A-’Caroling’ with Mr. Dickens

What’s Christmas without a little Scrooge?

Gerald Charles Dickens, the great-great grandson of the Victorian writer, spends his holidays on the road to bless us, every one, with a one-man version of “A Christmas Carol.”

While guests at his “Christmas Dinner With Dickens” events sup on traditional roast turkey and Christmas pudding, the British actor -- dressed in a frock coat, ascot and top hat -- serves up a simpering Bob Cratchit and a chilling Ghost of Christmas Past.

This year, the British actor’s only Southern California performance is at the historic Ojai Valley Inn and Spa on Monday and Tuesday.

Dickens is not the first in his family to take “A Christmas Carol” on the road. Charles Dickens began doing highly popular professional public readings in 1858 and toured the United States in 1867-68 when he was in quite poor health. (Mark Twain, who attended a reading in New York, was disappointed, writing: “Dickens is a bad reader ... because he does not enunciate his words sharply and distinctly ... there is no heart, no feeling in it.”)

Gerald Dickens doesn’t skimp on the theatricality. Guests in Ojai should be prepared to see him leap from the stage and move among the tables, drawing them into the world of Christmas Past.

*

“Christmas Dinner With Dickens,” Ojai Valley Inn and Spa, Ojai. Monday and Tuesday, 6 p.m. Adults, $80; children under 12, $40, including tax and gratuity. Overnight packages available.

(805) 640-2102.