All I Want for Christmas Is to Be Like Ebenezer Scrooge ... And So Should You!

Lessons from 'A Christmas Carol,' for every day of the year

Actor Tommy Steele in his role as Ebenezer Scrooge at the London Palladium in London, on Oct. 27, 2005. We might all aspire to become more Scroogelike, not the misanthrope, but the reborn Ebenezer, who came to value laughter, generosity, and affection. MJ Kim/Getty Images

Other than the accounts of a birth in a manger, the most popular and best-known Christmas story in the English-speaking world is Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” First published on Dec. 19, 1843, this novella about a miser, visitations from three Christmas spirits, and a conversion of the heart was sold out by Christmas Day of that same year.

Since then, generations have read this beloved tale. The miser’s name, Scrooge, became a part of the English language, used to designate a grouchy money-grubber who despises the holiday season. In addition, more than 100 movies, television episodes, plays, ballets, musicals, and operas have recreated “A Christmas Carol.” To find someone over the age of 12 who’s never heard of the celebrated Scrooge would likely be a more demanding task than finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.