On the evening of Oct. 14, auditions for Dickens Christmas were held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 97 E. Genesee St. The process was informal. Syracuse.com reported that each person was asked to share a favorite holiday memory and sing a few bars of a carol, or any song they felt comfortable with. "You don't need to be a trained vocalist — we just need to gauge your vocal range," producing director Jim Greene told the outlet.
Dickens Christmas is a volunteer production that recruits in October and rehearses in November, then performs on ten days between Nov. 27 and Dec. 24. By the time the World's Smallest Christmas Parade comes down Fennell Street, much of the cast has been working on its characters for weeks.
A Cast That Includes Children and Whole Families
The 2026 cast has more than 60 members, and about 20% of them are under 17, according to the same syracuse.com report. The open youth roles had a Victorian street-corner flavor: pickpockets, apple sellers, match girls and finishing school girls. Greene described the age mix as a deliberate choice. "We feel it's important to keep the program multi-generational," he said, adding that young performers often come back year after year and bring their friends. The article also noted that families often join together.
Some of the leadership has been in place for years. A 2023 profile in Life in the Finger Lakes named Jim Greene as producing director and his wife, Tracey Greene, as the costumer. It said Jim's first Dickens Christmas role was a rat catcher, and that sponsors later encouraged him to take over leadership. The same profile described the premise. It is 1842, and Charles Dickens is visiting Skaneateles with Queen Victoria, studying the townspeople and their quirks while he gathers material for "A Christmas Carol." Greene plays Dickens and opens the festivities with this line:
"Dearest friends, I am overjoyed that this festive time of year has returned, and Her Majesty Queen Victoria and I will soon be basking in the warmth of a Skaneateles Christmas!"
That premise explains why the cast spends so much time on character work. The show takes place on the sidewalk, among shoppers, so each performer has to stay in character through a long afternoon of conversations nobody scripted. One cast change carries over into this year. According to syracuse.com, Tarin Campanella took over the role of Queen Victoria in 2025, and in 2026 her husband joins the production for the first time.
November Is When the Show Gets Built
Between the October auditions and opening day there are three weekends of rehearsal. Syracuse.com reported that the cast spends the three weekends before the festival working on music under music director Patrick Glaub and developing their characters. Greene credited artistic director Maria DeMitchell with teaching the improvisation that holds the street theater together. "We set the bar high, and young actors rise to it," he said.
With a Nov. 27 opening, those rehearsal weekends fall in November. That means the village's Dickens season is longer than the dates on the poster. Before the public sees anything, children are learning period carols and adults are learning to answer a stranger's question as a Victorian undertaker would. The 2023 profile listed the kinds of characters a visitor might meet: Ebenezer Scrooge, the Christmas ghosts, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, Father Christmas, an undertaker named Barry M. Deep, and assorted street urchins and ne'er-do-wells. That list describes the show as it ran in 2023, not a confirmed 2026 lineup.
The event's history follows the same pattern of community effort. An Eagle News history column dates Dickens Christmas to 1993, when village merchants started it as a step back into Victorian England, with costumed actors, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, horse-drawn carriages and carolers. Today the production company is Scarlett Rat Entertainment, and WRVO's calendar listing says the event is presented by the Skaneateles Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Sherwood Inns & Appetites and the Skaneateles-area business community.
The Ten Days the Public Sees
The rehearsals lead to a short, fixed run. The Skaneateles Area Chamber of Commerce lists these 2026 dates, with performances from noon to 4 p.m.:
- Friday, Nov. 27. Opening day begins at noon with the World's Smallest Christmas Parade. Dickens and his entourage head down Fennell Street to Jordan Street to Genesee Street and finish on the porch of the Hannum House.
- Saturday, Nov. 28, and Sunday, Nov. 29.
- Saturday, Dec. 5, and Sunday, Dec. 6.
- Saturday, Dec. 12, and Sunday, Dec. 13.
- Saturday, Dec. 19, and Sunday, Dec. 20.
- Thursday, Dec. 24. The Christmas Eve show is shorter and runs from noon to 2:30 p.m., according to the Chamber's detail listing for that date and WRVO. The Chamber's main schedule shows noon to 4 p.m. for every date, so the 2:30 p.m. end time comes from the more detailed listing.
Weekdays stay quiet apart from opening day and Christmas Eve. On Saturdays and Sundays, the show is concentrated in a four-hour window in the middle of the day.
How the Village Handles Show Days
The Chamber's Dickens page explains how the village absorbs the crowds.
- Paid parking is in the municipal lot between Jordan and State streets.
- Free parking is in the Austin Park Pavilion lot at the corner of Jordan and Austin streets, and in the lower gravel lot at Skaneateles High School across from Leitch Avenue.
- A free shuttle runs from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on opening day and all four weekends. It connects those lots with the village and stops on Fennell Street in front of Hidden Fish.
The shuttle runs half an hour before and after the performances, so there is room on both ends of the show. Local support pays for it. The Chamber credits First Student buses, Doug's Fish Fry, Tour Cayuga and the Skaneateles Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Volunteers outside the cast have their own role. The Chamber coordinates Salvation Army bell ringers during the event and staffs two kettles in one-hour shifts, ideally with two volunteers per kettle. Ringing runs from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and on the Friday after Thanksgiving. According to the Chamber, 90% of the money raised stays in Skaneateles. It goes through the Skaneateles Outreach Program to help local families with food, utility bills, medical care and self-help programs. For anyone who wants to take part without auditioning, an hour at a kettle is the easiest way in. The Chamber's number for Dickens Christmas information is 315-685-0552.
A New Stop on Genesee Street This Year
This is the first Dickens season for one new business near where the parade ends. Haley Flannery opened the second location of All My Friends Books at 3 E. Genesee St. on July 31, syracuse.com reported. The paper noted that Skaneateles had gone more than a decade without a local bookstore. The shop is about 800 square feet. It stocks curated fiction and nonfiction, a section for kids and young adults, and toys, stickers, tote bags, notebooks and stationery. The original store is still at 51 Main St. in Cortland.
The village's December street theater is built on "A Christmas Carol," so a Genesee Street bookshop fits naturally with it. The rest of the village's year has its own patterns, which are covered in our look at summer weeknights in Skaneateles and on our Skaneateles neighborhood page. The holiday season starts in November with rehearsals that the public doesn't see, and the first public performance is the parade at noon on Friday, Nov. 27.
If you live near the village and want to compare notes on how Dickens weekends shape life around Genesee and Fennell streets, I'm glad to talk. Andréa Price works with clients across Skaneateles all year, and knowing the calendar is part of how I work. Let's Connect.
