"Did you like the story?" I asked two Korean girls aged 11 and 12-years, who were at an international school and had had two years of English. They had improved very much in the use and comprehension of the language We had just completed reading together an abridged version of A Christmas Carol.

The elder girl replied she liked Tiny Tim and was very scared by the ghosts, meaning the Spirit of Christmas past, present and future. The younger one, cockier and maturer, said she loved the ghosts and hated the old man, Scrooge.

The significance or symbolism of even the ghosts was lost on them; so also the fact that Tiny Tim stood for destitute and poor children of the Victorian Age; and the social comment which was Dickens’ aim and underlying theme in the book. Even Christmas and its spirit of gaiety and giving were not fully comprehended by them, coming as they do from a small town in South Korea and having no religion.

A Christmas Carol is as much Christmas as the hymn Silent Night and songs White Christmas and Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer are; not to mention turkey and stuffing and of course Xmas cake and Xmas pudding, so also the decorated fir tree. Kids do believe in Santa still in this electronic age.

Charles Dickens: life impacted on writing

Charles Dickens, one of the greats in English literature and among British novelist, has been conferred another honour. He is being touted as The Man Who Invented Christmas. This by an author named Les Standiford who wrote the book of the title given, with subtitle that reads "How Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ rescued his career and revived our holiday spirits".

In a review of the book, Kathryn Harrison says that Dickens had many reasons to write A Christmas Carol. "Dickens intended to make the sufferings of the most vulnerable of the underclass so pungently real to his readers they could not continue to ignore their need …" Also, that he was burdened by demons of his sad past and however much he tried to keep himself out of his books, autobiography of the most poignant type crept in.

Charles was one of 8 children of the impecunious John Dickens who as a clerk in the pay of the Navy was always running debts. In 1824 he was imprisoned in Marshalsea Prison for failure to pay a bill of 42 pounds to a baker. This imprisonment of the father had a devastating effect on the young Charles, further aggravated by his being sent to work at 12-years of age in Warren’s Shoe Blacking Factory. Work meant ten hours of back breaking labour in a dingy, ill ventilated factory. He also spent time in a poorhouse and his childhood, even with an employed father and hard working mother, was never happy.

This impacted on his writing, not only that he dealt with themes of suffering – a common enough malady of the early years of the Industrial Revolution – but that he attempted to awaken social conscience.

Hence his determination to make things better for the children of the next generation: the kids of the dregs of Londoners who were pick-pocketing, begging or being starved in poor houses and orphanages. He wrote and wrote and after a time upper crust Victorian society did take note and amended laws and donated more to charity.

‘A Christmas Carol’

Dickens first wrote his stories in a serialized format for publishing in a magazine and then the chapters were collected into one volume – one story. The Christmas Carol was Dickens’ first straight-through written novel and was completed in record time. He started writing in October and presented the completed mss to the printers in six weeks of feverish writing. So the book appeared for sale just before the Christmas of 1843.

How he came to write the book was as follows. He was having a bad spell with inability to meet his expenses of running a large family, and was consequently getting into debt. He accepted to speak on October 5, 1843, at a fund raiser for the Manchester Athenaeum. He hated Manchester having suffered privation as a kid in the city, but agreed to return to earn some money from his lecture. The city presented a horrid picture of squalor among factory dwellers, not improved. Having been received well and given an ovation, he decided to make amends to the city by exposing cruelty and discrimination to children of the working classes. His hurried writing paid back. Sales were very good and there was money again in his pocket. There surely must have ensued positive social fallout too.

The success of The Christmas Carol prompted Dickens to write other holiday books such as The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth and The Battle of Life. These however never matched his Christmas Carol either in income earned or popularity.

Dickens’ books have never gone out of print. In fact, A Christmas Carol was said to be only second to the Bible in popularity and sales in the early part of the 20th century.

Of course in truth, Dickens did not invent Christmas, as suggested by Standiford. Christmas was already celebrated but surely with a chasm yawning between how the rich and poor marked the event. Queen Victoria and her Bavarian husband, Prince Albert, had installed a Christmas tree in Windsor Castle every season since 1840. The habit was transferred across the Atlantic, westward.

Our Christmas

I miss out a lot since I never go window shopping. This is the season for both types of shopping, actual buying and just looking, feeling the wares laid out, and drooling, with a small purse and lots desired.. For me it’s go to a shop and buy what I want, no linger and loiter around.

I asked in a couple of shops how Christmas sales were. Hopeless this year, said one sales person in a clothing shop. Will pick up closer to Christmas, said another seller. Cake is restricted this time with many just not making it. A woman who has an international reputation for the wedding cake she makes would also make a good amount for Christmas and I would coax her to sell me some. She said she was not making any when I wanted to buy some for my second son who adores rich cake. A friend very kindly agreed to help out. I insisted on payment and third party arbitrating, set down the price at Rs 700 per pound. The going price for mass made cake is Rs 950 per 500 gms.

In countries with recession being warned about and measures taken to improve financial matters, consumers are asked to spend and spend, but consumers are extra wary. So Christmas will be rather bleak all round.

Shots of good cheer however, came flashing from - no less a place than solemn Hultsdorp. Santa bewigged and robed – not his usual red costume – has brought every Sri Lankan good cheer with petrol prices slashed, and pervy amu karadarakaaraya severely reprimanded, fined and bound to good behaviour! We are sorry he was not incarcerated. But being proved going against the law, even imprisoned, does not strip these anti-social elements of their political positions and perks and place in the pecking order of the President’s men. No wonder a suburb-living resident dubs Parliamentarians Mala Kalakanniyas, held up as he is, going to office and returning home most days.