Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843 in response to a report on children’s working conditions in London. This musical ghost story will open any reader's heart, even one like Ebenezer Scrooge.

Scrooge is a cold, “tight-fisted hand at the grindstone,” who curses his own nephew for wishing him a “Merry Christmas!" But there is hope for Scrooge, as his dead business partner, Jacob Marley, pays him a ghostly visit and foretells of three hauntings to follow.

Memories of his younger self—a lonely boy left at school, a young clerk, a greedy young man left by his fiancé—awaken Scrooge’s sympathy. To open himself to love others once again, he must first learn to love a lost version of himself.

Scrooge sees the celebrations of Christmas all around him and begins to realize the simple joys denied by his own choices. The love and joy of Christmas spill over in abundance and reveal the gift in the smallest aspects of life.

The lonely, pathetic deathbed on which Scrooge finds himself is a stark contrast with the mourning Cratchit family, who still find joy and comfort in one another after the death of Tiny Tim. After seeing these bitter Christmases to come, Scrooge begs for a chance to make amends.

Scrooges’ conversion is complete. He has learned that at the heart of Christmas is the ability to open oneself up like a child to the joy of the smallest things and the love and charity toward our fellow man.