Dicken's Christmas Festival, Salt Lake City

"What's to-day, my fine fellow?" said Scrooge.

"To-day!" replied the boy. “Why, Christmas Day."

In these famous lines from A Christmas Carol, Scrooge might've been asking the wrong question. He should've asked, "What's this weekend?" And the boy's reply: "Why, 1893 all over again."

For three days in December, the Dickens' Christmas Festival brings to life the sights, sounds, and experiences of 19th-century London. Visitors are free to stroll up and down the festival's narrow village streets while browsing the unique gifts and keepsakes of participating vendors. Actors in period costumes will enliven the festival even further, with fortune tellers, orphans, and royalty mixing in amongst the crowd and olde English shops. Of course, the festival's namesake is well represented, too. Fagin, Scrooge, and other characters from Dickens stories roam the streets, and mini productions of tales such as Oliver Twist unfold on multiple stages. Father Christmas also spends the entire day listening to children wish for presents such as the electric hoop-and-sticks that are all the rage right now.