A Christmas Cornucopia: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Yuletide Traditions

by Mark Forsyth

1. Scrooge represents everyone who works in the city, that’s why it never actually says what job he does. You may think that he’s a slum landlord or a money lender, but though there’s one brief mention of a debt towards the end of the book, Dickens never, ever specifies. (If you’re absolutely positive that you remember a specific trade, you’re probably thinking of the film version with the Muppets.) 2. The opening scene has Scrooge complaining that he has to give Bob Cratchit the day off, thus ‘picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!’ Because unlike the old rural idyll in the yules of yore, city workers could work all year. Gone are the twelve days of idleness. 3. Then the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge back to his childhood in the countryside, because Scrooge is the archetypal Victorian with a rural past and an urban present. 4. When we go back in time to Fezziwig’s party, when Scrooge was a young man, we find that Christmas used to be fun, but now it’s not. 5. The Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge that Bob Cratchit, who is poor, is planning to eat goose. He also shows him that all the good Christmases occur indoors. Whether it’s the Cratchits or Scrooge’s nephew or miners on the moor or lighthouse keepers (though I concede that lighthouse keepers can’t very well spend it outside). 6. When Scrooge has changed his ways, the first thing he does is buy Bob Cratchit a turkey, because turkey is better and more expensive than goose.