Galveston Rebounds With Holiday Celebration
By Kate Nickel | Online Only | Nov. 26, 2008
This weekend, despite massive flood damage from September's Hurricane Ike, the city of Galveston, Tex., will celebrate its 35th annual holiday celebration.
Beginning Nov. 30, the Galveston Historical Foundation will again host the wildly popular Dickens on the Strand. Named after Charles Dickens and the city's important shipping port, the festival has been vital to the restoration of historic Galveston.
"We're going to hold Dickens 2008 so that people can see what's going on, and that Galveston is going to come back," says Clay Wade, director of events at the Galveston Historical Foundation. "We decided that the community needed it, and that the [Galveston Historical Foundation] needed it. All of us at GHF felt the strong need to continue with the tradition that is the grand holiday event for Galveston."
Once called the "Wall Street of the Southwest," the Strand Historic District saw its heyday in the 19th century. By the 1970s, however, many buildings were abandoned, leaving one of America's most impressive collections of Victorian architecture in decay. The festival, meant to evoke the romance of "A Christmas Carol," revived community interest in the Strand.
Hurricane Ike hit the historic district especially hard, flooding it in seven to 12 feet of water. Though workers have cleared the debris, there is still much work to be done.
Many at the Galveston Historical Foundation consider the festival a natural solution to Ike's devastation. After all, the foundation originally conceived the event as a way to generate interest and revenue for historic buildings that desperately needed restoration, just as they do now, after the storm.
"What appeals to me about this is that when we started Dickens in the 70s, there were all these beautiful old buildings, but almost nothing else was there," says National Trust Senior Vice President and festival participant Peter Brink. "Now, with the aftermath of Ike, it's almost like going back to the beginning, closer to what the festival was originally."
As in years past, ticket holders will be regaled with tales from old sea salts, and treated to some classic chanteys and jigs. At the Wedding Ceremony, spectators can watch couples in Victorian attire marry or renew their vows. Piccadilly Circus, another favorite, will feature performances and treasure hunts, even elephant rides for kids. The foundation is offering several new attractions this year: an exhibit of artifacts from Dickens' life and book signings by his great-great-grandson, Henry Dickens Hawksley. And, as always, there will be parades, performances, carolers, and more than 150 venders of Victorian foods and goods. Those who arrive in Victorian garb will be admitted for half price—a perk even Scrooge would appreciate.
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