Stony Brook Helps Transform Port Jefferson into a Storybook for 29th Dickens Festival

By Saturday afternoon, Port Jefferson no longer felt like a village on the North Shore but a Victorian storybook cracked open.

Carolers in bonnets mingled outside storefronts, street actors performed lines from A Christmas Carol and children pulled their parents toward the giant snow globe set up beside Kilwins. The 29th annual Charles Dickens Festival had arrived, turning the streets of Port Jefferson into what festival chair Allan Varela calls “a living Dickens stage.” 

This year, Stony Brook University and Stony Brook Medicine were major sponsors of the December 6-7 festival, supporting concerts, theatrical productions, entire venues and magical holiday experiences.

Stony Brook Medicine sponsored events at the Village Center, including a multitude of concerts and live play performances. Stony Brook University covered events at the Presbyterian Church, the Harborview Christian Church, Christ Church Episcopal and the Masonic Lodge. The SBU and SBM Christmas tree was also on display at the Festival of Trees at the Village Center, an event that runs through the end of the year.

“The Charles Dickens Festival has been a favorite tradition in Port Jefferson for many years,” said Erika Karp, associate director of University and Medicine Community Relations. “Stony Brook University and Stony Brook Medicine are proud to support this annual event for our communities to enjoy.”

What began three decades ago as a way to draw people into the village during a slow season has grown into one of Long Island’s most beloved winter events. “Back then, it got very quiet here,” Varela explained. “But Theatre Three always did A Christmas Carol, so they figured two plus two equals four, let’s do a Dickens festival.”

For Varela, the sense of community is the point and the payoff. “These people are walking around, and they’re happy,” he said. “Kids are smiling.” He said that every minute, there is another moment that reminds him why they do the festival again and again. 

Run entirely by volunteers through the Port Jefferson Arts Council, the festival draws crowds from across the country and from across the Atlantic. “We’ve gotten as many as 60 people from the EU: Germany, France, Italy, England,” Varela said. “They hear about us, and they want to see more.”

The draw is obvious the moment you step into any of the festival’s dozens of venues. By the Harbormaster’s Building on West Broadway, Tiny Tim’s Train Station whirs with loops of intricate model trains built by the Reed Family Train Project, stopping visitors of all ages in their tracks.

Inside the Port Jefferson Village Center, sponsored by Stony Brook Medicine, the new Charles Dickens Creative Study stops families long enough to hear a collective chorus of awe. The second-floor exhibit, designed with towering puppets of the Christmas ghosts, sits just steps from Stony Brook-supported concerts taking place upstairs.

Inside the Presbyterian Church, one of several venues covered by Stony Brook University’s sponsorship, the Comsewogue Middle School Band warmed up on the altar, preparing for a performance as parents filled the pews. Across the street, A Christmas Carol Radio Show played to a full room.

Every August, rehearsals begin for the festival’s 120 street characters — Scrooge, Fagin, the Cratchits — who roam the sidewalks performing miniature plays. “It’s real acting, real commitment,” Varela said.

Meanwhile, inside the Methodist Church, one of the busiest hubs, children visited Santa, decorated ornaments in Mrs. Cratchit’s Craftworks or dashed toward the Cookie Walk with bags of homemade treats.

Beyond the characters and church halls, the festival opens and unfolds with its own small rituals, moments that knit the weekend together. The Grand East Main Street Parade on Saturday morning set the tone, led by the Port Jefferson Ferry float and trailed by Miss Long Island and Miss Long Island Teen, who waved from their bundle of coats and scarves. The parade funneled the crowd toward the Village Center for the opening ceremony. 

Scrooge himself performed a short, thunderous excerpt from A Christmas Carol, drawing laughs from children pressed against the railing. Throughout the day, locals dressed in handmade period costumes, some longtime performers, some first-timers, slipped in and out of roles, staging miniature Dickens scenes at Castaways or across from The Wellness Shop. 

By late Sunday, as the light thinned over the harbor, families drifted toward Maple Avenue for the Pickwick’s Puppet Parade, the whimsical, slightly chaotic march that closes the festival each year. Papier-mâché heads bobbed over the crowd; children followed the puppeteers toward Village Hall, where the Arts Council held its closing ceremony. Deputy Mayor Xena Ugrinsky acknowledged the volunteers “who stepped into the spirit of giving this weekend.”

Then, Assemblywoman Rebecca Kassay stepped forward for the tree lighting. A countdown erupted in the crowd before the switch was flipped, illuminating the towering pine beside Village Hall. Choir students led a soft, warm rendition of “Deck the Halls,” their voices rising with the glow of the lights.

— Lily Miller