A special hour-long musical adaptation for kids of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, using traditional holiday songs to bring the story to life.
Walnut Street Theatre is bringing A Christmas Carol back to the stage this December, with the run starting Saturday, December 5. This isn't the full-length production you might be thinking of—it's a special hour-long musical adaptation made for kids, and it's part of the 2026-27 WST for Kids series.
If you've never read the book, the story is a familiar one: Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three ghosts who take him through his past, his present, and his possible future. The musical version tells that same tale using traditional holiday songs to carry the plot, and it's an hour long, which makes it a good fit for families with younger kids who might struggle with a full evening of theater. It's designed as a family-friendly entry point into Dickens' story, so it's a low-stakes way to introduce the characters and the plot to kids who haven't encountered them before.
The show runs from December 5 through December 20, with performances on Saturdays and Sundays. Most of them start at 11 AM, which is a convenient time for a morning outing with the family. There is one exception: the final performance on Sunday, December 20, is at 6:30 PM. The venue is the Walnut Street Theatre at 825 Walnut Street, one of Philadelphia's oldest theaters, right in the heart of the city.
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Tickets are $17.50 per show, and you can secure two shows for $35. With the 11 AM start time on most weekends, it's an easy thing to fit into a Saturday or Sunday morning before the rest of the day takes over.
