For four weekends in December, Skaneateles transforms into a small Victorian-era town. Locals in top hats, bonnets and street-urchin rags wander the main street, sing carols, perform short scenes from Dickens, and generally pretend it is 1843. Father Christmas takes letters at the gazebo, and the shop windows fill with traditional displays.
It is genuinely fun rather than tourist-trap kitsch — the actors are unpaid and well-rehearsed, and the village's existing 19th-century architecture does most of the work. Weekend afternoons get crowded; bundle up and arrive early.