Fill Your Heart With the Spirit of Christmas

    On a cold and misty Christmas Eve marking the seven-year anniversary of his partner Jacob Marley’s death, Ebenezer Scrooge tends to business as usual in his counting house, keeping his clerk Bob Cratchit hard at work.  His nephew Fred stops in for a visit, but Scrooge treats his relative with indifference and contempt.  As Scrooge mocks his nephew’s modest financial success, Fred ignores the old man’s unkindness and invites him to Christmas dinner.  The unfeeling Scrooge is not interested and continues to criticize Fred, expressing his displeasure over the fact that the young man has recently gotten married.  Unwilling to let his uncle dampen his spirits, Fred bids Scrooge a Merry Christmas and leaves, as a new set of visitors arrive: a pair of well-meaning charity collectors.  They explain how difficult it is for London's poor around Christmastime, and try to convince him to make a donation.  Scrooge refuses to support their cause, waving off their pleas of compassion for the poor, and they depart with nothing.  A final visitor comes in the form of a young orphan child who wishes to sing a carol in exchange for some money.  A now thoroughly annoyed Scrooge threatens her and chases her from the office, as Cratchit watches in shock.  The angered miser prepares to close up the office, and grudgingly gives his clerk Christmas day off.  On his way out of the workplace, Scrooge runs into a young couple that owes him money.  The miser warns them that they will go to jail if they are late with their final payments, despite their pleas for more time. 

   Scrooge leaves them standing in the cold and returns to his house, indifferent to the fact that he is spending Christmas Eve alone.  As he prepares for bed, a strange voice suddenly begins calling his name, and Scrooge watches in horror as the ghost of his old partner, Jacob Marley, enters the room.  Marley, bound in chains and obviously in great pain, warns Scrooge that because of the sins he committed against mankind in his life, he is condemned to wander the Earth in death, witnessing the pain he has caused and the happiness he cannot share.  Marley cautions Scrooge that the same fate awaits him if he does not change his aberrant ways, and foretells the coming of three spirits who represent the last chance the miser has for redemption.

     No sooner has Marley disappeared but the first of the three spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, arrives.  The spirit has come to show Scrooge parts of his past life that he has long since forgotten, and takes him back to his lonely childhood spent in boarding school.  On a solitary Christmas Eve, his older sister, Fan, arrives to try and cheer him up.  She brings wonderful news: their father has consented to bring him home from school, and a joyful Ebenezer returns home with his loving, caring sister.  The Ghost of Christmas Past reminds Scrooge that though his sister died young, she never stopped loving life, and Scrooge recalls the cruel way he treats Fan's only son, his nephew.  The spirit next takes Scrooge to a time in his life when he was a bashful, inexperienced young clerk just starting out in the business world under the tutelage of Mr. Fezziwig.  On Christmas Eve, the kindhearted Fezziwig throws a party for his family and employees, and it is here that Scrooge meets Belle, a lovely young woman related to the Fezziwig family.  The two immediately grow close and begin a long, happy relationship.  As Scrooge recounts this happy time in his life, he recalls his treatment of Cratchit earlier in the day and begins to realize why he is sometimes so hard on him.  The ghost then takes Scrooge to a point several Christmases later, where an argument between Belle and Scrooge is escalating.  Belle accuses Ebenezer of turning his back on her for his money, and while Scrooge denies having lost his affection for her, it is obvious that there is a new love in his life.  When a little girl comes over and offers to sing them a carol, Scrooge loses his temper and yells at the child, frightening her off and horrifying Belle in the process.  Belle decides to break off their engagement, wishing Scrooge luck in his future endeavors.  A heartbroken and infuriated Ebenezer allows her to walk out of his life, and his older-self watches in despair as he realizes the horrible choice he made when he lost the woman who loved him. 

   Scrooge pleads with the Ghost of Christmas Past to take him home and stop tormenting him.  He awakens in his room, hopeful that the entire ordeal was a dream, but his hopes are dashed when the second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, arrives.  The ghost plans to show Scrooge how people in his present life keep Christmas, and how he continues to alienate himself from those who might show him affection.  She first takes Scrooge to the house of Bob Cratchit, where Mrs. Cratchit and the eldest son, Peter, are preparing Christmas dinner.  Little Gillian Cratchit arrives home, excited about the holiday, followed by Martha, the eldest daughter, who has spent Christmas Eve working late in a factory.  Bob Cratchit soon returns from Church with the family’s youngest son, Tim, affectionately called Tiny Tim.  The young boy suffers from a serious illness, and his family’s financial condition does not help the situation.  However, the child happily engages in the celebration of Christmas with his family, paying no mind to his condition, even after a coughing fit knocks him to the floor.  Scrooge, impressed with Tiny Tim’s spirit, begins to feel a certain compassion for the boy.  When the time comes for the Christmas toast, Cratchit proposes that they drink to Mr. Scrooge for providing them with the funds to celebrate Christmas.  Mrs. Cratchit is horrified by the idea, pointing out that Scrooge continues to pay Bob an absolutely wretched salary, and never takes any interest in the family.  After some persuasion from Bob, the family reluctantly agrees to toast Scrooge's health, and the miser is heartened by the goodwill Cratchit has toward him.  The ghost then takes Scrooge to Fred’s house where Fred, his wife, Julia, and their friends are celebrating Christmas.  The group jokes about Scrooge, but Fred defends his uncle, claiming that he feels sorry for Ebenezer’s loneliness.  They play a few party games before toasting to Uncle Scrooge and wishing him a Merry Christmas in spite of himself.  As Scrooge reflects on the good in the hearts of people like Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, and his nephew, the ghost warns him that her time is up, but leaves him with a parting image of two poor and wretched children: Ignorance and Want.  She warns him that they will bring about his downfall if he is not careful. 

   Scrooge stares in shock as they disappear from sight, and the final spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, arrives.  The dark, mute spirit takes Scrooge several Christmases into the future, where the Cratchit's are mourning the recent death of Tiny Tim.  All of Bob's joy and vigor seems to have left him as he remembers his dead son, and the spirit that once held the family together seems lost.  Scrooge, heartbroken by this occurrence, is suddenly brought to a street corner, where several gentlemen mention the recent death of another person, who apparently, had no mourners.  He then comes across a trio of thieving women who have burglarized the house of a recently deceased miser.  They pay a visit on Old Joe, a buyer and seller of stolen goods, who pays them all for their loot and cracks jokes about the miser's death with them.  Scrooge, terrified of the implications of these visions, is then brought to the cemetery where an untended grave lies covered in snow.  He wipes the snow off the tombstone only to see his own name looking back at him.  The miser falls to his knees and begins pleading with the spirits for another chance at life, promising to live by the lessons they have instilled in him.  Suddenly, he finds himself in his own room.  It is Christmas morning, and the terrifying visions are behind him. 

   Filled with a newfound joy and strength, Scrooge runs about making amends with those he wronged.  First he pays the little girl who offered to sing him a carol a generous sum of money to go and run some errands for him while he visits with the charity collectors.   Promising them a large donation, he wishes the bewildered collectors a Merry Christmas before running into Fred and Julia.  Scrooge begs Fred's pardon, and asks if he can still come to dinner that night.  Fred happily consents, while a disbelieving yet happy Julia looks on.  The reformed Scrooge also confronts the young couple in debt to him and promises to tear up their contract as a Christmas present.  Invigorated and exuberant, Scrooge makes a final stop at the Cratchit household, where he pays for a large Christmas turkey and pledges to raise Bob's salary and help take care of the family in these difficult times.  Scrooge makes good on his word and becomes like a second father to Tiny Tim, who recovers from his illness. 

"And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.  May that be truly said of us, and all of us!  And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!"  

-Charles Dickens