Today’s post will is a link-dump. There are no spoilers in this post, but beware of spoilers inside of the links!
This post is very well-written and emphasizes how greatly A Christmas Carol affected the popularity and celebration of the Christmas holiday, especially in regards to religion.
There is no doubt that A Christmas Carol is first and foremost a story concerned with the Christian gospel of liberation by the grace of God, and with incarnational religion which refuses to drive a wedge between the world of spirit and the world of matter.
Discuss.
This post by is LONG but has bunches and bunches of literary, historical, religious, and social contextual information around the novel’s publication and reception. The bits I found most interesting were the antipathy toward Christmas by some sects of Christians (anti-Christmas sentiment is going to my next research project, probably), and Dickens’ precursor to Ebenezer Scrooge (I’m always fascinated by story evolution).
This post is similar to the above but much shorter.
I’ve really appreciated The Victorian Web’s write-ups on authors and themes. Here’s a post by them on this subject (don’t be scared by their ugly website).
But while Dickens may not have created Christmas, his contributions, most notably his propagation of what the festival should mean, are essential to the establishment of the culture of Christmas.
This post emphasizes the influence A Christmas Carol had on your average Joe (or Bob) and their celebration of the holiday.
As mixed as my feelings are on this novella, I had no idea how much it influenced Christmas celebrations! I feel a little better about it. Maybe…..
Bahnreads 