The Great Dickens Christmas Fair

The Great Dickens Christmas Fair invites all ages to discover the characters of Charles Dickens’ London close-up and personal in a boisterous and authentically recreated Victorian atmosphere featuring more than 700 costumed players, colorful characters from literature and history, four stages, and winding lanes filled with theaters, shoppes, pubs, and delicious fare. 100,000 square feet of exhibition halls transforms into a Victorian Christmas card come to life. This uniquely San Francisco tradition is the holiday party that generations of families have enjoyed for more than three decades.

Carouse, dance, and mingle at an event unlike any in the world!
The Fair offers a variety of toothsome treats and delectable dishes to tempt all palates. Feast on Victorian holiday delights like hot roasted chestnuts, Meyer’s rum cakes, or Mrs. Bumble’s Sugar Plums. Enjoy hot English “bangers” sausages, fish and chips, and roast beef with Yorkshire pudding. Then raise a toast with a refreshing glass of champagne, cider, hot chocolate, hot buttered rum, or a pint of stout or ale from one of four authentic English pubs.

The Yuletide season is traditionally a time for kids to delight in special activities, games and gifts – and the Fair offers an enchanting alternative to the usual holiday events. For the little ones, there’s Old Father Christmas, a hand-powered Carousel, Punch & Judy puppet shows, plus characters from A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and the great Charles Dickens himself. Kids can visit Pirate’s Cove, try an actual 1860s printing press, learn to tie intricate knots, sing sea chanties, learn to play darts in the Gaming Parlour, or create their own holiday gifts like rolled beeswax candles and miniature wreaths.

All ages will enjoy the uptown sensation of the Metropolitan Music Hall, La Legion Fantastique, and Mad Sal's Dockside Alehouse where patrons can join in singing rowdy favorites or watch the bold high-kicking ladies take to the stage for a wicked Can-Can Bijou!

For adults age 18+ only, the immensely popular, roguish production of the “Saucy French Postcard Tableaux Review – or the Secret Life of Mr. & Mrs. Horatio Everard, Esq.”, a risqué exhibition with all new tableaux vivants, is a highlight of the Fair and returns for the fifth year in a row at the Victoria & Albert Theatre.

And who can resist the opportunity to visit the shops of London in search of that perfect holiday gift? Bid farewell to the frenetic shopping malls of the current century to revel in a wonderland of holiday merriment and good cheer. One-of-a-kind artisan treasures, Victorian reproductions, fine art, romantic clothing, handsome pewterware, and dazzling jewelry and accessories are offered by over 100 vendors, many of whom return year after year to sell their wares at the Fair.

This year’s Fair occurs fortuitously timed with the release of Disney’s 3-D motion picture event, A Christmas Carol (directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Jim Carrey as Scrooge), based on Dickens’ classic.

A day’s adventure at the Fair is bound to satisfy the appetite, kindle the imagination, and welcome the Season in style.