This all started, rather unexpectedly, with a scarecrow. A couple of summers ago we made a papier-mâché scarecrow for an allotment competition – mostly for fun, mostly with whatever we had lying around. We realised how much we loved the process: shaping a character out of scraps and glue, finding faces in lumps of clay and bits of fabric, and watching something lifeless slowly become someone.
Not long after, Lesley (our director) asked if we’d fancy making some puppets in a similar style for a future Corkscrew Theatre production. We said yes before she’d even finished the sentence. And that’s how our journey into Dickens’ world began.
A note for parents (and curious kids)
If you’re planning to bring little ones and think they might find the ghosts a bit spooky, feel free to show them this blog before the show. It can really help to meet the puppets in advance, to see that they’re made from friendly, everyday things – bits of fabric, string, and a lot of love.
After each performance, you’re very welcome to stay behind and meet the puppets (and us!) in person. Children can see how they work up close, touch some of the materials, and realise there’s nothing scary hiding under the hoods – just a bit of magic and plenty of glue.
Making with what we have
We wanted to stay true to Corkscrew Theatre’s green promise: to reuse, recycle, and make sustainably wherever possible. Every puppet in A Christmas Carol is built from something that once had another life – a yoga block, a piece of old costume fabric, a pillow that had gone flat.
We spent evenings surrounded by papier-mâché, fabric offcuts, and half-drunk mugs of tea, figuring out what each character might need. Friends and volunteers dropped off spare materials, crocheted Tiny Tim’s mittens, and even helped sew his little body together. It became a real community project.
Meet the Puppets
Tiny Tim
Tim came first. We knew he had to be instantly lovable – the kind of face you’d want to scoop up and protect. His round cheeks and sticky-out ears are sculpted from clay and papier-mâché, and his ginger hair is made from wool fibres. His clothes were found on Vinted, his body stuffed with scraps from an old pillow, and his shoes are cardboard and glue. He even has a walking stick made from a garden cane.
He’s small, slightly lopsided, and completely endearing — exactly as he should be.
Ghost of Jacob Marley
Marley was shaped around a champagne bottle and an old yoga block (proof that ghosts can rise from anywhere). We covered the structure in modroc and papier-mâché, painted him in soft greys, and wrapped an old bandage around his head. His hair is wispy wool, his suit an old hire jacket, and his shirt one of Bobby’s retired wing-collar numbers.
We wanted him to look monochrome and a bit dusty, as if he’d been sitting quietly in Scrooge’s memory for years.
The Ghost of Christmas Past
Past needed to be light as air – soft, glowing, and a little otherworldly. Her fabric came from a charity shop and some calico that once played the ship’s sail in The Ancient Mariner. Her neck started life as a dog frisbee, her hair from scraps of wool and string.
We added a few small lights so she would shimmer gently on stage, like a candle flickering in a draught.
The Ghost of Christmas Present
Photos coming soon! If Past is a whisper, Present is a hearty laugh. He’s larger than life, with rosy cheeks and a wreath made from old plastic foliage and Christmas decorations rescued from the loft. His body is a great sweep of green velvet (one of the few new materials we bought), and his beard is made from rope. He’s our nod to Father Christmas – jolly, generous, and full of warmth.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
We wanted him to feel intimidating to Scrooge, but not frightening for children. His head is a mix of an old squash racket and a polystyrene ball, cloaked in a black throw we found in the loft and roughed up with a cheese grater for texture. The hood covers a layer of net, so you can’t see a face, just a shifting, smoky shape. He looms, yes, but it’s pure theatre – a trick of fabric and imagination.
Why we love making like this
There’s something special about creating with what’s already around you. Old things carry stories, and when you turn them into something new, those stories layer up. These puppets have come from frisbees, garden canes, and forgotten fabrics, and now they’ll help tell one of the most enduring Christmas tales ever written.
We hope when you see them on stage, you’ll feel the care that went into every piece.
And maybe, just maybe, you’ll go home and make something yourself – out of nothing much at all.
— Kate & Bobby