Small town comes alive with Christmas spirit thanks to unique-in-Canada Dickens festival

CBC's virtual road trip series Land of Living Stories explores the hidden gems across Saskatchewan. Reporter Janani Whitfield hit the road to Carlyle in search of inspiring stories of community spirit. 

When Dawn Faber heard that the beloved annual Dickens festival in her community of Carlyle, Sask., might have to fold, she was aghast.

"We can't let this festival die. It brings so much into our town," she remembers thinking two years ago.

At that time, volunteer numbers were starting to flag after nearly two decades of the town-wide event that kicks off the Christmas season at the start of December.

As it turned out, everyone else in the committee felt the same way about preserving the beloved tradition. Now it's still going strong, with the 21st edition taking place just this past weekend in the town, located about 190 kilometres southeast of Regina.

Faber isn't originally from the small town. She moved to Carlyle from Saskatoon 12 years ago for a relationship. Now, even though that relationship ended, her love affair with Carlyle and its Dickens festival is still going strong.

"Everybody's got this joyous atmosphere going on," Faber said.

She said it feels like a magic spell descends upon the whole town, as everyone from the smallest children to the oldest citizens dons their antique clothes and fills the streets in a recreation of a Victorian-era English town.

The tradition began when an original committee member's visit to a similar festival in Garrison, N.D., sparked the idea that Carlyle might do the same. The local hall turns into Fezziwig's Pub, and there are horse-drawn carriage rides, markets, a high tea and a Christmas play, among other annual staples.

A town of only 1,500 people in the middle of Saskatchewan staging what could be Canada's sole Dickens festival is not so strange, when one considers the literary inspiration in its founding.

Carlyle is part of a line of towns named after authors and poets, including Wordsworth (William Wordsworth), Browning (Robert Browning), Lampman (Archibald Lampman) and Service (Robert Service). 

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish historian and essayist who was a contemporary of Dickens, with the two exchanging letters and ideas. 

The cast of a Dickens plot is all about characters, and while Carlyle might not have young orphans named David Copperfield or Oliver Twist, it boasts its own familiar cast of characters that pop up over the weekend. Father Christmas walks down the street, and Scrooge shakes his cane and spits out "Bah, humbug!" for good measure.

Like several others in town, Garth Herman has a hand-sewn outfit —  an English "bobby," or policeman —made for the occasion. He adopts what he describes as a "terrible" Irish accent while entertaining people with goofy comments, like threats to arrest them or warnings to watch out for the brownies on offer at the "high" tea.

"It's a way to entertain people and give them a bit of an experience when they come to Carlyle," Herman said, laughing.

Among the hundreds of people that descended upon the town for this year's festival was first-timer Carol Schaab from Langenburg, who came with her husband and some friends from nearby Kenosee.

"I'm awestruck at how beautiful it is, and all the work that's gone into it," Schaab said as she sat and nibbled on some dainties while listening to a harpist. "It's just stunning and fabulous."

It's just the sort of reaction that Faber loves hearing, reflecting the passion of a town that has kept the spirit of Dickens alive in Saskatchewan and hopes to keep it going strong to its 25th anniversary and beyond.

"It just feels so good to be here — I love spreading joy."

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