ORLANDO — For more than a decade, Central Florida’s theater community was quick to note: if Halloween is coming up fast, it must be time for Phantasmagoria!
Now audiences can make note of something similar as the holidays approach: if Christmas is coming up fast, it must be time for Phantasmagoria’s Christmas Show!
And yes indeed, that’s true this year.
As the holly jolly Christmas spirit sweeps over us, the Victorian Performance Troupe known as Phantasmagoria is taking that final word — “spirit” — and adding some ghosting tidings to their holiday show, a return of their unique version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The difference this year, though, is that Dickens’ other ghost stories are getting added into the spooky/fun mix, a haunting combination for sure, notes Phantasmagoria’s ringleader, Bryon.
This show, Phantasmagoria A Very Dickens Christmas, runs from Dec. 11-28 this year in multiple communities across Central Florida. So, a haunting we will go!
What is Phantasmagoria Doing for Christmas This Year?
A Very Dickens Christmas: A Christmas Carol and MORE Ghost Stories from Charles Dickens, salutes not just one of the most beloved Christmas novellas (and ghost stories) in literary history, but also the fact that Dickens himself appreciated a good ghost story, and the adventures of Scrooge and Jacob Marley wasn’t the only one he composed in his lifetime. Combining several of them, Byron notes, made perfect sense for this production.
“Why celebrate only one Dickens ghost story of Christmas when you can celebrate many?” Byron adds, promising that this production will be a “wonderfully ‘spirited’ way to celebrate the year end festivities with Phantasmagoria’s evocative storytellers, dancers, and performers as they bring the heartwarming haunts of Charles Dickens to glorious life on stage.”
What is Phantasmagoria: A Very Dickens Christmas?
As the Charles Dickens Museum notes, the famed British author was no stronger to the ghost story, and not just from the acclaim he received for A Christmas Carol.
“Charles Dickens was a master storyteller, whose novels such as Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities have been enjoyed for well over 150 years,” the Museum notes on its website. “But Dickens was also a lover of the supernatural. He was a sceptic — he did not particularly believe in ghosts — and yet he loved to hear, retell and to write ghost stories.”
It is known that as a child, Dickens was often beguiled by his nursemaid’s ghoulish stories, which helped the author develop a lifetime fascination with ghosts, apparitions and eerie supernatural coincidences.
As Byron points out, Phantasmagoria is eager to tap into that ghostly sensibility as well.
A Very Dickens Christmas will run from “the well known and loved A Christmas Carol to “hidden gems from Dickens including ‘The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain,’ ‘The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton,’ ”What Christmas is as We Grow Older’ and much more,” the Phantasmagoria team notes. “Phantasmagoria invites you to gather round the Hearth this Holiday Season for a festive journey through the many Holiday Ghost stories of Charles Dickens.”
Suitably intrigued, Freeline Media reached out to Byron to learn more about what Phantasmagoria has in store for us.
Freeline Media: Theater productions of A Christmas Carol tend to be full-length to capture the entire Dickens novella, but this Phantasmagoria show will feature numerous Dickens ghost stories. Tell us about the origins of this change.
Byron: We knew that this year we wanted to return to Dickens, but in combination with some of his other Christmas tales! He has so many, and people tend to forget that because Carol sort of takes on a life of its own. In the past we have done the full length Carol, but we have also done it in combination — quite successfully — with The Canterville Ghost. The last few years we have done a variety of Victorian Ghost Stories of Christmas, and that has gone smashingly. The troupe wanted to return to Dickens, but with many of his other Christmas treats along for the celebration, bringing some of them to life on stage for our audiences here that may be completely unaware of them. Remember that part of our mission is to’ ‘keep the stories alive’ and what better way to do so then introduce these Christmas tales to new audiences.
FM: Some patrons see the A Christmas Carol ghosts as scary, while others see the entire story as very sentimental. How do you feel that Dickens approached his ghost stories?
Byron: Yes. LOL.Both are true of course. It is a lovely, sentimental, terrifying ghost story of reclamation and redemption — and that is why so many love it. It plays on a variety of levels for both the audience and the performers. As the troupe, we love both of those things — falling into the spookiness and sometimes real terror of the ghosts, while also relishing in the heartwarming sentimentality of the story. The ghosts are there for a reason, without each of them helping Scrooge look both inward and outward, the lovely change could never happen for him — or for Marley. Remember that Marley also wins in a wonderful way . . . perhaps there is hope for him in some Christmas yet to come. For the audience of course, they go on this well known journey along with Scrooge, so perhaps there are moments of inner reclamation for everyone.
FM: A Christmas Carol is filled with social commentary about social inequality, poverty and justice, and compassion. Do you find Dickens approaches his other ghostly tales in the same manner?
Byron: He approached life like that, yes. His stories and his essays illustrate it, and we end this performance with an excerpt from one of his works entitled “What Christmas is as We Grow Older” that outright speaks to some of those things. A call for embracing. Those were always on his mind and that is what makes his works hold gravity and pertinence here in 2025, as much as they did back in the mid 1800’s.
FM: Tell us about how Phantasmagoria’s approach to holiday-themed productions differs from your Halloween shows.
Byron: Well you hit on that with your second question when you mentioned the word “sentimental.” While we always approach even our most intense and terrifying ghost stories with a heartfelt mission, when we get to the Christmas tales, we get to relish in a bit of that sentimentality. Real tears flow on that stage oftentimes during our Christmas productions — it is hard not to. It is as much a holiday gift to us, as it is to the audiences.
FM: Outside of A Christmas Carol, how does the holiday theme fit in with the rest of this production?
Byron: Interestingly, each story approaches the idea of “reclamation” but from a different angle or perspective. The stories take place in the Christmas season, but take different approaches. While “Goblins” is very silly and funny, “Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain” is grim, and “Carol” is loving and sentimental. The protagonists themselves, Scrooge, and Redlaw and Grubb, are all different but very similar in many ways. Of the other two stories we journey into, one is just plain fun — our excerpts from “Christmas Tree” in the introduction take a moment to relish in the idea of “telling ghost stories at Christmas” and of course those final moments with the audience are a “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” from us as Phantasmagoria, to them, our Phamily. It’s funny, because we could say this about almost every single year of our lives — past, present and future — but “We need that now more than ever”. Every single year has its challenges, its obstacles, its concerns — but by the end of that year we are hopefully ready to hold hands by the hearth, and ring in a new. Wishing you and all of yours a most Haunted Holiday!
Where Can I See Phantasmagoria: A Very Dickens Christmas?
Phantasmagoria: A Very Dickens Christmas will be performed in 5 Central Florida cities on the following dates:
- Thursday, Dec. 11 at The Ritz Theatre in Sanford
- Wednesday, Dec. 17 at The Bay Street Players in Eustis
- Friday & Saturday, Dec. 19/20 at Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Orlando
- Sunday, Dec. 21 at The Athens Theatre in Deland
- Sunday, Dec. 28 at Ocala Civic Theatre in downtown Ocala
To learn more or to purchase tickets, visit Phantasmagoria online at www.PhantasmagoriaOrlando.com. You can also visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PhantasmagoriaOrlando or find them on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and TikTok: @PhantasOrlando.
What is Phantasmagoria?
Two words: Victorian Horror.
For every Halloween season since 2009, the Phantasmagoria troupe has been entertaining local audiences through acrobatics, music, dance, giant puppets, and, most importantly, by recreating classic tales of terror from the vaults of legendary horror writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley and many others. Each year, there are new stories — not to mention new adventures for the circus-like performers themselves, and also sometimes new actors as well.
If you’ve lived in Central Florida over the past decade, that word Phantasmagoria needs no introduction. The troupe has been performing around Halloween, at the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival, and more recently, around Christmas with their unique version of A Christmas Carol.
Michael Freeman is an Orlando journalist, playwright, and author of the book A Christmas Eve Story. Contact him at Freelineorlando@gmail.com.
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