Synopsis

Ebenezer Scrooge has lost his only friend, his business partner Jacob Marley. Seven years have passed since Marley's Christmas death, and Scrooge has not changed a bit. He still refuses to give to the poor, suggesting that for them perhaps the only place better than prison is the grave. He still only grudgingly gives his employee Christmas day off, and he still refuses his nephew's offer of Christmas dinner. He dismisses the whole holiday as a "Humbug."

But, on this particular Christmas, his dreary home will be visited by ghosts.

First, Marley will arrive and, despite Scrooge's refusals, he promises that further spirits will arrive. Christmas Past will bring Scrooge on a tour of his unpleasant childhood, his fall from grace with his father, and the loss of a fiancée; but he will show the good times too, when, as the employee of Fezziweg, Scrooge learned what a joyous holiday Christmas could be. Christmas Present will show him the celebrations going on without him: the sentimental family celebration of the Cratchits and the more rollicking party thrown by his nephew Fred. But Christmas Present will also warn Scrooge that without more money, the Cratchit family will lose its youngest and most fragile member, Tiny Tim.

The Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come will show Scrooge the world after Scrooge's death: His old business cronies will care not for his demise, his maid will steal the very blankets from his deathbed, and Tiny Tim will in fact pass from this world.

Scrooge awakens the next morning to find himself gloriously transformed. Not only can he once again laugh, but he will purchase dinner for the Cratchits, sing in church, and finally visit Fred. We are told that from this day forward Scrooge will become well known for his devotion to the Christmas holiday.

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