Going back to the 1800s half the fun of Dickens in Dundee holiday festivities

Paul Sweigert brought a decidedly modern touch to East Dundee’s Dickens in Dundee festivities Friday night.

Sweigert was there to use his drone to take video and photos of the village’s Christmas tree lighting and the arrival of Santa, who received an escort from the fire department.

“This is my old-man hobby,” Sweigert quipped about flying his drone to document local celebrations.

That hobby started about a half dozen years ago, he said, when he asked West Dundee if he could record the fireworks at the town’s annual Heritage Fest in September. Sweigert, a Carpentersville resident, also did drone coverage of East Dundee’s Oktoberfest.

He’s continued with the East and West Dundee events, and now also has commissions to take drone pics and video of the Riverside Parade of Lights along the Fox River between the Dundees and Carpentersville and of the fall corn maze at Tom’s Farm Market in Huntley.

“They had been making the maze for years but had never really seen what it looked like until I recorded it,” Sweigert said.

The cold, light mist somewhat limited Sweigert’s drone use but didn’t dampen the spirit of those who came out for the 1800s-style festivities.

Anni Whitaker, of South Elgin, had attended the annual gathering before, and was there Friday night as part of the cast of the “The Christmas Schooner,” a musical being staged next weekend at Dundee Township Park District’s Rakow Center in Carpentersville.

“It’s fun to see the Christmas joy in everyone’s faces here,” Whitaker said.

Randy Craig and Jacquie Krupka drove from Chicago to perform with the Frozen Robins, a quartet dressed in old-fashioned garb singing carols for the occasion.

“I love the small town, village feeling here,” Craig said.

Krupka said the Frozen Robins have been coming to Dickens in Dundee for more than 10 years. She liked how the town works to make things feel like England during Dickens’ days, a feel enhanced by downtown buildings that date back to the 1800s.

Dickens in Dundee has been an annual holiday event since 1988. In keeping with the Victorian-era vibe, horse-drawn carriage rides and living window displays depicting scenes from “A Christmas Carol” help create the scene.

At the Century 21/New Heritage office, East Dundee’s Steve Harvel dressed as Bob Cratchit and Noelle Lewis, a junior at Jacobs High School in Algonquin, portrayed the Ghost of Christmas Past, albeit one wearing sneakers.

It was a first-time experience for Lewis, but Harvel said he’s been a window “actor” for a number of years.

“I enjoy volunteering. People volunteering to help their communities is what makes for nice places to live,” Harvel said.

For real estate business owner Lisa Rossow, the event provided a good way to promote the fact that she had recently relocated her office from West Dundee to East Dundee.

Along with its Dickensian touches, downtown East Dundee featured people dressed as dancing elves, an assortment of holiday movie characters and, of course, Santa Claus.

In fact, in a bit of metaphysical holiday magic, Santa was visiting both East and West Dundee at the same time. While East Dundee business windows mostly kept to the Dickensian theme, some businesses in West Dundee painted their windows for the season and people posing as everything from the holiday dancers to the nativity scene filled the downtown area.

Both towns hold separate Dickens in Dundee events and conducted their own tree lighting ceremonies, and events continued Saturday. Carpentersville got into the festivities as well with Winterville in the Park with its own Santa visit and tree lighting Saturday.

Local celebrations culminated Saturday night with the second annual Riverside Parade of Lights. Sweigert planned to drone-document that event, too, just as he had done last year.

Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.

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