"At that time, it was just to bring folks downtown. This year, it's more about showing off downtown." That's how Christopher George, speaking for the City of Spartanburg, described A Dickens of a Christmas to WSPA before last year's event.
The two halves of that quote tell the event's history. This year's Dickens is Tuesday, Dec. 1, from 6 to 9 p.m. downtown, according to the City of Spartanburg's event calendar. The parts most people know are the carriages, the Santas and the tree lighting. The oldest part is the living windows, and they show better than anything else how much downtown has changed since the festival began.
A Festival Built for Vacant Glass
A 1999 letter to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal from Everett G. Powers, then president of the Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg, said the festival was established in 1994 as a community gift from groups the Arts Partnership helped fund.
George explained the original idea in the same WSPA interview. Member arts organizations put on performances inside the windows of storefronts that were empty at the time, because downtown "didn't have as much activity as it has now."
So the windows did a job. They put light, costumes and music behind glass that would otherwise have stayed dark on a December night, and they gave people a reason to walk between them. George said many of those performances still happen, "but now there's an actual business there as well."
The Year the Funding Went Away
The event nearly ended once. In March 2010, the Herald-Journal reported that the Arts Partnership had decided the year before that it could no longer sponsor Dickens, which had grown a great deal over its 16 years. The group chose to focus on Chapman Cultural Center activities and programs instead.
The Spartanburg County Historical Association filled the gap. Nancy Crowley, the event's founder and a historical association board member, said in a statement quoted in that story that the association "stepped in last year to save A Dickens of a Christmas when its funding was being eliminated." In 2010, the historical association handed primary sponsorship to the Spartanburg Downtown Association. Crowley said downtown's members were a better fit because they had a vested interest in the event's success.
That reasoning is worth a second look. In 2010, the case for Dickens moved from arts outreach to the businesses that benefit from the foot traffic. The same Herald-Journal story described thousands of people at Morgan Square who went on to eat in downtown restaurants and shop in its stores. Today the City of Spartanburg runs the event, and its 2026 sponsorship packet calls Dickens "Spartanburg's signature yuletide celebration" and expects more than 14,000 people.
Last Year's Windows Were All Open for Business
Here's how the living windows looked in 2025, according to the City's 2025 event brochure. Each window paired a downtown business with a performer, a community group or a costumed scene.
| Host | In the window, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Kava Culture | Piedmont Piecers Quilt Guild |
| The Spice and Tea Exchange | Letters to Santa |
| Mezcal Taberna | David Maher |
| The Local Hiker | Clarion Sound with Morningside Baptist Church |
| Kress Building | Palmetto En Pointe Performance Arts Dance |
| Smith's Drugs | Victorian Pharmacist |
Compare that list with the version George described. In the 1990s, a dance troupe in a window was there to fill a vacancy. In 2025 the windows belonged to a kava bar, a spice shop, a Mexican restaurant, an outdoor outfitter and a pharmacy, plus the Kress Building, where the Herald-Journal's photo gallery showed Palmetto En Pointe performing. The brochure's thank-you section credits "downtown business owners who stay open late and allow us to use their stores."
Smith's Drugs hosting a Victorian Pharmacist is the purest example of the format. A working downtown store plays an older version of itself for one night.
From One Square to Three Stages
The festival has also spread out. The 2010 Herald-Journal story described an event centered on Morgan Square, with horse-drawn carriages, roasted chestnuts, hand bell choirs, ballet dancers, Dickens characters, living windows and the Denny's tree lighting. In 2025, WSPA reported more than 30 vendors at a Christmas market on East Main, 13 food merchants and three stages.
The 2025 stage schedule, taken from the City brochure, shows how the evening flowed across downtown:
- 6:00 p.m. Spartanburg Philharmonic on the Broad Street stage. Miss Marion's School of Dance on the Church Street stage.
- 6:30 p.m. Spartanburg Community Band at Denny's Plaza. Boiling Springs Elementary on Church Street. Woodland Heights Elementary on Broad Street.
- 7:00 p.m. Ballet Spartanburg on Church Street. Anderson Mill Elementary on Broad Street.
- 7:30 p.m. The Denny's Plaza tree lighting, with Spartanburg Ukuleles on Church Street.
- 8:00 p.m. Palmetto Statesman Chorus at Denny's Plaza, Spartanburg Fashion Week on Church Street, and Kendall Lanford on Broad Street.
Morgan Square had a visit with Saint Nicholas and a singing-tree light show with photo spots. Carriage rides and Polar Express train rides rounded out the night. The 2025 schedule is last year's layout, but it's a good guide to how the evening splits among Denny's Plaza, Church Street, Broad Street and the square. The 2026 packet promises the same core features: Santas, holiday shopping, horse-drawn carriage rides and living window displays.
Getting Downtown on Dec. 1
The City's calendar lists these closures for the evening of the event:
- Church Street from Kennedy Street to St. John Street, with one northbound lane open
- East Main Street at Converse Street
- Broad Street from Spring Street to Converse Street
- Liberty Street at the Kennedy Street parking garage
In 2025, WSPA reported that road closures started the Monday before and continued into Tuesday night, so cross-town driving on Nov. 30 may take some extra planning too. The City's guidance from last year still applies. Bring cash for vendors, dress for the weather, leave pets at home and skip smoking or vaping.
Dickens is the first of downtown's Tuesday-night December events. The Spartanburg Jaycees Christmas Parade has also been held on Tuesday evenings. The Greenville News listed it for Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. In 2024 the City scheduled it for Tuesday, Dec. 10, and WSPA reported that weather pushed it to Thursday, Dec. 12.
On Dec. 1, the shops on Main, Church and Broad will light their windows for the 6 p.m. start, which is the same job vacant windows did when the festival began in 1994. If you own near downtown and want to know how that growth shows up in your home's value, Michael Dassel can put real numbers on it. Request a free home valuation and we'll get back to you quickly with a clear answer.
