00:00Thank you. You're in my way. Get away, get your arms up.
00:04Have you always wanted to dive into a Charles Dickens Christmas story?
00:09My name is Ebenezer Scrooge, yeah.
00:12And a lot of people here owe me a lot of money.
00:16In the Dutch city of Deventer, you can meet Dickensian characters during the holidays.
00:24I am Jacob Marley, the partner of Scrooge.
00:30The Dickens Festival transports you into the Victorian age.
00:37I am the ghost of Christmas past, who is one of three ghosts who is going to visit Ebenezer Scrooge in that one fateful Christmas night.
00:45Many visitors are happy to be insulted by Scrooge, the main character of A Christmas Carol.
00:50It doesn't spoil their mood.
00:53The whole vibe, atmosphere, everything is like a fairy tale.
00:58I'm just overwhelmed by everything around me and there's a lot of people.
01:02It's like going back in time, the costumes and the clothes they wear.
01:07When you're walking through it, it feels like you're time traveling and it's really fun.
01:13Charles Dickens' tale is over 180 years old, but it hasn't gone stale.
01:17The main character is the rich and greedy Ebenezer Scrooge, who hates Christmas and takes advantage of the people around him.
01:26During the story, he is visited by various ghosts who inspire him to become a better person.
01:33It's a ghost story. I think ghost stories has always been something that has attracted people.
01:43The writing of that time is so beautiful. It's very colorful writing, what he does.
01:47It's something we lost a little bit.
01:52Everybody read the Dickens novels again. They're beautiful.
01:59Scrooge actor Haro van Lien is performing at his first Dickens Festival.
02:04Wearing stage makeup in one of 14,000 costumes, the actor transforms into his character.
02:10I looked at some old movies. I was looking for the old Scrooge's played by various actors and looked at how are they walking, what are their gestures.
02:25But why of all places does a Dutch city hold a festival in honor of a famous English writer?
02:32Lisbeth Velderstrik is the daughter of the festival's founder, Emmie Strik.
02:37Emmie collected everything related to Dickens, whether it was art or kitsch.
02:43Over 30 years ago, she started the first Dickens Festival.
02:47Back then, the shops in Deventer were supposed to stay open longer before Christmas.
02:52She started it because we had to open on a Sunday.
02:55And she said, well, that's okay, but then I want it to be something special.
03:00Let's do something like a Victorian Christmas.
03:02We are going to dress up in Dickens style and open the shops.
03:07So that's the start of the Dickensfestijn.
03:10This year, around 50,000 visitors from all over the world came to the two-day festival.
03:16About 1,000 performers are out and about in the streets.
03:19Even though things are light-hearted here, Charles Dickens did not create perfect worlds in his writing.
03:26He used his stories to sharply criticize the social conditions in England at the time.
03:32Just as sharp-tongued Scrooge performer Haro van Lien.
03:35You can call out people whatever you like.
03:40You can just call this man a horrible man with a horrible smile on his face.
03:45And you can just tell him and he's walking away.
03:48And he keeps on smiling. That's what I like about it.
03:52A Christmas Carol has a happy ending.
03:56The universally hated Scrooge is transformed into a new man.
04:00Generous and friendly.
04:01Perhaps that's another reason this story is still so popular.
04:06You just have to hear it one time as a child in a very plain version.
04:13And everybody will remind it for the rest of their lives.
04:17And it's a very clear message. I think that's the power of it.
04:21At the Charles Dickens Festival in Deventer, you can travel back into the Victorian age without needing a time machine.
04:27What's your favorite Christmas story?
04:33Merry Christmas!
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