Step back in time this Christmas

Transport your family on a journey through time to experience a day out, Victorian-style, at the annual Victorian Festival of Christmas at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. This year’s entertainment schedule is bulging at the seams with a host of exciting events and activities in store for all the family. Visitors can experience a typical day-out, centred around the world’s most famous historic ships.

Around three-hundred Victorian characters and personalities will bring the festival alive with many thousands of pounds being invested to make this year more exciting. The event takes place between Friday 28th - Sunday 30th November.

Just a handful of the famous characters expected to attend include Scrooge, Oliver, Jekyll and Hyde, Fagin, the Snow Queen and of course the solemn Queen Victoria.

There will be an opportunity to mingle with suffragettes, shoe-shiners, street vendors, coal carriers, rag and bone men, newspaper sellers and a mad professor to name just a few.

Vintage cycles and tricycles will be gracing the cobbled streets and visitors must be on the look out for pickpockets and beggars.

Children need to be on their best behaviour as they step back over 150 years to sample a day in the life of a school child in the traditional Victorian Schoolroom at the Royal Naval Museum, complete with a strict teacher, slates, the cane and cheeky urchins.

Supermarkets were not around in Victorian Times so local people relied on markets to buy their groceries and fresh produce. Visitors will see geese and ducks in the Victorian market and experience the sight, sounds and smells of a time before supermarkets existed.

As the journey through time continues, visitors will learn how the ropes were made on HMS Victory through a range of interesting demonstrations on a Victorian ‘ropewalk’ machine which is over 150 years old.

Doc Dean will be bringing his magical, traditional Victorian flea circus to the festival. The ‘Greatest Little Show on Earth’ will present their tiny troupe who will leave spectators open-mouthed at their array of skills and tricks.

Children will be thrilled to visit the magical grotto on board HMS Warrior 1860 and meet Father Christmas, his assistant Mother Christmas and his elves on board this magnificent ship.

There is an extra special treat for football fans, as there will be the chance to have a picture taken with the FA Cup, which was launched in Victorian times on Saturday 29th November.

Enjoy a drink and soak up the atmosphere and revelry of Fagin’s Tavern and join in with the old-fashioned music hall performances and witness banter, comedy and theatrical sketches. There will be a special performance by the Wicor County Primary School Choir from Portchester in Fagin’s Tavern on Friday.

To round off a busy day in the life of a Victorian, a nightly parade of all of the characters visitors would have met throughout the day will lead to the carol service which takes place at 5.15pm each day.

Not only will visitors be able to enjoy all of the festive Victorian entertainment on offer, they will also be able to get up close and personal to HMS Warrior 1860, HMS Victory and the Mary Rose. Also included in the event ticket price is entrance to one of the UK’s leading maritime museums, the Royal Naval Museum and the high-seas interactive attraction Action Stations (Harbour Tours not included). Ticket prices are adults £12, seniors £10, children £10, family (up to 5 members of the same family, max 2 adults/seniors) £36.

To find out more, log on to Historicdockyard.co.uk.