When you think of a London Christmas, thoughts often turn to the world of Charles Dickens. Indeed, he was (and continues to be) so synonymous with Christmas that when he died in 1870, a devastated market seller’s little girl thought that Father Christmas had died.
In 1843, Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, drawing inspiration from his observations taken on his long festive strolls around London:
“The brightness of the shops where holly sprigs and berries crackled in the lamp-heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddy as they passed… The poulterers shops were still half-open, and the fruiterers were radiant in their glory.”
Following its publication, his public readings of A Christmas Carol were so popular that he has been credited with raising awareness of the meaning and increasing the celebration of Christmas.
Dickens described the festive season as “a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of other people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”
His evocative descriptions are still very much valued and celebrated in London at this time of year. The Old Vic Theatre is streaming live productions of A Christmas Carol next week and the Charles Dickens Museum (where he lived and worked), which is open Sunday – Wednesday throughout December, is beautifully decorated for Christmas in the Victorian style of Christmas Past.
Image credit: John Leech, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons