Victorian Christmas near San Francisco

  • 2022-10-05
A popular Christmas event is returning to the San Francisco area for 2022.

The Great Dickens Christmas Fair will be held at the Cow Palace Exhibition Halls in Daly City, a suburb that shares a border with San Francisco. The Cow Palace gives organizers over 140,000 square feet of space to recreate London as it was in the time of Charles Dickens. The fair is an immersive experience featuring hundreds of players in Victorian costumes interacting with event visitors. People attending the fair are encouraged to wear Victorian clothing, but it is not required.

The Cow Palace will be transformed into Charles Dickens’ London on a winter evening, with festive shops, dance floors, pubs, and music halls all lit theatrically, and set amid winding lanes and streets. Characters from both history and literature will be on hand, and traditional holiday fare, such as roasted chestnuts, will be for sale. Street vendors will advertise their goods, and handmade gifts will fill dozens of small shops lit by lamps. The event was first held in 1970, and has become a beloved tradition in the Bay Area.

The Charles Dickens Christmas Fair is open on five weekends: November 19 and 20; the Thanksgiving weekend of November 25, 26, and 27; December 3 and 4, December 10 and 11, and December 17 and 18. The hours on all days are 10.00 am until 6.00 pm. Organizers of events like this can make use of flyer printing to create maps for attendees.