The Dickens Christmas Village
Macy’s acquired the celebrated 6000 square foot Dickens Christmas Village from Philadelphia’s flagship Strawbridge & Clothier Department Store when that venerable 8th and Market Street store closed. Ninety-six figures, many animated, depict scenes in Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (1843). The story, of course, reflects the redeeming nature of unselfishness and generosity. While not as popular as the Wanamaker Light Show, the village had its intended effect, drawing droves of customers to the fourth floor of Strawbridge’s. For the 1985 opening of “Strawbridge & Clothier’s ‘A Christmas Carol, Cedric Charles Dickens (1916-2006), a great grandson of the novelist, presided at the season opening.
The attraction was in a corner on the fourth floor of Strawbridges next to the children’s section, and was built in Newport, Delaware, by designer Ray Daub and Mary Berg, of “It Figures,” a company that specialized in retail displays. The project, divided into 26 individual scenes from the novel, cost some six figures and took 22 months to build, with the assistance of two master carpenters, Mark Tonnesen and T.J. Ford. Daub and Berg walked the streets of London on several trips in search of authenticity for the 3/4 size scale model of Victorian London, coming back with some period antiques including spectacles and Tiny Tim’s cup. The 7000 cobblestones are made of fiberglass reinforced concrete, individually hand painted and mortared into place. The heads of the figures were modeled in clay (2000 pounds worth) built up on styrofoam then covered in a plaster mold before being cast in lifelike latex, with Daub doing the male figures and Berg (a puppet maker) the female ones and the children. After each head was made and painted, hair was added and it is set atop a wire frame on a wood base. Clothing, modeled on authentic dress researched at the Victoria & Albert Museum, was made fresh for the characters covering this frame, then sometimes literally run through dirt or run across nails to give it an appropriate weathered look. The eyes were handblown glass. Motors give animation to many figures. Originally a low fog ran through the attraction, and store employees dressed as Bobbies directed visitors. The figure of the undertaker is said to be modeled on Daub himself, who said he always worked with a cigarette hanging from his lips.
After Strawbridge’s closed, Macy’s installed a drop ceiling in Egyptian Hall in the Fall of 2006, and placed the show there during the attraction’s move into the John Wanamaker Building 3rd Floor Market Street. Macy’s also attired attendants in period garb and sometimes has carolers sing from the organ console loft. (British bobbies were the guides at Strawbridges, which featured street noises of carriages, horses and roasted chestnut vendors.) Children had an opportunity to sit on Santa’s lap and share Christmas wishes, and an opening lobby paid tribute to Macy’s debt to the Yule season with spines of giant books paying tribute to classics such as “Great Expectations” and “Miracle on 34th Street.” Much of the signage of the shops have signage with names that reward lovers of Dickens and his life with subtle added meaning, such as the poulterer, Micawber.
Lit Brothers department store (“Hats Trimmed Free of Charge”) had a Colonial Christmas Village, which is now at the American Treasure Tour Museum in Oaks, Pa. Roy Insley’s fanciful model “Wanamaker’s at Christmas” was also displayed there. Following Macy’s Center City closure, the Dickens Village was operated quite successfully at the Wanamaker Building by the Philadelphia Visitor Center in 2025.
