THE Christmas spirit was definitely lacking when children came face-to-face with Scrooge.

The infamous hater of all things festive greeted visitors at Blackwell’s in the city centre as part of the Broad Street bookshop’s family day on Saturday.

Creation Theatre are performing a new version of the Dicken’s classic A Christmas Carol at The North Wall Arts Centre in Summertown from December 8 until January 7. And members of the cast were at the shop to act out scenes for the crowds.

Pictured with Scrooge, played by Robert Hyacinth, left, and Bob Cratchit, played by Jayson Wheatley, is St Joseph’s Primary pupil Kate Schnoebelen, who took part in one scene. The nine-year-old said: “I’ve been wanting to do theatre since about a year ago. I really enjoyed it, especially meeting the balloon maker, he made me a hat.”

Her mum Marie Gaynor said: “It was wonderful, a really fantastic day.

“We were only going to be staying for 15 minutes while Kate did her performance, but we ended up staying about two hours.

“There were balloon makers, face painters and treasure hunts, all kinds of things.”