DICKENS HOLIDAY VILLAGE 2023

Description

DICKENS HOLIDAY VILLAGE 2023
INDOORS in 2023 to allow daily, weather-free enjoyment
Raymond Chevrolet-Kia, Proud Title Sponsor



















Olde England comes alive in Historic Downtown Antioch, IL with handcrafted, lifelike figures representing scenes from the Dickens Era. Each Dickens Character is created by community volunteers. Read the story of each Dickens Scene as your enjoy our INDOOR location for 2023.

Experience this Volunteer Public Art Exhibit
 In 2023, we are hosting Dickens Holiday Village INSIDE for your enjoyment. Weather isn't a factor as you stroll through our Kringle's Christmas Village Indoor Showroom enjoying BOTH our Kringle's Oversized Shadowboxes AND our Dickens Characters.  You'll find several dozen "Dickens Scenes" Inside our Kringle Christmas Village Indoor Showroom located at #510 Orchard Street in Downtown Antioch, IL. To learn more about Kringle's Christmas Village - CLICK HERE.

All Dickens Characters are made from the ground up with this community public art program. Dickens Holiday Village will available to enjoy in Downtown Antioch daily Thanksgiving Day through New Year's Day 10 am till 8 pm. Each character exhibit has a plaque which describes the scene you are seeing and how life was in the Dickens Era. Each year, Dickens Holiday Village grows with additional handcrafted characters added to our Village. Dickens characters are created by our community volunteers.

PLUS, in 2023, Kringle Christmas Village Fun Continues! Kringle's Christmas Village offers dozens of oversized shadowboxes filled with miniature holiday scenes. When we say "oversized" we are talking about 6 feet tall shadowboxes!  Each shadowbox was lovingly created by those who enjoy the holiday Season!

Open daily beginning Thanksgiving through New Years, you'll enjoy browsing our Dickens Holiday Village Display INSIDE of our Kringle INDOOR SHOWROOM located at #510 Orchard Street Plaza (opposite end from Piggly Wiggly, past restaurants) in Downtown Antioch, IL.

Enjoy strolling through Kringle's Christmas Village enjoying both Kringle and Dickens Holiday Village. Learn more about the Dickens Era as you view each scene, each Dickens scene has a plaque with their story.

Thanks to the generosity of Raymond Chevrolet-Kia, the Antioch Chamber is continuing to offer FREE public viewing of our Dickens Holiday Program and Kringle Christmas Village!















Dickens Tour Opportunities - Walking Tours and Bus Tours

There are several types of tours available for Antioch's Dickens Holiday Village Thanksgiving Day through New Year's Day). Please contact the Antioch Chamber for complete tour information. We customize each tour to fit your group.  You might spot a Dickens character on the streets of Downtown Antioch with signage asking you to visit Kringle's Christmas Village to tour the complete Dickens Holiday Village Display.  If you are coming with friends or a small group, you can stop by Kringle's Christmas Village, located at #510 Orchard Street in Downtown Antioch. We will happily provide a Tour Guide for groups of 20+, donations appreciated. Tours may include a Dickens history, Kringle Display Tour, Viewing Downtown Shops, a Luncheon and a mid-afternoon dessert stop.

Please allow time to enjoy Antioch's quaint downtown and eateries as you enjoy our Dickens and Kringle Experiences.

Our Dickens Volunteers are very proud of what they created for our community and love to share their stories of the year-long project of bringing Dickens to life while leading a tour.

Dickens Holiday Village is a Community Volunteer Art Project hosted by the Antioch Chamber of Commerce.  Your support is greatly appreciated! Please send your donation to the Antioch Chamber, 882 Main Street, Antioch IL 60002, 847-395-2233.
A special "Thank You" to all of our wonderful artists who created our Dickens Characters!


 

Dickens Volunteers
A Community Volunteer Art Project

• In 2013 a Downtown Merchant - Charlie, brought the idea of a Dickens Art Project to the Antioch Chamber. Charlie occasionally travels for business and had seen a Dickens program in another state.  With the perseverance of Charlie, the Antioch Chamber began to explore the possibility how Dickens and what a Volunteer Art Project would entail.  

• The Antioch Chamber quickly learned that Volunteers are key to this program,  Among the many things that Antioch, IL is known for, volunteerism ranks near the top of the list! Dickens Holiday Village has been created from the ground up from volunteers . . . almost everything was handmade by  several volunteer committees which were formed to bring Dickens Holiday Village to Antioch:

• Mannequin Committee-each Dickens character is handmade by our volunteers, building the mannequins out of wood and even making some of the mannequins movable to pose for different scenes;

• Art Committee-our Artistic volunteers use styrophone heads, then sculpt them and paint them for our real life Dickens look. Each Dickens Head is a work of art in themselves and took the artist many hours to create.  A BIG Thank You to Sunny for her many hours of art donated to Dickens.  Art volunteers also create props as needed;

• Storyline Committee-these creative people wrote a story which we used as a template and worked together to create the Dickens experience. You'll see the happy side of the Dickens Era and also experience the sad side of Dickens as you see young children working to help support their families;

• Apparel Committee-a talented group of women bonded together to outfit our Dickens Characters in clothing appropriate to the Dickens Era, in many cases, creating the outfits in their own homes;

• Promotion Committee - these volunteers work with our business community to bring fun Dickens activities to the public to enjoy (even for your the dogs!);

• Snow Removal Committee (previous years) - if our Dickens  Characters get covered with snow, volunteer families will come and gently brush the snow off our Dickens Characters.
  
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