SKANEATELES # - With the hubbub of the truckers#, protest on Friday just a memory, the village#'s holiday season began in earnest Saturday as the streets filled with Ebenezer Scrooge, Fagan, the Artful Dodger and an assortment of other characters from the life and times of Charles Dickens.

The 15th annual Dickens Christmas, sponsored by village merchants and running weekends through Christmas Eve, features costumed characters wandering the streets in Victorian garb, interacting with each other and with the public. The free event includes horse-drawn carriage rides, roasted chestnuts and carolling.

Scrooge, the miser from “A Christmas Story#” played for the last 15 years by Bob Krigbaum of Onondaga Hill, was the star of the show, a cantankerous old man grumbling at visitors and being generally miserable.

“I hate Christmas!#” he bellowed. “There#'s no such thing as a merry Christmas! They should be working instead of going out and being merry.#”

Saturday was a big day for shop owners, as visitors clogged streets and stores, being entertained as they shopped for themselves and for gifts.

Rita Perkins, of Raleigh, N.C., bought a snow globe and got a free bracelet at Pomodoro as part of a Skaneateles Area Chamber of Commerce promotion. Perkins was visiting family in the area and couldn#'t miss the Dickens Christmas.

“We came last year for the first time and wanted to come back,#” Perkins said.

Fagan, the pickpocket from “Oliver Twist#” who took young men and boys under his wing for a life of crime, stood chuckling with his charges on the street. The characters said they come to Auburn only under duress.

“There#'s a prison there,#” said the Artful Dodger.

“When we go, we#'re forced to be there,#” Fagan added.

The truckers#, protest on Friday, which included nearly 200 trucks driving through the village, overwhelmed the opening day of Dickens Christmas, but merchants said the protest and people who lined the streets to see it simply added to the festive atmosphere.

“The truckers kind of jumpstarted the morning,#” said John Francis McCarthy, owner of the gallery that sells photographs of the Finger Lakes.

“I had somebody say we should do a parade every year,#” said Susan Dove, executive director of the Skaneateles Area Chamber of Commerce.

Flakes of snow fell on and off all afternoon Saturday, increasing the holiday spirit. With the temperature in the mid 30s, food merchants did well selling coffee to go.

“We get a real upsurge in business,#” said Sam Mason, owner of Skaneateles Bakery. “You get four or five weekends of good business in the off-season, so it#'s great.”

Dove said the event is meant as a gift to the community, and the boost in business is secondary.

“It gives people a reason to come here,#” she said. “So if it can serve two purposes, that#'s great.#”

A costumed Miss Pernelia Pluckrose, with a group of young women in tow from what she said was the “Skaneateles Finishing School for Girls,#” walked properly around the village, chins up and with perfect posture. Miss Pluckrose informed visitors that the school teaches needlepoint, French, dancing, piano and “above all, how to run a suitable home and find a suitable husband.#”

Nellie Francis strode through the town, representing the “Skaneateles Temperance League.#”

“We carry axes and hatchets,#” she said. “We smash the drinks and we frighten people away from the pubs and taverns. It is our duty as citizens.#”

Anyone who wants to join the actors can borrow costumes from the Chamber, which is gradually rebuilding its stock after a fire at a dry cleaners a few years ago claimed many of the clothes.

Sometimes, the 21st century intruded upon the 19th century atmosphere. Emily Cosbar, 15, along with other members of Skaneateles Girl Scout Troop No. 744, stood outside M&T Bank in a borrowed green dress and black cape. Her hands were protected by a furry black muff from which she pulled out a cell phone.

“This keeps my cell phone hidden,#8 Cosbar explained. “Unless someone calls me.”