We will be in London over Christmas. We are planning to attend the theatre (with 9 yr old son) on the 24th and 26th and since there isn't a lot of other things open those days are thinking it's probably best to buy tickets in advance? We are looking at The Lion King or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on the 24th, and Peter Pan on the 26th. I have found tickets available on a few different ticket sites but thought I would ask here what method of advance tickets (what website or direct from theatre?) is recommended? Or should be take our chances maybe on Christmas Eve and only buy the 26th in advance? There are other shows (Stomp, etc) playing on the 24th we would be happy with as well.

I purchased tickets at www.albemarle-london.com for The Lion King and Mamma Mia. I paid a little more but I got the exact seats (front center orchestra) I asked for. The whole transaction from initial request to the tickets arriving at my home was about 1 week. I did the entire transaction over the internet.

I would purchase tickets in advance simply because you don't want the kids to be disappointed at Christmas time. A couple other web sites to look at-

I purchased tickets through Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.co.uk) and they give you the exact seats you're purchasing when you're on line. I think Albemarle sends you an e-mail a few hours later, but that may have changed.

www.theatremonkey.com has seat maps of every theatre and tells you the best seats & also the seats to avoid.

Happy Holidays!

The best way, and there is no close second, is to call the theatre directly. Unlike ticketmaster and other brokers, the booking fee is nominal. Ticketmaster and other brokers charge the booking fee, whatever it is and add their own surcharges.

Ticketmaster does not have complete inventory to all shows while the theatre does. Once in a while, a show is completely sold out and a broker might have tickets available at scalper's rates. I would never pay such a surcharge when it is just as easy to call the theatre directly and ask the tickets be held for me for pick up the evening of the show.

The only problem with ticketmaster is that they tell you which seats you are going to get and if you don't like them you have to keep requesting them to change the seats. After many tries, I kept getting the first 3 rows of the orhestra. At those prices I wanted better seats. With Albemarle I told them exactly where I wanted to sit and they provided those tickets.
Theatremonkey helped me choose the best seats.

I always book with Ticketmaster and have never been sorry. Great seats everytime. I honestly do not think the "service charge" is that much, if you order concert or theater tickets here in the US you pay a fee too. I like Albemarle's site for their seating charts. I think their prices are higher tho. All in all we have had great luck with Ticketmaster. I wuold advise you NOT to get front row (or even the first 3 rows) seats to Lion King. We had front row center and spent the entire time looking "up".
Remember, what we call orchestra is Stalls in London theaters. We sat in the 3rd row Stalls for Chitty and it was fine.

I've never understood calling ticketmaster to buy London tickets and paying them a fee, no matter how "small", when you can call the theatre directly and get an honest and quick assessment and easy discussion of the best possible seats available. As mentioned above, with ticketmaster, what they tell you are the "best" and what you might want, are two different things. And they have to keep plugging them into the computer to find others. With speaking to the box office directly, you can pick and choose exactly what you want and they really do know what they are talking about. Plus there is no fee for using a credit card and they will hold them for you. (Actually someone recently posted that some theatres are charging a small fee now for credit card, but I have never had that happen.) As suggested above, you can also download the seating charts from albemarle so you can follow along with them. The best place to get the actual box office numbers is www.officiallondontheatre.com
Just make sure you take the time difference into account and call during normal business hours in London, or your call may end up being routed to a ticket agency instead.

But to your basic question: YES, I'd get those shows in advance to avoid any disappointment. I also suspect those will be very popular shows over Christmas, so I'd get them now. And certainly the earlier you get them, the better seats you can get.

Patrick has it right - you should simply call the theatres directly and have them hold your tickets for you. Could not be simpler. I do not understand using an agency or ticketmaster - pay them a premium - and still not have a choice of all the seats in the theatre. Only a portion of seats are released to Ticketmaster. Some theatres are now charging £1 for phone bookings - but that is a fraction of what the agencies charge. Book the tickets to both ASAP as they will very likely be total sell outs on those days.

I can also recommend Joseph and the amazing technicolour dreamcoat, at the New London Theatre. I'm sure you and your son will like that. But do book in advance; the shows you want to see will probably sell out during Christmas holidays.

I would also say that it's best to phone the theatre itself.
You just collect the tickets from the box-office before the show. You need to take your credit card as confirmation.