I have read scholars assert that A Christmas Carol must surely be secular, as it contains no scenes at church, no religious expounding on shepherds or magi, no pontifications on Incarnation or Blessed Virginity. This question, what does the celebration of Christmas have to do with the Nativity, was in some way, I think, upon the mind of Charles Dickens as he wrote A Christmas Carol. Dickens was a lifelong Christian and his work is not as secular as is often supposed. What does it all have to do with Christ in the manger anyway? And of course through it all, we stare face to face with the bigger question. We’ll fight to find some good Christmas cheer – a good deed for a stranger, a dollar for the Salvation Army, our favorite movie, whether Linus or an elf named Buddy, little Kevin or Tiny Tim, a Grinch or a Griswold, or something else. We’ll struggle against the humbug-spirit. Or maybe it’s all the work that finds its way into December, from final exams to year-end tasks. Sometimes all the festivity begins to wear on us. We tire of all the shopping, consumerism, and crowds. Perhaps we’ve heard that pop-rendition of a certain Christmas song one too many times on the radio. Truth be told, I imagine that sometimes we all feel a little bit like ol’ Ebeneezer. “What else can I be,” returned the uncle, “when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer a time for balancing your books and having every item in ‘em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will,” said Scrooge indignantly, “every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. “Don’t be cross, uncle!” said the nephew. ![]() Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said “Bah!” again and followed it up with “Humbug.” ![]() “What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.” “Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.” “Christmas a humbug, uncle!” said Scrooge’s nephew. He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge’s, that he was all in a glow his face was ruddy and handsome his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. It was the voice of Scrooge’s nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach. “A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!” cried a cheerful voice.
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