Sidetracked! The Great Dickens Christmas Fair
_________________________________________________________________________________
side·track (sīd´trăk): n. 1. A diversion from the main course. 2. A detour taken with children that you would never, ever take without them.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Who:
The Pearson family. Two adults and two kids (6 and 9).
What and Where:
The 30th annual Great Dickens Christmas Fair and Victorian Holiday Party in San Francisco featuring “hundreds of costumed players, colorful characters from literature and history, and winding lanes filled with shoppes, pubs, and delicious fare.”
Why:
Thanksgiving weekend has inexplicably been extended from 4 days to 5 by our school district. Since we’re not big shoppers, we badly needed a weekend diversion. The Dickens Fair sounded pleasantly wacky. We told the kids it would be like traveling to London in a time machine.
The Low Point:
There were two. First, while scarfing finger sandwiches and petit fours at the media tea party, I spotted a woman decked from head to toe in pink ribbons. I quickly wiped off my fingers, and asked if I could take her picture. The woman consented, but didn’t break character. A long and mortifying conversation about my “newfangled photographic apparatus” ensued.
Later, my husband was randomly plucked from the crowd to participate in a comedy routine on stage. His role was to lie on the ground while a handsome performer juggled huge knives over his prone body. I am not even making this up.
The Kids’ Take:
Absolutely fantastic. Included in the price of admission was a Punch and Judy puppet show, sing-alongs, and myriad pirate and parrot photo ops. Also, there were family friendly shows every half hour at the Sugarplum Playhouse.
Tarot card readings, brass rubbings, arcade games, carousel rides, fencing lessons, and ornament painting were all available at extra cost.
The costumed characters alone were eye-popping. When Queen Victoria swept by with her royal entourage, I thought for a second my daughter was actually going to drop into a curtsy.
The Bottom Line:
The extras can add up pretty quickly in Victorian London. You start out nibbling a few roasted chestnuts here and sipping a hot buttered rum there, and the next thing you know you’re shopping for corsets and posing for olde time costume photos. It’s all very fun though. Rule Brittania!
December 1st, 2008 | by Jamie Pearson 8 comments
1. Seana on December 2nd, 2008
The idea of you and the woman in pink bows carrying on a conversation, her in character and you not, makes me laugh so hard I split my tights.
2. TravelswithBaby on December 2nd, 2008
Sounds like just the diversion when the in-laws land and I’m left to entertain while hubby works. I just hope they don’t expect ladies in the family way to wear corsets!
3. Kimberly Ford on December 2nd, 2008
The closest I’ll ever come to this is David Copperfield. My poor kids!! They would have absolutley eaten this up!
4. Rich Pearson on December 2nd, 2008
You forgot to say Moms don’t try the knife juggling at home . . .
5. Jane on December 2nd, 2008
What the Dickens……? (as we say in England).
6. Glynn P on December 2nd, 2008
Oh my God!
7. threeundertwo on December 4th, 2008
We were there on Saturday. My kids look forward to this every year, possibly because they think bangers might be the most perfect form of food ever.
This is particularly fun if you’ve read some Dickens, because the characters re-enact scenes from all the books all over the fair. My kids are very fond of Fagin for some reason, and he loves to stop and show slight-of-hand tricks to them. My son learned a card game from The Artful Dodger.
I got a great picture of Mr. Dickens himself this year. The resemblance is pretty amazing. (you can see it on my blog).
8. Curious on November 22nd, 2009
I’m curious why an actor not breaking character was a low point for you. I think you’ve missed the point there a bit. Didn’t you pay to be immersed in the “Timewarp” experience? Would you have preferred the actor whipped out her cell phone and taken your photo with it?
8 Responses to “Sidetracked! The Great Dickens Christmas Fair”