Dickens, in pictures.

 

Mr.Charles Dickens

   

Ebenezer Scrooge


 

Take heed, Mathews children!





A quick run through the story...



..outside the old Masonic building.

 Some

'period characters"



The ghost of Christmas present - and a policeman.



Queen Victoria, Jacob Marley and another ghost



Carols in the bandstand.



Guess who showed up, giving children candy?



A very chilly piper and drummer



Bah! Humbug!











Oh! ChristmasTree!






Take a cart, then....pick your tree





This one?



No. Keep looking!

This is the one. Now....saw it down!

Ta Da!

A bit of help to tidy up, then it's off to the professionals for......

a haircut.....

a hole in the bottom .....

for the stand, then.....

in she goes......

and hey presto, a bound tree ready for home.

They even help you load her up!



And a quick family photo for the album!


Done.



What the Dickens?

'Tis a funny old thing in this part of the world that ne'er a morsel do you hear of Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving then Bam! It's everywhere. And nowhere is this dramatic change more noticeable than in downtown Skaneateles.

For it is here that the local AmDrams like to thesp it up to the max and dash about town dressed as characters from A Christmas Carol. Yes, every weekend from now until Christmas Eve, various Cratchits, ghosts and even old Charlie-boy himself can be seen promenading the streets in full period costume (freezing their extremities off, no doubt) and greeting passers-by in English. And by that I mean English accents. Most of which, it must be said, fall into the Dick Van Dyke 'Cor Blimey Guv'nah' school of regional dialect, aiming hard for Whitechapel but hitting Dublin square on. Shocked they are indeed when answered in the Queen's own RP, and never entirely sure whether one is joining in with the charade or taking the, erm, mickey.

Anyway, the point is that they perform little snippets of the story at forewarned times of the day, and add in little extras like High Tea with Queen Victoria and a Carol-Off in the Bandstand. Much hilarity ensued on the opening day when an Urchin relieved a Gentleman of his fob watch and was chased down the street with a "Stop thief! In fact I felt doubly privileged when the Ghost of Christmas Present wished me Merry Christmas twice within the same hour. On the 26th November, no less.

This is the 17th year that Skaneateles has hosted such an extraordinary event and the tourists love it. This year the opening speeches were accompanied by flurries of aptly timed snow, and it was definitely fun spotting the characters, but the whole thing has the potential to get a little, how shall I say? annoying, with  its  persistent merriment and olde Worlde charm. Yup, I'm with Ebenezer on this one. Bah! Humbug.