Wrington Dickensian Christmas Fayre and its links with the Carol Philosophy In the September of 2001, a small group of friends in Wrington were at a party discussing what was special about Christmas to them. The conversation began  to centre on the importance of family, friends and the village community in Christmas celebrations as well as the birth of Christ. But the celebration at the lighting of the village Christmas tree had seemed to many to have lost a little of  its magic and sparkle in recent years, and had become rather low key, motivating only a few hardened souls to turn out on a cold winters night to witness the tree being illuminated, along with the traditional sight and sounds of the Salvation Army Band. We all concluded that it needed some new life breathed into it, and more people would come and enjoy this simple festive celebration if something a little bit special could took place.... but what? Charles Dickens has probably had more influence on the way we celebrate Christmas today than any single individual in human history except of course Jesus himself. Dickens was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era, but at the beginning of the Victorian period the celebration of Christmas was in decline. The medieval Christmas traditions, which combined the celebration of the birth of Christ with the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia (a pagan celebration for the Roman god of agriculture), and Germanic winter festival of Yule, had come under intense scrutiny by the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell in the 17th Century. With the Industrial Revolution in full swing in Dickens' time (mid 19th Century) it allowed workers little or no time for the celebration of Christmas. The romantic revival of Christmas traditions that occurred in Victorian times had several contributors including Prince Albert who brought the German custom of decorating the Christmas tree to England, the singing of Christmas Carols (which had all but disappeared at the turn of the 19th century) began to thrive again, and the first Christmas card appeared in the 1840's. But it was the Christmas stories of Dickens, particularly his masterpiece A Christmas Carol (published in 1843) that rekindled the joy of Christmas in Britain and America. Today, after nearly 170 years, A Christmas Carol continues to be relevant, sending a message that cuts through the materialistic trappings of the season and gets to the heart and soul of festive holidays in our cities, towns and villages. Dickens described the holidays as 'a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time:  the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of caring about people below them as if they really were fellow- passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journey's. This was what Dickens described for the rest of his life as the 'Carol Philosophy'. Dickens name had become so synonymous with Christmas that on hearing of his death in 1870 a little costermongers girl in London asked, 'Mr Dickens dead? Does this mean Father Christmas will die too?' A good enough reason we thought, to embark on a village Christmas celebration in Wrington which embraced the Dickens carol philosophy, by staging an open air celebration, the theme being simply to have a good time, charitable, and to bring the community together for an evening of free entertainment, with festive stalls, food and drink, all culminating in the lighting of the village Christmas tree. Now in its 10th year, the Wrington Dickensian Christmas Fayre has gone from strength to strength and is arguably the most popular village community event in the year.  

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