A Merry Dickensian Christmas
If you are looking for a festive outing in London, the Charles Dickens Museum should be top of your list. The author Charles Dickens is synonymous with Christmas, something the museum embraces by adorning the house in Victorian-style Christmas decorations - a very Dickensian Christmas!
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." - Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
The Charles Dickens Museum
Is there a museum more Christmassy than the Charles Dickens Museum, home of the author of A Christmas Carol? The answer to this is confirmed as you are greeted by their bright red door complete with wreath and garlands wrapped around the railings of the beautiful Georgian terrace.
The Charles Dickens Museum is situated in the middle of Doughty Street in Holborn. It is the only remaining London home of the author, who lived there between 1837 and 1839. The museum hosts the world's biggest collection relating to Dickens, including furniture, paintings, prints, photographs, letters, manuscripts, rare editions and personal items. The house was where he found fame writing Oliver Twist, Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby.
A Dickensian Christmas
Dickens is forever tied to the Christmas season. Many of our ideas about what makes a "merry Christmas", including this very phrase, came from his novel A Christmas Carol. So, at Christmas, the museum decorates each room in the Victorian Christmas style, creating a glimpse of how the festive holiday was celebrated by the author, his family and friends.
A Christmas Carol was an instant hit when it was published in 1843 and has never been out of print. Long hours of industrial toil and a newly urban population's displacement from rural communities meant that the celebration of Christmas was in decline. The novel highlighted how Christmas had lost its former purpose, as a time of charitable giving, and thus helped revive a sense of social conscience. As a holiday that often becomes a celebration of wealth and consumerism, its message continues to be relevant today, perhaps more so after this difficult year.
Support Museums!
As an independent museum, the Charles Dickens Museum needs public support. This little museum boasts a fascinating and intimate insight into one of the most influential authors. Even if you do not make it to the house at Christmas time, it is open all year round to explore its many treasures (subject to pandemics).
References
https://dickensmuseum.com/
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/21/dickens-christmas-carol-didnt-invent-holiday-help-revived-it-lauren-laverne