"A Christmas Carol" 2025. Available on YouTube for an entire week. Raising funds for St Leonard's Hospice..

£2.50

From 6pm on Friday December 19th until 11pm on Boxing Day you will be able to watch a specially recorded Ghost Merchants production of A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens and performed by James Swanton. Tickets via an “honesty box’ system £2.50 each.It has been our own Christmas tradition broadcast it live for the past 5 years. Due to requests we did not live broadcast last year and prerecorded it, this year its the same version that was recorded last year. It can be viewed only on the York Ghost Merchants YouTube channel between the above advertised times.

£1 for each ticket sold will be donated to St Leonard’s Hospice, they are based in York and provide care and support for terminally ill people, and people with life limiting illnesses. The remainder after VAT will go to Mr Swanton Himself.

To find our YouTube channel go to the YouTube website and type @YorkGhostMerchants into the search bar, then click on the crossed torches logo to open up our channel. The film will be in our videos and Titled “A Christmas Carol”. Alternatively you can view the video directly here: https://youtu.be/nxA4TlPkOIM

We have partnered with James many times for live readings. He was born in the ghost-rich city of York which informed his lifelong passion for the macabre. He has been described as ‘remarkable’ by Simon Callow, as ‘ extraordinary’ by Miriam Margoyles.

In his previous one man performance of “A Christmas Carol" critic Charles Hutchinson wrote: ” Dropping into character" should really read dropping in and out of myriad characters, as the storytelling Swanton plays narrator and every role from Dickens's story: men, women, children...ghosts et al. His face is as elastic as his voice in this tour-de-force solo show, where physicality, keen intelligence in editing, dark humour and chameleon acting skills all come into play.

Many people think they know Charles Dickens’s classic tale of a bitter old miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who, thanks to a series of ghostly encounters, learns to embrace the spirit of Christmas. But while the story of Scrooge’s redemption has been retold countless times over the years, A Christmas Carol retains its ability to surprise and provoke. The novella’s definition of the “spirit” of the season as a blend of earthly pleasures and selfless benevolence offers a heartwarming picture of how kindness and care for others can save an individual soul and, at the same time, a haunting warning. Alternately comical, sentimental and horrifying, Dickens’s creation entertains without shying away from its larger message about the dangers – both personal and societal – of ignoring Want and Ignorance and otherwise eschewing responsibility for those in need.

The performance was filmed in The Guild Room at St Saviourgate on 7th December 2024 and lasts approximately 1 hour 20 minutes..

From 6pm on Friday December 19th until 11pm on Boxing Day you will be able to watch a specially recorded Ghost Merchants production of A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens and performed by James Swanton. Tickets via an “honesty box’ system £2.50 each.It has been our own Christmas tradition broadcast it live for the past 5 years. Due to requests we did not live broadcast last year and prerecorded it, this year its the same version that was recorded last year. It can be viewed only on the York Ghost Merchants YouTube channel between the above advertised times.

£1 for each ticket sold will be donated to St Leonard’s Hospice, they are based in York and provide care and support for terminally ill people, and people with life limiting illnesses. The remainder after VAT will go to Mr Swanton Himself.

To find our YouTube channel go to the YouTube website and type @YorkGhostMerchants into the search bar, then click on the crossed torches logo to open up our channel. The film will be in our videos and Titled “A Christmas Carol”. Alternatively you can view the video directly here: https://youtu.be/nxA4TlPkOIM

We have partnered with James many times for live readings. He was born in the ghost-rich city of York which informed his lifelong passion for the macabre. He has been described as ‘remarkable’ by Simon Callow, as ‘ extraordinary’ by Miriam Margoyles.

In his previous one man performance of “A Christmas Carol" critic Charles Hutchinson wrote: ” Dropping into character" should really read dropping in and out of myriad characters, as the storytelling Swanton plays narrator and every role from Dickens's story: men, women, children...ghosts et al. His face is as elastic as his voice in this tour-de-force solo show, where physicality, keen intelligence in editing, dark humour and chameleon acting skills all come into play.

Many people think they know Charles Dickens’s classic tale of a bitter old miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who, thanks to a series of ghostly encounters, learns to embrace the spirit of Christmas. But while the story of Scrooge’s redemption has been retold countless times over the years, A Christmas Carol retains its ability to surprise and provoke. The novella’s definition of the “spirit” of the season as a blend of earthly pleasures and selfless benevolence offers a heartwarming picture of how kindness and care for others can save an individual soul and, at the same time, a haunting warning. Alternately comical, sentimental and horrifying, Dickens’s creation entertains without shying away from its larger message about the dangers – both personal and societal – of ignoring Want and Ignorance and otherwise eschewing responsibility for those in need.

The performance was filmed in The Guild Room at St Saviourgate on 7th December 2024 and lasts approximately 1 hour 20 minutes..