Dickens of a Christmas

Festival Facts

Dickens of a Christmas is the winter festival on Historic Main Street. The Heritage Foundation’s 2026 listing calls it the 41st annual, presented by Wilson Bank & Trust and produced by the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County. It uses the downtown streetscape as a Victorian setting: musicians, dancers, and characters from the novels are out among the crowd.

Hours are Central Standard Time. You can meet Fagin from Oliver Twist; Jacob Marley, Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the rest of the Cratchit family from A Christmas Carol; and a Victorian Father and Mother Christmas, with treats for children.

What Fills the Streets

The Heritage Foundation’s festival includes:

• Arts and crafts vendors
• Food and beverage vendors
• Victorian Village, with holiday dancers, characters, and carolers, presented by Atmos Energy
• Main Stage entertainment presented by Nissan
• Acoustic Stage entertainment presented by Corcoran Reverie
• A Tennessee-Made Christmas, presented by Pick Tennessee Products
• Story times
• A beer garden by Bavarian Bierhaus
• Free public Wi-Fi presented by United Communications

Downtown Franklin merchants will be open, with shopping, dining, and entertainment through the historic district. A festival map for booths and stages is on the Heritage Foundation festival page.

Parking and the Shuttle

Downtown parking is limited, and the Heritage Foundation says there is no street parking inside the festival footprint. Franklin Transit runs a park-and-ride shuttle.

• Pickup: the Park at Harlinsdale Farm.
• Shuttle hours: from 10:00am Saturday and from 11:00am Sunday. The last shuttle leaves 15 minutes before the festival ends, so about 5:45pm Saturday and 4:45pm Sunday.
• Fare: $1 per person, each way.
• Franklin Transit vehicles are ADA accessible.
• Not allowed on the shuttle: pets, except certified service animals; strollers that do not fold; food and drink, except bottled water.

For accessible parking, use the 2nd Avenue and 4th Avenue garages, or the Franklin Transit park-and-ride.

Visitor Practicalities

If the Weather Turns

The festival is rain or shine. The Heritage Foundation asks visitors to dress for the forecast, and says it will close the festival if high winds or storms make conditions unsafe.

Restrooms, First Aid, and Lost Items

Restrooms listed on the festival page: inside the Visitor Center on 4th Avenue North; inside 4th Avenue Church of Christ; a restroom trailer on Public Square, next to the Heritage Foundation tents and Ruby Sunshine; and portable restrooms on 4th Avenue South next to the parking garage, on 3rd Avenue North, and at 2nd Avenue and Main beside Landmark Bank. That bank is not Landmark Booksellers.

For a life-threatening emergency, call 911. For first aid, the page points to the Williamson Medical Center EMS and first-aid booth on Public Square. Lost items go to the Heritage Foundation booth, marked C1, on Public Square.

Pets on Main Street

Keep pets leashed, bring water and waste bags, and pick up after them. Consider whether the crowd and the weather suit your animal. Pets are not allowed on the shuttle, except certified service animals.

City of Franklin conduct rules for the weekend are on the Heritage Foundation page.

Landmark Booksellers on Main Street

The bookshop sits on the festival street at 114 East Main Street, in the circa-1806 Old Factory Store. The shop is open 9am to 7pm every day except Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day, so the doors will be open for this weekend.

The festival opens later than the shop on Sunday and closes before the shop both evenings. Step inside to browse roughly 35,000 new, pre-owned, and rare books.

Authors who would like to take part in a festival weekend can use the form on the events page.

Landmark Booksellers, 114 East Main Street, Franklin, Tennessee 37064. (615) 791-6400. info@landmarkbooksellers.com.

Questions Visitors Ask

The Other Franklin Festivals

Landmark’s events page keeps the three downtown festivals together. Pumpkinfest is the fall weekend, October 24-25, 2026, with its own author schedule. Main Street Festival is the spring listing on that same page. Dickens of a Christmas is the winter one.