Even if you’ve never read Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol or watched any of its straight movie adaptations, you probably have some familiarity with the story. From use of the name “Scrooge” to describe a stingy or unpleasant person to the dozens of parodies and homages, A Christmas Carol is such a classic there might be more people who know the story without having read the book than there are people who have.

As far as I’m concerned, there’s a reason A Christmas Carol is such a classic. It’s an excellent representation of the Christmas spirit (no pun intended) and repentance. A sour miser who values money above everything (and doesn’t even enjoy it) and never has a kind word for anyone is shown the error of his ways and given a chance to change.

And at the time it was published, it had a strong enough effect on people that donations to charity increased–A Christmas Carol can’t be definitively named the cause, but there’s a good chance it was. If so, it’s also an excellent example of a story that gets a moral point across without sounding preachy or pretentious.

Reading A Christmas Carol for a class on ghosts and hauntings makes me laugh, not because it seems out of place, but because I always think of Ray Bradbury’s “The Exiles,” a short story where the spirits of horror authors are dying as people on Earth burn their now-outlawed books. Charles Dickens is there, and annoyed that he’s been grouped in with the rest of them just because he wrote some ghost stories. (Shakespeare is also present.)

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, A Christmas Carol isn’t as unusual in this lineup of stories as it might first seem. Four ghosts appear across the course of the novel. First, the ghost of Jacob Marley comes to warn his old business partner Ebenezer Scrooge that if he doesn’t change his ways, he’ll be doomed to wander the Earth in torment, as Marley is. Marley appears as a traditional, even cliche ghost, and the book even references it:

“They were succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below; as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine-merchant’s cellar. Scrooge then remembered to have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains.” (Dickens 13)

(My one criticism of A Christmas Carol is that it’s extremely wordy. A friend once told me Dickens was paid by word, and lines like that make me believe it. Scrooge remembered that he heard that ghosts were described that way? Did we really need all that?)

Of all of the ghosts, Marley is the one most likely to be left out of adaptations, which is a shame, because it’s an excellent scene. It sets the premise for the novel and even contains some moments of humor, such as Scrooge explaining to the ghost why he doesn’t believe in him. Even once Scrooge accepts that it’s real, the two continue to have some entertaining exchanges:

“You will be haunted,” resumed the Ghost, “by Three Spirits.”

Scrooge’s countenance fell almost as low as the Ghost’s had done.

“Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob?” he demanded, in a faltering voice.

“It is.”

“I–I think I’d rather not,” said Scrooge.

“Without their visits,” said the Ghost, “you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. Expect the first to-morrow, when the bell tolls one.”

“Couldn’t I take ’em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?” (Dickens 18)

The timing of the spirits’ arrival has always confused me, because how Marley says it will happen doesn’t seem to add up with how it’s portrayed in the book–it should take them three nights, yet they get all their visits in on Christmas Eve–but Scrooge basically Hand Waves it by saying spirits can mess with time.

All the same, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is spooky.

While these three spirits are more famous than Marley, they aren’t traditional ghosts. The Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come aren’t the souls of dead people, but rather the embodiments of the different times of Christmas.

And as they literally haunt Scrooge to make him change his nature, they also reveal how much Scrooge is haunted in other ways.

He’s haunted by fear of the world, as revealed in the scene from his past where his wife accuses him of replacing his love of her with a love of money. As the spirits show him things, he’s haunted by the past he lost–all of the good things and happiness he once had that he’s so far from in the present.

My favorite adaptation, 1951’s A Christmas Carol starring Alastair Sim (which is where the pictures I’ve used here come from) goes into even more detail regarding the way Scrooge is haunted by his past, such as devoting more time to the death of his sister. But whether you look at adaptations like that or just the original novel, one thing that a lot of parodies and homages miss is that Scrooge is unhappy. He isn’t the Grinch, taking glee in causing others misfortune. He gets no enjoyment out of anything, and that makes him more haunted than just spending Christmas Eve with ghosts.

Of course, A Christmas Carol ends with Scrooge’s complete repentance. When I first read the book, it was for another class, and our professor asked us if we thought it was realistic that a man could change his life completely–and stick to it–just like that. I say yes.

It wouldn’t be realistic if Scrooge changed just after Marley’s warning. But after seeing the way he used to be, seeing all the happiness he once had, seeing the happiness people still have in the present, and seeing the dismal future that awaits if he remains the way he is?

I believe it.

A Christmas Carol is one of the most famous Christmas stories ever, and I believe it deserves that fame. The wordiness of the narrator can get a bit tiresome, but the core story is as wonderful as ever. If you haven’t already read it, you should… or at least watch one of the excellent adaptations.

(Did I make it through an entire blog post on A Christmas Carol without mentioning Tiny Tim? Madness!)