But the earlier religious prohibition was not the only cause of the decline of Christmas. Though the monarchy was subsequently “restored,” the winter holiday traditions never quite recovered. In the mid-seventeenth century, the Cromwellian Revolt in England had abolished the monarchy as well as the celebration of Christmas. This novella’s original title was “ A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas.” “make myself unspeakably miserable, and frighten my very wits out of my head.” As a teenager, Dickens’s particular favorite was the penny weekly magazine The Terrific Register, which covered murder and ghosts. Dickens’ fascination with ghost stories, mesmerism, and spiritualism led him to include ghostly apparitions in his other works as well. The telling of melodramatic ghost stories, especially around Christmas, was widespread during the Victorian period. Dickens’ book popularized that style of celebrating Christmas in England and around the world at that time. Her German husband, Prince Albert, brought some of his native customs to England (and promoted the German Christmas tree), beginning some of the traditions of Victorian Christmas. Queen Victoria of England had married less than three years before the publication of this book.
Many of our American conceptions of what constitutes a “traditional” Christmas come from this time in Victorian history. See my article about the life of Charles Dickens written on the anniversary of his 200th birthday here. He thus made it accessible to ordinary people, who could now participate directly in the celebration rather than merely witnessing its performance in church. In so doing, he brought the holiday inside the home. Chesterton noted long ago, with A Christmas Carol, Dickens succeeded in transforming Christmas from a sacred festival into a family feast. The 2017 film “The Man Who Invented Christmas” argues that very point. Some scholars have even claimed that in publishing A Christmas Carol, Dickens single-handedly invented the modern form of the Christmas holiday in England and the United States. None of Dickens’ other works is more widely recognized or celebrated within the English-speaking world.
One of my favorite versions was watching Patrick Stewart perform his one-man version of the play at the Old Vic Theatre in London in the early ’90s. No other book or story by Dickens or anyone else (except the Bible) has been more enjoyed, referred to, criticized, or more frequently adapted to other media forms: theatre, opera, radio, film, TV, or comics. On December 19, 1843, Charles Dickens‘ novella A Christmas Carol was published in London, and its first edition sold out by Christmas Eve.
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