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Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley’s Ghost, and the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come can be found hanging around on San Benito Street in Hollister this holiday season as the San Benito County Free Library and the Hollister Downtown Association join together to celebrate Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.”
“Our goal is to get children reading and out in the community,” said Stephanie Jones, the library’s outreach coordinator. “And we really enjoy the classic books that Dickens wrote, which are still very popular today.”
A prolific and very popular author in his time, Dickens published “A Christmas Carol” (or more accurately, “A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas)” on Dec. 19, 1843. The first edition sold out before Christmas Day that year and was a fixture at public readings that Dickens performed from 1849 until his death in 1870.
Since its publication, the book has been a Christmas season favorite and has never been out of print. Amazon lists over 100 editions and versions of “A Christmas Carol” currently available in English, and the Internet Movie Database references over 300 films and television adaptations based on the tale.
According to organizer Theresa Borina, chair of the Downtown Association’s promotion committee, “A Christmas Carol” was not the first choice. That honor goes to “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” by Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel —a much longer book.
“We bought two copies,” she said. “I was taking them apart to mount them on cardboard, and I realized it was so long that I would not have enough windows on San Benito to display them. So I had to start all over again.”
The version of “A Christmas Carol” used in the StoryWalk is a colorful retelling by author Tony Mitton and illustrator Mike Redman, published by Orchard Books in 2020. Told in verse and geared toward a young audience, Mitton has previously won a poetry award for his work from the Center for Literacy.
Pages from the book are currently on display in the front windows of 14 businesses and organizations on San Benito Street. A two-page self-guided tour is available at the first stop, the San Benito County Free Library, at 470 5th Street, and is also posted on the library’s website.
The guide includes a quiz on the book and a list of all the locations, in order, of the windows displaying “Christmas Carol” pages. Children who have completed the entire walk will receive a goodie bag from the office of the Hollister Downtown Association at the last stop.
“Most businesses I asked were super friendly about participating,” Borina said. “Our goal is to bring people down and at least peek in the windows of the stores to see what is inside. It is an opportunity for people to discover some great shops they might never have known were there.”
The StoryWalk will be on display through the first week of January.
Borina said the Downtown Association might sponsor more walks in the future, and they are always looking for volunteers to help with similar projects.
The StoryWalk’s self-guided tour stops are:
- San Benito County Free Library, 470 Fifth Street
- The Baler Steakhouse, 500 San Benito Street
- Mason McDuffie Mortgage Corporation, 530 San Benito Street
- The Esperanza Center, 562 San Benito Street
- Mad Pursuit Brewing Company, 628 San Benito Street
- Cheung Sheng Chinese Restaurant, 730 San Benito Street
- Ohana Shaved Ice, 738 San Benito Street
- Country Rose Cafe, 756 San Benito Street
- Tuxedo & Styles, 731 San Benito Street
- The Beauty Lounge, 721 San Benito Street
- Farmhouse Cafe, 615 San Benito Street
- Heavenly Bakery, 601 San Benito Street
- Hi-Outlet, 549 San Benito Street
- Hollister Downtown Association, 535 San Benito Street
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