A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

​All of us are familiar with the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, the cantankerous penny pincher, and his escapades with the 3 ghosts of Christmas (past, present & future) at the generosity of his late-friend Jacob Marley. We have either heard the story, seen one of the many movie adaptations, seen a play or read the classic. For me, I grew up with the 1984, George C. Scott version, it happened to be my dad's favorite. For the longest of times that was the only REAL exposure I got to the story. Then my sister performed in a school play of A Christmas Carol. Then in recent years I saw a few more adaptations of the story, my favorite being the 2009, Jim Carrey rendition. However in all my life I have never read the original piece itself. That is, until this year. My first thoughts, were wow it was a lot shorter than I'd have imagined, especially considering how long winded & detailed some versions are. It is only 5 Staves (Chapters) long. However it is still rather long winded in parts. However I was surprised that all of the major parts from many of my favorite versions were almost word for word with the novel. I'm not going to lie I still have a definite favorite amongst the ghosts... The Ghost of Christmas Present. I think he really causes Ebenezer to be open & really vulnerable to what the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows him. He covers the empathy portion that Scrooge lacks & desperately needs for any of the events to MEAN anything to him. Plus anybody who can throw someone else's words back in that person's face has extra points in my book. 
While I might not read this EVERY Christmas, I would like to make a point of reading it more frequently at Christmas time. It has a great lesson that it doesn't hurt to hear regularly. The period dialogue aside I think most people would really enjoy & benefit from reading this, especially at Christmas time.