Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas, TikTakers! How are your holidays going?
Did you get a lot of presents? Or maybe you are the kind of person who prefers not to talk about it?
The truth is that, although almost everyone feels happy and joyful during Christmas, there are
many people that hate this time of the year.
A classic and well known example of the "anti-christmas" feeling comes from Ebenezer Scrooge.
This grumpy little man made his first appearance in the 1843 novella "A Christmas Carol",
by the British author Charles Dickens. Let's now share with you a version of this story:
Ebenezer Scrooge was a greedy and covetous pessimist with a heart as hard as stone. He
was a lonely man who hated children, Christmas, and anything that produced happiness.
On Christmas eve everyone was busy buying gifts and preparing Christmas dinner. Scrooge
was in his office as always, with his door open and watching his clerk transcribe some
letters. Suddenly Fred, Scrooge's nephew, came into the place wishing his uncle and
the clerk a merry Christmas. Fred invited Scrooge to spend Christmas eve with his family,
but he rejected the invitation, saying that all that Christmas junk was just rubbish.
The name of the clerk was Bob Cratchit, who had to keep working until night time even
though it was Christmas eve. Scrooge didn't allow his employees to have days off.
Scrooge lived in a cold and gloomy building, just like him. When he got home he ate a pretty
dull dinner, and then went to bed. However, when he was about to fall asleep something
very weird happened… A ghost appeared in front of him! And there was no doubt of who
this ghost was, as his face was unmistakable: It was Jacob Marley, Scrooge's business partner
who had passed away 7 years ago.
Jacob told Scrooge that, because he had been so greedy in life, all of his evil transformed
into a large and heavy chain that he was doomed to carry for all eternity. He announced that
Scrooge's fate was even worse, and warned him that he would have a last chance to change
when he was visited by the three spirits of Christmas! Surprisingly, Scrooge wasn't scared,
and challenged that prediction.
However, the spirits didn't keep Scrooge waiting! The first spirit to appear is the Spirit of
Christmas Past. This is a strange character: At first sight it looked like a child… but
when seen through the spirit's supernatural aura, it looks more like an old person. This
strange ghost reminds Scrooge of his life as a child and a young man, filled with melancholy
and longing before he became addicted to work, and before his disproportionate obsession
with money. This ghost takes Scrooge to where he was raised, and shows him when Scrooge
was just a child, working in a store as an apprentice. Scrooge feels very sad and lonely,
and remembers his sister, who he loved very much.
The second spirit to visit Scrooge is the Spirit of Christmas Present. This is a festive
giant, wearing a simple dark-green tunic, exuding a splendorous aura, and holding a
burning torch. Through different scenes, this spirit shows Scrooge the way people live Christmas
in the present: A market filled with joy where people are buying gifts, the house of a miner,
and a lighthouse in the middle of the sea.
Scrooge and the spirit then visit Fred's house, where he is having the Christmas dinner with
his family and friends. Fred is seen remembering his uncle with compassion. Afterwards the
spirit takes Scrooge to the house of Bob Cratchit, his clerk. Here they see Bob's family and
his son Tim, a child who is usually happy and joyful… but who is terribly sick. And
despite their poverty and their son's illness, the family still celebrates Christmas with
joy. Scrooge feels sadness for the first time in a long time, and asks the spirit if the
child will recover. The spirit tells Scrooge that the child will die soon if his situation
doesn't change.
After that, the Spirit of Christmas Future arrives to visit Scrooge. This spirit is a
being covered in a robe black as midnight, which hides its head, its face and its shape.
Only its extended hand can be seen.
This ghost shows Scrooge scenes from a Christmas day in the future. They can see people talking
about the death of a man. Businessmen among them say that they will only attend the funeral
if it includes lunch. The housemaid and the gravedigger steal the man's former belongings
as his body still lays on his bed.
Scrooge asks if the death of this man has stirred any emotion on anyone in town. The
spirit shows him a young couple who owed money to this man. They feel happy and relieved
after the death of that merciless loan shark,
as they will now have more time to pay their debt.
Scrooge then asks to see some compassion. The spirit takes him to the house of Bob Cratchit's
family, who are mourning the death of little Tim. The family couldn't pay for their son's
treatment with the low salary Scrooge was paying Bob.
Afterwards, the spirit takes Scrooge to the graveyard, where he shows him the abandoned
grave of that man nobody mourned. Horrified, Scrooge discovers that the name written on
the grave is his own name, and that the dead man people were talking about was him! Seeing
this, Scrooge is so terrified that he implores for a second chance to change. And then the
greedy man awakens from his nightmare, and becomes a very generous and kind man – a
man who celebrates Christmas and helps those around him.
Although in the end of the novel Scrooge redeems himself thanks to the spirits, his name went
down in history as a synonym of greed and a complete lack of Christmas spirit. We believe
that we should try to be good and generous all year long, and then keep up with it during
Christmas… just with more lights, glitter and delicious food!