Updated 1 November 2026. This guide is kept current for November 2026; earlier editions are archived as dated posts.
Show up, don’t just stream it: these are the things to do in Singapore this November 2026 that are worth leaving the house for. It’s for young Singaporeans deciding what deserves a bus ride, from a sawmill running out of lease to a café wall of doodled masterpieces, with dates, venue, price where we have one, and how to book.
| What | When | Where | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Doodle Museum | From Sun 1 Nov to mid-Dec | Coze+, 803 King George’s Avenue | No ticket price published |
| Sin Siong Lim Sawmill open day | Sat 7 Nov | 2 Sungei Kadut Street 5 | S$68 |
| Singapore Writers Festival 2026 | 13 to 22 Nov | The Arts House, Victoria Theatre, ACM, National Gallery Singapore and offsite | Festival Pass S$30; some programmes free |
| Christmas on A Great Street | Light-Up Tue 17 Nov to 3 Jan 2027 | Orchard Road | No ticket price published; Village rides on carnival credits |
| Dramatis Personae: 1001 Lives | Until Sun 29 Nov | Gajah Gallery, Tanjong Pagar Distripark | No ticket price published |
| Malcolm Todd | Mon 30 Nov, 8pm | The Star Theatre | No ticket price published; tickets on Ticketmaster.sg |
The Doodle Museum at Coze+
From Sunday, 1 November 2026, Singapore illustrator Shirley Lim hangs doodled versions of the Mona Lisa, Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Scream inside Coze+, an independent arts café on King George’s Avenue. She works as Pillybaxtoodles, the illustration project she started in 2016, and this is her first solo art exhibition.
Spotting what changed in paintings almost everyone recognises is your way in, which is a gentler start than a wall label full of dates and movements. It suits anyone who likes the idea of art but has never felt at ease in a white-walled gallery. The café is open 9am to 6pm and closed on Mondays, and the show runs until mid-December with no exact closing date named, so go in November. Allow an hour with a coffee.
📅 Sunday, 1 November to mid-December 2026 · 📍 Coze+, 803 King George’s Avenue, #01-242 · 💰 No ticket price published · 🎟 Details on the Pillybaxtoodles site; our report
Sin Siong Lim Sawmill Open Day
On Saturday, 7 November 2026, S$68 buys two hours inside Sin Siong Lim Sawmill in Sungei Kadut. Arts group OH! Open House describes the century-old timber business as Singapore’s last operating sawmill, and the site is approaching the end of its lease. The visit is the second edition of Departures, a programme that brings artists into places facing closure, redevelopment or transition.
Artists including Robert Zhao Renhui and Lewis Choo respond to the site and its people, alongside the working sawmill’s timber, machinery and stories from the Lim family, whose business traces its roots to 1912. There are three two-hour sessions on the day: 9am, 1pm and 4pm. It suits anyone curious about the city’s disappearing working places.
📅 Saturday, 7 November 2026 · 📍 Sin Siong Lim Sawmill, 2 Sungei Kadut Street 5, Singapore 728949 · 💰 S$68 · 🎟 OH! Open House tickets on GlobalTix; our report
Singapore Writers Festival 2026
The 29th Singapore Writers Festival runs from 13 to 22 November 2026 under the theme Hidden in Plain Sight, with more than 300 writers, speakers and moderators. Across the festival’s more than 200 programmes, the headline addition is a Crime and Mystery Spotlight, a whole track for whodunnits.
Start there. Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, author of Ace of Spades, speaks at Victoria Theatre on 14 November at 5.30pm, and Still Killing It: Agatha Christie’s Enduring Legacy is at Victoria Theatre on 22 November at 11am. Then add a wildcard, such as Rachel Smythe, creator of the webcomic Lore Olympus, at the Asian Civilisations Museum on 14 November at 7.30pm.
A S$30 Festival Pass (S$15 Youth Pass) gets you into Festival Pass sessions on a first-come, first-served basis, while separately ticketed programmes start from S$15. Students, seniors and full-time national servicemen get 20% off passes, SG Culture Pass credits can be used, and some programmes are free. Allow an evening for one session, or a full day to wander between venues.
📅 13 to 22 November 2026 · 📍 The Arts House, Victoria Theatre, Asian Civilisations Museum, National Gallery Singapore and offsite venues · 💰 Festival Pass S$30, Youth Pass S$15; separately ticketed programmes from S$15; some free · 🎟 Singapore Writers Festival website; our report
Christmas on A Great Street
Orchard Road switches on on Tuesday, 17 November 2026, from 7pm at Shaw House Urban Plaza, when, per the Orchard Road Business Association (ORBA), President Tharman Shanmugaratnam officiates the Christmas on A Great Street Community Chest Light-Up Ceremony. From that evening, ORBA says, 3.1km of gold lights runs from Tanglin Road to Dhoby Ghaut until 3 January 2027, under the theme Season of Golden Joy.
Go for what’s new. A giant inflatable Christmas Merli, about 6.2 metres tall, sits atop Shaw House and is lit nightly from 6.30pm to 6.30am; Merli is the Singapore Tourism Board’s mascot, a separate character related to the Merlion. The LEGO Christmas Pop-up runs in front of Ngee Ann City from Friday, 13 November to Tuesday, 22 December, home to what ORBA calls the LEGO Group’s “first-ever LEGO Santa’s Toy Factory in Singapore”, with missions for children aged 4 to 12. The Great Christmas Village opens at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza on Friday, 13 November and at Shaw House Urban Plaza on Friday, 20 November, both running to 3 January 2027, with carnival rides, games on carnival credits and, per ORBA, a 13-metre-tall Avengers: Doomsday-themed Christmas tree. Allow an evening and walk it in three stretches: Tanglin Road, then ION Orchard and Ngee Ann City, then Mandarin Gallery to Dhoby Ghaut.
📅 Light-Up Tuesday, 17 November 2026, 7pm, lights to 3 January 2027; LEGO Christmas Pop-up 13 November to Tuesday, 22 December · 📍 Orchard Road, Tanglin Road to Dhoby Ghaut · 💰 No ticket price published; Village rides and games on carnival credits · 🎟 Christmas on A Great Street; Great Christmas Village
Dramatis Personae: 1001 Lives
Dramatis Personae: 1001 Lives at Gajah Gallery Singapore brings together 15 women artists from Southeast Asia and beyond until Sunday, 29 November 2026. The gallery calls it “a theatre of selves”, and the title nods to One Thousand and One Nights.
Start with Aracha Cholitgul’s Beware! Of Investment Scams, box-headed figures milling around a gallery under a red banner, then Wawi Navarroza’s staged self-portrait with sashes reading “ASIAN” and “ORIENTAL” dropped at her feet. It suits anyone who found Southeast Asian art through a big museum and wants a more intimate room. Allow about an hour.
📅 Until Sunday, 29 November 2026 · 📍 Gajah Gallery, 39 Keppel Road, Tanjong Pagar Distripark #03-04 · 💰 No ticket price published · 🎟 Gajah Gallery; our report
Malcolm Todd at The Star Theatre
Malcolm Todd plays The Star Theatre on Monday, 30 November 2026, at 8pm, a one-night stop that Live Nation Singapore bills as his Singapore debut. The 22-year-old Los Angeles singer, songwriter and guitarist is touring Do That Again, his second album, which debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200.
Presales have closed; general sale opened on 23 September through Ticketmaster.sg. Check the full checkout total before you pay, avoid unofficial resellers, and sort your ride home, because it is a Monday night.
📅 Monday, 30 November 2026, 8pm · 📍 The Star Theatre · 💰 No ticket price published · 🎟 Ticketmaster.sg general sale; Live Nation Singapore; our report
If You Only Do One
Make it the sawmill on Saturday, 7 November. It is one day, one site and a lease that is running out, and few things this month come with that kind of deadline.
Coming in December: The Story of Studio Ghibli opens at Gardens by the Bay on 18 December 2026, with an eight-metre recreation of the Spirited Away bathhouse (our report).
Sources and How This Was Reported
- The Doodle Museum: Pillybaxtoodles; our report
- Sin Siong Lim Sawmill: OH! Open House release; our report
- Singapore Writers Festival: festival website; our report
- Christmas on A Great Street: ORBA event site, Great Christmas Village, event highlights
- Dramatis Personae: Gajah Gallery; our report
- Malcolm Todd: Live Nation Singapore; our report
- The Story of Studio Ghibli: our report
Reported with dEditorial, DANAMIC’s editorial AI, from the sources listed, then read and approved by an editor before publication.
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