A Christmas Carol, The Story We Love

A Christmas Carol has become a time-honored holiday tradition for many families marking the passage of another year while reminding us to celebrate what truly matters in our lives. First published December 19, 1843 as a novella, the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve. By the end of 1844, thirteen editions had been released. Charles Dickens, himself revisited A Christmas Carol beginning in 1853 when he began holding public readings of the story, which continued through 1870, the year of his passing.

The novella was adapted for the stage almost immediately, with three productions opening on February 4, 1844. In 1901, the story was produced as Scrooge, or Marley’s Ghost, a silent black-and-white British film. The story was adopted for BBC radio in 1923, and it has been adapted to other media including opera, ballet, animations, and stage musicals.

The Message Within A Christmas Carol

While A Christmas Carol made an indelible mark on the culture of the day by popularizing phrases such as “Merry Christmas” and “Bah! Humbug!,” the largest impact was felt by readers who were carried along for the transformation of a miserly old “Scrooge” into a compassionate and generous member of his community. The Gentleman’s Magazine directly attributed a rise of charitable giving in Britain in early 1844 to Dickens’s novella.

Born to a middle-class family himself, Charles Dickens witnessed the challenges of financial difficulties when his spendthrift father was committed to a debtor’s prison. At the age of twelve, Dickens pawned his book collection and left school for a job at a rat-infested factory. These early experiences sparked a social outrage which would heavily influence his writing.

Inspiration for A Christmas Carol

In early 1843, after touring Cornish tin mines, Dickens was angered to see children working in appalling conditions, a feeling that was exasperated by a visit to the Field Lane Ragged School, one of several establishments for London’s street children. When the Second Report of the Children’s Employment Commission was published that year, Dickens was horrified by what he read. He planned to publish a political pamphlet speaking out on the manner, but realized the most effective way to reach the broadest segment of the population with his social concerns about poverty and injustice was to weave his message into A Christmas Carol.

Dickens’s biographer, Michael Slater, said that “A Christmas Carol was intended to open its readers’ hearts towards those struggling to survive on the lower rungs of the economic ladder and to encourage practical benevolence, but also to warn of the terrible danger to society created by the toleration of widespread ignorance and actual want among the poor.”*

Honoring The Message of A Christmas Carol

If you are lifted with the spirit of generosity by our production of A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play at Third Avenue PlayWorks, please consider bringing in a shelf-stable pantry item to donate to help Feed Our Neighbors this holiday season. We will collect donations in the Box Office lobby through December 31 and anyone may take what they need during our regular Box Office hours Monday through Friday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. or one hour prior to a performance. Your donations of non-perishable food items go directly to helping our neighbors right here in Door County.

Food donations we’re looking for include:

• Canned and boxed food items
• Non-perishable items: powdered milk, snacks, cereals, and grains
• Non-perishable meal kits: like a can of pasta sauce and noodles
• Proteins: peanut butter, canned meats, canned tuna, beans, etc
• Baby food and formula

Thank you to Care for Door County, for organizing collections at the following additional businesses:

_{*Source material from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol}

_{Photo courtesy of Sara Biren}