WHEN THREE BOYS MEET THREE GHOSTS WHAT do you do if your boys hate literature, have no regard for history, tradition or the classics - and just wanna watch football and/or behave like a pampered tourist on (Dad-) guided tours with plenty of food stops? WELL, immerse them in experiential theatre, with Victorian flavour. WITH kids, they learn better, always, if they find real meaning and true context in their less turgid ‘educational’ setting. And if you can find the precise theme to fit the occasion (such as Christmas in cold England where it took place), they would find enjoyment in their education - an unenviable praxis that has challenged many a well-intentioned educator. THAT was what I tried to do when I took the Goh family to ‘enjoy’ English novelist Charles Dicken’s classic, A Christmas Carol; not your typical West-end musical but a dining experience a la Yuletide Feast in Victorian-styled The Lost Estate. TICKETS were bought way in advance of our current December hols due to the limited number of diners The Lost Estate could hold per show. In short, sold-outs. YOU enjoy a three-course meal while ‘host’ Charles Dickens brings (home) to life his best novel of well-known characters like Ebenezer Scrooge and the three Christmas Ghosts, accompanied by live music and flashy lights to depict that nightmarish ghostly encounter on Christmas Eve in 1843. HERE’S where my occupational hazard (and bad habit!) of turning from tourist to teacher took over. AHEAD of the show, I made the family read up on the famous Portsmouth-born novelist (a city we skirted enroute to Southampton the previous day), the storyline and all fictional characters from Scrooge to his business partner Jacob Marley, over-worked clerk Bob Cratchit and his crippled son Tiny Tim, fiancée Belle, sister Fan and genial nephew Fred. And not forgetting, the three Christmas Ghosts. THE boys didn’t like it at first. Why spoil the fun of the storyline, the eldest gave as his typical lazy excuse. I told them this was a literature classic - everyone should fully know the well-known script, so there’s no spoiler excuse here. Nice try, Keane! WE then had a fun quiz (yes, business as usual before pleasure) where one of my sons (who will forever remain unnamed to protect his innocence - and ignorance) asked: ‘You mean Charles Dickens will personally be hosting us to dinner today?’ Now you know how much homework I need to bring these ignorants up to speed with. Thank goodness it wasn’t Oliver Twist from another CD classic ‘hosting’ the feast as part of an embedded narrative or frame story by writer Adam Clifford! BUT you know what, the prep was well worth it because at various stages of the show yesterday when the actor, musicians (on violin, cello and percussion) and impromptu audiences became immersive and less audible amid the clanging sound effects to depict storm, rain and the grand entrance of the menacing ghosts, I could see the excitment and sparkle in the eyes of the boys, as they now had the knowledge to fill in the story gaps (in journalism, we called them ‘holes’). THERE were also lively chats during the three meal intervals during the three-hour event, as we enjoyed duck, dessert and missing details. HOLIDAYS are meant to be entertaining. But why not make ‘em educational too?