A Christmas Carol

It was on this day in 1843 that Charles Dickens published “A Christmas Carol.” Since his first book “Martin Chuzzlewit” proved to be a commercial failure and finding himself strapped for cash, Dickens decided to write a heartwarming tale with a holiday theme.

The story of Ebenezer Scrooge, who had so little Christmas spirit that he wanted his assistant Bob Cratchit to work on Christmas day came to him in October of 1943.

He struggled to finish the book and since he had no publisher, he published the book himself. He priced it modestly at 5 shillings in hopes that it would be affordable to many. It was released a week before Christmas and proved to be an instant success, selling 6,000 copies in just a few days. The demand was so great that it went to a second and third printing.

History shows that at this time Christmas was on the decline and not celebrated much. People were forced to work 16 hour days, 6 days a week and could barely make ends meet. England was in the midst of the Industrial Revolution and most people were poor. Many couldn’t afford to celebrate Christmas, and the Puritans believed it was a sin to do so. They felt that celebrating Christmas too extravagantly would be and insult to Christ.

The famous American preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, a prominent Congregational minister and educator whose sister was Harriet Beecher Stowe writer of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, said that Christmas was a “foreign” day and he even wouldn’t recognize it.

In writing “A Christmas Carol” Dickens reminded many people in England and the United States of the old Christmas traditions that had been dying out since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, of cooking a feast, and spending time with family, and spreading warmth and cheer. Dickens helped people return to the old ways of Christmas. He continued to write a Christmas story every year, but none endured as well as A Christmas Carol.

What would have happened if Dickens didn't write A Christmas Carol?

I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which
shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.
December, 1843.