North Dakota's Christmas Capital, Dickens Village Festival, Is Coming Back This Year Better Than Ever
By Leah|Published November 17, 2019
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Leah
Author
Leah moved to North Dakota when she was 12 years old and has traveled from the Red River Valley to the badlands and many places in between. She loves small-town life and currently enjoys living on a small farm in the ND prairie. She's always had a passion for writing and has participated in novel writing challenges such as NaNoWriMo multiple times. Her favorite part about this job is recognizing small businesses that deserve a boost and seeing the positive affect her articles can have on their traffic, especially in rural areas that might have otherwise gone overlooked.
Christmas is just around the corner and that means it’s time for a visit to North Dakota’s Christmas Capital. This town has become a special holiday destination in the state, and it’s only getting bigger and better every year. Check out this special festival happening from the end of November and throughout December, and you’ll want to make it a yearly tradition. Here’s the rundown on this huge event:
Throughout the rest of the year, Garrison, North Dakota is known as the Walleye Capital for its great walleye fishing and friendly mascot Wally the Walleye. During the holidays, however, even Wally gets dressed up for their special city-wide festival that has made this place known as ND's Christmas Capital, as well.
That festival is the Dickens Village Festival. Throughout weekends in November and December, the whole town transforms into scenes from the classic tale by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. Festivities include lighted parades, townsfolk dressed in 19th century London character, and so much more.
Since the original story is set in England, Garrison becomes a sort of slice of the country all the way in the prairie. They put up telephone boxes and even have a red double-decker bus you can ride called the Queen Elizabus.
Each weekend of the event, many vendors can be found around the city with refreshments. There is also a craft show, quilt show, and unique stores open for visitors to do some gift shopping.
This event is perfect for the whole family, with fun children's activities like top hat decorating and animals to visit. Adults will enjoy some of the live entertainment that ranges from comedians to music - and, of course, there will be performances of the famous play this is all inspired by!
If that wasn't enough, there are also quirky and fun activities like the fruit cake tossing competition, English high teas, and more. There's so much to do at the Dickens Village Festival, you'll surely need a whole weekend to experience it all.
The Dickens Village Festival will be happening the 2019 weekends of November 29 to December 1, December 6-7, and December 13-14. You can learn more about it and all it has to offer on the official website. Have you ever experienced this event before?
