FROM THE COURIER NEWS (Gannett Co., Inc.)
November 23, 2006
Your weekend guide to Dickens Days
By WALTER O'BRIEN
Correspondent
It doesn't take a midnight visit from Marley's Ghost to remind Clintonians about Thanksgiving weekend. The Dickens Days celebration comes but once a year, and downtown Clinton goes all out to ring in the holiday season with Victorian charm. The quaint buildings of Main Street Clinton will echo with Christmas carols, music and entertainment, while horse-drawn carriages ride shoppers up and down the streets from Friday to Sunday.
The Clinton Guild conceived the popular holiday tradition years ago as a way to keep shoppers in town for the big post-Thanksgiving shopping weekend instead of heading to the malls. Themes varied for the first few years, but they soon realized that Dickens Days was a perfect match for Clinton.
"It doesn't change a lot from year to year, but how can you change something like this?" asked Carol Beder, owner of Heartstrings on Main Street and organizer of this year's event. "People really have come to depend on it after 24 years, and they get nervous when we talk about changing any of it."
Stores will be done up in their holiday best, and Father Christmas himself will stroll the streets. Ebenezer Scrooge also may make an appearance this year.
"This will be the 15th year for the North Hunterdon Brass Band," Beder said. "And actors from Franklin Theatre Works will stage scenes along Main Street."
Franklin Theatre Works is a non-profit community theatre arts group based in Quakertown. They give children in Hunterdon County training and direction in theatre arts for no charge.
"This is our first time doing Dickens Days, and the children are very excited," said Maeve Pambianchi, the theater's director. "We'll do some caroling, and the kids will also perform songs from Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' and the Broadway musical 'Scrooge.'"
Many of the town's specialty stores and dining establishments really get into the spirit of Dickens Days.
"We're offering special dishes named after Dickens characters," said Dino Rentoulis of the Towne Restaurant. "We'll even have a 'Bah Humbug Burger' on the menu."
Harvey Finkel is a relative newcomer to Main Street, although his Clinton Book Shop has been a local fixture for decades.
"This is my fourth Christmas and Dickens Days here," Finkel said. "It's festive, it's fun, and the town gets all decorated. We'll have four authors of children's and young adult books doing signing events during the weekend."
Clinton's downtown proves the old adage: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
"This is our first Christmas on Main Street, but really it's our 26th," said Anne Rossi, co-owner of Rock The World Cafe.
Anne's mother, Mary Kayler, began her clothing store, "Added Touches by Mary," on this spot in 1980. Rossi joined her in 1992, but this year the store had a major transformation.
"It's now three stores in one," Rossi said. "We added the Addicted jeans store upstairs, and in front we opened Rock The World Cafe with desserts, sandwiches, Starbucks coffees and Tazo teas."
Addicted carries a diverse range of jeans, whose unusual brands 7 For All Mankind, Free People and Citizens of Humanity. And the cleverness carries through to the cafe's rock music-themed menu, with the David Bowie Heroes sandwich and the Bob Dylan Brownie.
Many shoppers prefer small town Main Street to the big, bustling malls.
Lisa Wazenski of Clinton and daughter Morgan do all of their gift shopping downtown.
"You could never find the beautiful things that places like Heartstrings have at the mall," Wazenski said. "And Good Toys has great things for kids."
Jean Raper of Bethlehem Township was asked by her mother if they'd be coming to Dickens Days again this year.
"We always shop in Clinton," Raper said. "We stop in every store from one end of Main Street and back again. On Dickens Days, the horses and carriages are so cute. We'll be here."
There's plenty of free parking in the town's municipal lots, or you can park at the Red Mill Museum Village for $5, which benefits the museum and its programs.
Dickens Days are not to be missed. And when they're over, the Famous Clinton Guild Christmas Parade on Dec. 1 isn't far behind. And with Candlelight Night on Dec. 14, luminaria will line the streets for more horse-drawn carriage rides and late-night shopping.