Charles Dickens for Christmas

by Theresa Gauthier

    This time of year, the world catches up to me and Christmas is once again on everyone’s mind. Why it isn’t the rest of the year, I will never understand. Anyway, there are myriad Christmas stories to occupy one’s attention, but my all time favorite is A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens understood Christmas like no one else, and I make it a point to read or listen to or watch (or all three!) some version of this story each year. 

This year, there’s a lot going on that can help you capture the perfection of the Most Brilliant Story Ever Written.

If, like me, you’re a huge fan of Christmas AND a huge fan of Charles Dickens, here’s an event you can’t miss! Gerald Charles Dickens, great-great grandson of Charles Dickens is touring the United States through the rest of the year performing his one-man show of A Christmas Carol! Much as his famous great-great grandfather did, Mr. Dickens has been touring since September, and in the past few weeks, his show has focused on perhaps the most well-known Christmas story to have ever been written.

I met Gerald Dickens once when he toured signing copies of a truncated version of A Christmas Carol that was a reprinting of the version Charles Dickens himself used when he performed his one-man shows of the Christmas classic. There’s something electrifying about meeting a man related to CHARLES DICKENS! At least, for me there is! That was the same year that Strawbridge and Clothier first displayed their animatronic Dicken's Village. That Philadelphia landmark is gone now, but Macy's Center City (in the Wanamaker Building) is keeping the tradition alive (as they do with the Christmas Light Show). Both the Christmas Light Show and the animatronic version of A Christmas Carol are on display again this year and are both free.

The Philadelphia Orchestra is getting into a different swing this Holiday Season as they perform The Muppet Christmas Carol in Concert on December 18. I’ve always loved that adaptation of the book. The Muppets and Michael Caine do a great job in the film, but I find it surprising that the Philadelphia Orchestra has opted to perform the music. It made me laugh to think about it. I keep imagining Kermit in black tie at the concert.

If you find yourself in London, England this Christmas, the Charles Dickens Museum is a great place to visit. You’d see a first edition of A Christmas Carol along with one of the Great Man’s own quills. The museum will give each visitor a mince pie, and will be showing a variety of  film adaptations of A Christmas Carol.

A wonderful Christmas gift for any fan of Dickens is a copy of Lucinda Hawksley’s Dickens at Christmas. Hawksley (a descendent of Mr. Dickens) tells the well-researched and documented tale of Charles Dickens and how he celebrated Christmas. If you’ve ever wondered what the holiday season was like when Dickens was still writing, this book is a must for you. Contrasting his earliest Christmases with the inspiration he gave to all of England after he wrote his most famous tale, you’ll learn just why he’s considered The Man Who Invented Christmas.

As for me, I’ll be diving deep into A Christmas Carol this season, like always. I’ll listen to the audio versions read by Patrick Stewart and by Tom Baker. I’ll even watch Mickey’s Christmas Carol and George C. Scott’s. As a matter of fact, I’ll watch every version I can get a hold of from Bill Murray’s Scrooged to the TV episode of Quantum Leap, “A Little Miracle, December 24, 1962,” which first aired on December 21, 1990. This has long been a favorite of mine, and I'm certain that someone besides me must remember this episode!

Christmas and Dickens—it really is The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!