{"id":22488,"date":"2024-12-11T16:04:46","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T00:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/?p=22488"},"modified":"2025-01-06T11:26:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T19:26:37","slug":"how-charles-dickens-created-christmas-as-we-know-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/how-charles-dickens-created-christmas-as-we-know-it\/","title":{"rendered":"How Charles Dickens created Christmas as we know it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                          \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_carol-top-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_carol-top-1920x1080.jpg 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_carol-top-1280x720.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_carol-top-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"The ghost of Bob Marley in chains visits Scrooge who is seated by a fireplace and a table with a tall candle on it\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Charles Dickens\u2019 use of ghosts in his Christmas tale reflects the influence of ancient Germanic traditions, which tie ghosts to the year\u2019s end, on Victorian British culture. (Engraving: J. L. Williams\/Illustrated London News.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=arts-and-culture\">Arts and Culture<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>How Charles Dickens created Christmas as we know it<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Scholars explain how Charles Dickens\u2019 <em>A Christmas Carol<\/em> shaped and preserved the beloved winter holiday.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">December 11, 2024<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 2.26076008c-1.08745421 1.058837-1.68841575 2.518315-1.68841575 4.0350275 0 1.5167124.60096154 2.9475732 1.68841575 4.0350274 1.058837 1.0874543 2.51831502 1.6884158 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10.8c-1.087-2.114-4.046-6.053-6.798-7.995C2.566.944 1.561 1.266.902 1.565C.139 1.908 0 3.08 0 3.768c0 .69.378 5.65.624 6.479c.815 2.736 3.713 3.66 6.383 3.364c.136-.02.275-.039.415-.056c-.138.022-.276.04-.415.056c-3.912.58-7.387 2.005-2.83 7.078c5.013 5.19 6.87-1.113 7.823-4.308c.953 3.195 2.05 9.271 7.733 4.308c4.267-4.308 1.172-6.498-2.74-7.078a8.741 8.741 0 0 1-.415-.056c.14.017.279.036.415.056c2.67.297 5.568-.628 6.383-3.364c.246-.828.624-5.79.624-6.478c0-.69-.139-1.861-.902-2.206c-.659-.298-1.664-.62-4.3 1.24C16.046 4.748 13.087 8.687 12 10.8\"  fill-rule=\"evenodd\" \/>\n              <\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Bluesky<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                                <a class=\"a2a_button_email\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#email\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"E-mail\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_print\">\n              <svg height=\"12\" viewBox=\"0 0 18 12\" width=\"18\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m8.14285714 9.42857143c-.17142857 0-.34285714 0-.51428571.08571428l7.28571427 6.34285719c.3428572.2571428.6857143.2571428.9428572 0l7.2857142-6.34285719c-.0857142-.08571428-.2571428-.08571428-.4285714-.08571428zm-1.28571428 1.11428567v.1714286 8.5714286c0 .6857143.6 1.2857143 1.28571428 1.2857143h14.57142856c.6857143 0 1.2857143-.6 1.2857143-1.2857143v-8.5714286c0-.0857143 0-.0857143 0-.1714286l-7.2 6.3428572c-.7714286.6857143-1.8857143.6857143-2.6571429 0z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" transform=\"translate(-6 -9)\"\/><\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>As the year comes to an end, many will enjoy a period of relaxation between Christmas and New Year\u2019s Day. You may want to thank Victorian novelist Charles Dickens for the time off.<\/p>\n<p>Dickens\u2019 novella <em>A Christmas Carol<\/em> may be remembered today for its various film adaptions and the popular phrase \u201cBah! Humbug!\u201d; however, the story\u2019s influence is more far-reaching than most know.<\/p>\n<p>Written during Britain\u2019s Industrial Revolution, which was radically upending traditional ways of life, Dickens\u2019 best-selling story was his persuasive plea for why we should keep the Christmas spirit alive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the things that Dickens was trying to do was to hang onto traditions. We don\u2019t do Saint George\u2019s Day or Saint Michael\u2019s Day anymore, but he thought, \u2018For God\u2019s sakes, let\u2019s hold on to Christmas,\u2019\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/profile\/tok-thompson\/\">Tok Thompson<\/a>, professor (teaching) of <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/anth\/\">anthropology<\/a>. If you\u2019re off work or school today for winter break, Dickens would consider his story a rousing success.<\/p>\n<h2>Charles Dickens classic stems from tumultuous times<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_22491\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22491\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22491\" src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_instorya-469x550.png\" alt=\"A young, androgynous person sits at a table holding a feathered quill over a piece of paper while looking at the viewer\" width=\"400\" height=\"469\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_instorya-469x550.png 469w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_instorya-873x1024.png 873w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_instorya-768x901.png 768w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_instorya.png 980w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22491\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charles Dickens at work around the time he wrote <em>A Christmas Carol<\/em>. (Painting: Francis Alexander.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When <em>A Christmas Carol<\/em> was published in 1843, Britain\u2019s Industrial Revolution was in full swing.<\/p>\n<p>Technological advancements had replaced handmade production of goods with factories. Many rural families moved into cities to find work. Once there, they often endured long workdays, dangerous labor conditions, and extreme poverty conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFarmer peasants were poor, but they had a lot of days off, food on the table and good community,\u201d says Thompson. \u201cCities were not like that. You had debtor prisons, no worker protections, no child labor laws. It was vicious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dickens experienced this firsthand. After his father was sent to a debtor prison, 12-year-old Dickens worked in a shoe-blacking factory. As an adult, visits to a \u201cragged school,\u201d which housed street children, and a tour of Cornish mines that employed child laborers solidified his desire to alter social attitudes around poverty.<\/p>\n<p>Dickens decided to write a persuasive Christmas tale, one that emphasized charity (especially towards children), benevolence toward workers, and holiday family gatherings. His story, featuring a miserly business owner, Ebenezer Scrooge, who has a change of heart over Christmas Eve, seems to have paid off.<\/p>\n<p>Christmas in Dickens\u2019 era largely focused on fun and food, but today it\u2019s equally associated with giving back. December is the most charitable month of the year. Those who are stingy towards others are called Scrooges.<\/p>\n<p><em>A Christmas Carol<\/em> wasn\u2019t entirely driven by moral concerns. Dickens\u2019 wife was pregnant with their fifth child at the time, and sales of his latest work had dropped off. The story was written in a mad rush in just six weeks. Thankfully for Dickens, it was an instant commercial success.<\/p>\n<h2>Why ghosts appear in <em>A Christmas Carol<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>The exodus from the country prompted by the Industrial Revolution also threatened a loss of traditions and folklore. Those who left their ancestral villages might forget their histories. Extended winter breaks, ritualized in pastoral life, weren\u2019t valued in modern factories. As the Industrial Revolution altered social customs, Dickens feared people would lose Christmas as a holiday altogether.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_22490\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22490\" style=\"width: 380px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22490\" src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_carol-instoryb-469x550.jpg\" alt=\"A family in Victorian clothes gathers around a Christmas tree on a table with toys underneath\" width=\"380\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_carol-instoryb-469x550.jpg 469w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_carol-instoryb-873x1024.jpg 873w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_carol-instoryb-768x901.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/12\/dickens_christmas_carol-instoryb.jpg 980w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22490\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Germanic tradition of Christmas trees became popular during Dickens\u2019 time thanks to Queen Victoria, the daughter of a German princess. (Image source: Arthur C. Michael\/LOC.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>His tale was meant to demonstrate that Christmas could be an urban celebration, weaving old customs into the city environment. One of the oldest of these was ghosts, which appear as the specters of Christmas past, present and future.<\/p>\n<p>Today, we mostly associate ghosts with the month of October. That\u2019s thanks to an influx of Irish immigrants into the United States in the 1840s who brought with them the ancient autumnal celebration of Samhain. It was the Celtic New Year, a time when the veil between the worlds was thin and the dead could return for a time. This influenced the modern holiday of Halloween.<\/p>\n<p>New years are often seen as \u201climinal periods\u201d in folk traditions, says Thompson. \u201cLiminal is a key word for a folklorist. It\u2019s when things are undefined, neither this nor that, neither here nor there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Victorian England was influenced by ancient Germanic culture, which celebrates the new year during the \u201cYule\u201d time in winter. It was a break for feasting and gathering with family, which conjured up the memories of dead ancestors \u2014 who perhaps would take advantage of the liminal space to make a visit themselves.<\/p>\n<p>By placing old traditions in a new setting, Dickens proved that Christmas could be a city celebration. Indeed, snowy Victorian towns are commonplace holiday d\u00e9cor now. Dickens seems nearly synonymous with the season. <em>A Christmas Carol<\/em> even helped popularize the greeting \u201cMerry Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Scrooge: Christian allegory or therapeutic transformation?<\/h2>\n<p>Central to <em>A Christmas Carol<\/em> is Scrooge\u2019s character transformation, from a miserly, isolated man to a magnanimous one. It nicely compliments Christian ideals of redemption, fitting for the holiday, but it\u2019s not strictly a Christian allegory story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can also read it as a kind of therapy session for Scrooge. He comes to realize what\u2019s been holding him back, and how damaging that is,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/profile\/kate-flint\/\">Kate Flint<\/a>, Provost Professor of <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/ahis\/\">Art History<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/engl\/\">English<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s about realizing you can let yourself be happy, have an infectious laugh, find pleasure in giving, and also in other people\u2019s sociability. Stop being scared of all this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dickens seems to have believed that a self-reflective tale could change hearts and minds. It was a rather different approach to the problems of class than that of another writer of the era, who was also inspired by the Industrial Revolution. Karl Marx\u2019s <em>The Communist Manifesto<\/em> was published just five years after <em>A Christmas Carol<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Dickens had a more optimistic view than Marx about whether capitalist bosses could change, and would not be completely greedy,\u201d says Thompson.<\/p>\n<p>Those eager to get into the Dickens spirit today should try reading the story aloud. It\u2019s the way many would have first heard it. The book is divided into \u201cstaves,\u201d just long enough for an evening\u2019s read around the fire. In doing so, one can fully enjoy Dickens\u2019 masterful writing, says Flint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSnippets of Dickens\u2019s sense of humor come into view beautifully. For example, when Scrooge first sees Marley\u2019s ghostly head on the door knocker, it\u2019s luminous \u2018like a bad lobster in a dark cellar,\u2019\u201d says Flint. \u201cDickens keeps one entertained at a really micro level, not just the bigger macro level of the plot. In a way, it shows that one can be generous and fun, and have that spirit of giving in language as well as anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re looking for more spooky Christmas tales, Dickens actually wrote five novellas in the same vein. These include <em>The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In<\/em> and <em>The Haunted Man and the Ghost\u2019s Bargain<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--section-title\">\n\n    \n  <h2>\n          Related Articles\n      <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/the-art-and-science-of-angels\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >The Art and Science of Angels<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field 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holiday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":22489,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,10],"tags":[129,74,103,141],"class_list":["post-22488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-faculty","tag-anthropology","tag-english","tag-holidays","tag-literature"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Charles Dickens created Christmas as we know it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Charles Dickens\u2019 A Christmas Carol significantly shaped and preserved the beloved winter holiday, helping make it what it is today\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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