Dickens's burrow devoid of humbug

The only surviving London home of Charles Dickens, the Dickens Museum in Doughty Street, is a modest affair.

There's not much sense of how this early Georgian house would have looked back when it was the creative crucible for The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby - all produced within these walls between 1837 and 1839.

It's a fusty little spot, mainly for Dickens completists, with its manuscripts under glass and Dickens ephemera.

But come Christmas and this curiosity takes on an entirely different character. With the drawing room decked in greenery, swags of red moire silk at the windows and a huge Christmas tree - it hardly matters that the latter is anomalous (Christmas trees were still to catch on) - we're reminded how the Dickensian Christmas has shaped the modern ideal.

Etchings line the walls as artistic contemporaries of Dickens took inspiration from his evocative descriptions.

A series called The Snowy Streets imagines the London of Dickens's imagination as A Christmas Carol's Scrooge and Bob Cratchit fought their way through the 'piercing, searching, biting cold', while urchins pelted old codgers with snowballs and pillars of society were flattened by mini avalanches sliding off the sloping roofs.

It's fitting and in the true spirit of the season for the Dickens Museum to stay open throughout Christmas, tempting visitors away from the TV and back to the books and offering somewhere to take the in-laws while one's partner slaves over a hot stove.

Visitors on Christmas Day will receive a glass of mulled wine and a gift. And what better way to let the Christmas lunch settle than by attending Professor Michael Slater's charity reading of A Christmas Carol at 6.30pm, tickets £15 from the number below.
Until Jan 6, Charles Dickens Museum, 48 Doughty Street WC1, Mon to Sat 10am to 5pm, Sun 11am to 5pm, tomorrow, Dec 25 and 26 11am to 6pm, £4, £3 to £4 concs. Tel: 020 7405 2127. www.dickensmuseum.com Tube: Russell Square