A Christmas Carol

[Carmilla]

I have read 'A Christmas Carol', and I enjoyed it very much!! :) I liked the story and the characters and the message.
Thank you Jackson Richardson and Pompey Bum for recommending this book to me!!
As I said elsewhere I would read it in this season; and I can tell you now, I'm very glad I did. :)
Merry Christmas to you!!

[kev67]

We read it at school, and I read it again a few years ago. The bit I always liked best was Marley's ghost.

[Jackson Richardson]

I re-read Christmas Carol before Christmas and again cried. What interests me is that it is often cited as the basis for the modern secular Christmas and yet the Christmas celebrations are far more limited than modern commercial ones.

The centre piece of the work for me is the Cratchit’s Christmas dinner, and yet how lean it is by comparison with what is considered essential nowadays. No decorations, no tree, no cards, no Santa Claus, no mince pies, no crackers and back to work the next day. And generally, nothing happens before Christmas Eve.

I’m moved by Dickens’ final comment on the Cratchit dinner:

There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty; and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside of a pawnbroker's. But, they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit's torch at parting,

[prendrelemick]

I always cry when I read it. There's something about that book.

[Seumas99]

I re-read Christmas Carol before Christmas and again cried. What interests me is that it is often cited as the basis for the modern secular Christmas and yet the Christmas celebrations are far more limited than modern commercial ones.

The centre piece of the work for me is the Cratchit’s Christmas dinner, and yet how lean it is by comparison with what is considered essential nowadays. No decorations, no tree, no cards, no Santa Claus, no mince pies, no crackers and back to work the next day. And generally, nothing happens before Christmas Eve.

I think if you compare it to what Christmas was like before that time then it's quite a big leap, especially as regards the spirit of Christmas and its 'importance'. Charles Dickens really made Christmas a family affair (as opposed to a community one) with the image of the Cratchits sitting eating together as a family, doors closed. Still, a lot of the modern Christmas trappings (gift-giving, Santa Claus as he is known today) were American inventions that came over to England after Dickens.

As for nothing happening before Christmas Eve, it's useful to bear in mind that traditionally there were twelve days of Christmas beginning on the 25th and so that date was perhaps not seen as being worth a big build-up, being only the beginning instead of the climax. I think there are some European cultures who still see Christmas as more of a season than a single day.