It’s a wonderful Christmas carol life!

As we approach Christmas, I’m thinking about my favourite Christmas stories and films. For me, these are A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life.

A Christmas Carol is a book by Charles Dickens. It was written in six weeks after Dickens had visited the Ragged School, an establishment for street children in London and he published the title on 19 December 1843. Its themes of fairness, kindness and the transformation of Scrooge, a rich, but mean old man, into a generous benefactor to the Cratchit family at a time of great social inequality was well approved of by the public.  The picture below is Alastair Sim in the 1951 film of A Christmas Carol asking a passing boy to buy a big Turkey for the Cratchit’s.

Published on 19 December, the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve and by the end of 1844 thirteen editions had been released. From the 20^th century and onwards, there have been many film and television adaptations of the story.

The fact that it still feels relevant in Britain over 170 years later, with food banks being normalised, child hunger, homelessness and bad housing still a problem, is clearly both intolerable and very sad. However, watching it again we can still feel hope that people and situations can change for the better. Like Scrooge helping the sick Tiny Tim survive.

It’s a Wonderful Life is loosely based on A Christmas Carol. Originally it was a self-published short story a hundred years after the publication of A Christmas Carol in 1943. It was then reworked into a movie that was released in 1947. Once again, it is a tale of social inequality with Henry Potter (played by the inestimable Lionel Barrymore) , the Bedford Falls bank manager, having control over money, loans and housing, he’s a slum landlord. But it is also how being kind and loving and generous, like the lead character George Bailey (played by the wonderful James Stewart), is the better method for having a ‘wonderful life’. George is loved and cared for, unlike Potter, who is, as George Bailey says, ‘a warped, frustrated old man.’

When George’s foolish Uncle Billy mislays a large amount their business’s money, George, the ultimate good guy, considers killing himself to give his wife and family his life insurance money after his. Potter tells George he is worth more dead than alive. As further proof of Potter’s mean character, the audience knows that Potter’s henchman found the money and Potter didn’t return it. 

Fortunately, Clarence Oddbody, the guardian angel (played by Henry Travers ) is sent to show George how important his life has been for so many other people and he mustn’t throw it away. Unlike Scrooge, Potter is never visited by any spirits, but does contribute some money to help George when the call goes out that George is desperate. We never know if this means Potter is a changed man, but the film encourages us to hope Bedford Falls is now a nicer place.

Merry Christmas All!