Dickens Festival & Christmas Market in Tiel, the Netherlands
- Date
- Sunday 13 December 2026
- Time
- 12:00 to 17:00
- Entry
- Free · parking too
- Where
- Tiel town centre
75 days until the festival
Come and soak up the atmosphere of the Victorian era. The scent of punch and roasted chestnuts shows you the way. An afternoon that feels like an old-fashioned Christmas. For everyone, and free.
Winner of the Tielse Toffe Peer Award, January 2026
- Date
- Sunday 13 December 2026
- Time
- 12:00 to 17:00
- Entry
- Free · parking too
- Where
- Tiel town centre
One afternoon. A whole other era.
One Sunday in December the town centre of Tiel turns into an English town of the 19th century. The streets are strewn with straw, long johns hang out to dry and the street urchins make the place unsafe.
The working folk doff their caps, as they should, to the gentry and other notables. Merchants offer their wares: antiques, books and art, trinkets and lace corsetry. And somewhere in between walks Scrooge, the grumpy old man who hates Christmas and with whom it all began.
It is not a market with a theme. It is open-air theatre, and the whole town plays along.
- 200
- extras
- 2021
- since
- Free
- entry
From the parade to the Christmas market
An afternoon full of atmosphere, for young and old. This is what you will find at the Dickens Festival.
The Dickens parade
At 13:45 the parade winds through the whole town centre: around 200 extras in the dress of a century and more ago, led by a piper from a Highland pipe band.
Christmas market on Het Plein and Kleibergsestraat
More than 50 stalls of Christmas goods, from soaps, tea and chocolate to jewellery, candles and winter treats.
Eye-catchers in the streets
A rat-catcher, a schoolmistress with her pupils, mourning women, orphans, fishwives and a glimpse of farm life in the 19th century. Every year different scenes fill the streets.
Sleigh & carousel
A free ride in the sleigh and a carousel from 1922 that still turns its rounds. For the children, and for anyone who wants to be one for a moment.
The life of a 19th-century farmer
Come and see how a farmer lived in the 19th century: rural life of the time, right in the town centre.
Carol singers & floating Christmas trees
Choirs sing carols in the streets and Christmas trees float in the town moat. The dressing of the town centre is as much part of the festival as the extras.
Free, in the heart of Tiel, one Sunday in December
Around 200 extras, a parade, a Christmas market and a carousel from 1922. Entry and parking are free. Find out how to get to Tiel and what to expect.