broadway Thameslink station is about 20 minutes’ walk, or 7 minutes on the 303 (RAF Museum, getting here).

Parking on site costs £8.50 for up to 3 hours and £11 for 3 to 6 hours, Blue Badge holders included. The car park opens 9.30am to 5.30pm, but cars cannot park before 10am unless they are part of a booked group, and there is a 30-minute free drop-off window (RAF Museum, parking). The museum warns the car park fills quickly in school holidays. The site is inside the ULEZ.

Heading over at Christmas? Check Barnet’s Christmas travel for the Northern line’s festive service and roadworks in Barnet before you drive; parking in Barnet covers the council car parks.

Still to be confirmed

  • The museum’s 2026 Christmas and New Year opening hours. Expected late November or early December.
  • Further Hangar Nights dates, which the museum says it releases through the year.