A Christmas Carol
The other night I watched what is possibly the hundredth version of the Charles Dickens classic, starring, of all people, Tori Spelling! I loved it. Although the story is always the same (a miserable, curmudgeonly person is visited by ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, and is ultimately changed by the experience) the myriad recountings of this beloved tale doesn’t always involve the usual “old man” Scrooge (although the most recent version starring Patrick Stewart is the best of that particular lot). In one version, Cycely Tyson plays miserly Ebenita, and Vanessa Williams does a great mean-spirited diva named Ebony Scrooge in another. My personal favorite is Susan Lucci as “Ebbie,” and now we have Tori Spelling in A Carol Christmas.
The proliferation of versions intrigues me. I commented on this to a friend the other day, asking her why A Christmas Carol was so beloved in our culture that there have been myriad re-makes. My friend’s theory was that it’s due to the story’s universal themes of redemption and second chances. We all have something we wish we could change about ourselves, my friend said, citing New Year’s resolutions as an example. The clean slate everyone longs for, the power within ourselves to change and, once changed, the hope that we will be granted a second chance to start anew.
I pondered this for a moment, and thought, Nope! For me the timeless appeal of A Christmas Carol is the three adventures with the ghosts.
Who wouldn’t love an opportunity to go back in time and witness a happy moment in their past – winning an award, bringing home a baby, meeting a spouse for the first time all over again, reliving certain key moments to see if that memory holds up? For myself, I would get a kick out of just zipping through time and space with that zany spirit of Christmas Past!
As for Christmas Present, wouldn’t we all like to sneak a peek into someone else’s living room, be a fly on the wall so to speak, as they eat and drink and play games and gossip? Let’s face it, there’s a bit of the voyeur in all of us – that’s what makes the tabloids so popular.
And as for the ghost of Christmas future, that might be the most intriguing of all – to look ahead and see how much weight we’ve gained, or if we have become successful, or how the marriage turned out. Everyone wants to know what lies ahead.
I love those three Christmas spirits! Every year, when my head hits the pillow on Christmas Eve, I hope to be visited by those ghosts (and why shouldn’t I be, they’ve made visits to just about everyone else – in the movies, at least). But it hasn’t happened so far. Maybe the spirits don’t visit people who already love Christmas, and I do love Christmas, everything about it. Therefore, since the theme of A Christmas Carol is about a person’s ability to change, perhaps I can change into a curmudgeon who says “Bah, humbug” to Christmas. At least, for one night.
Maybe then the three spirits will pay me a visit.
Image Source: www.lib.udel.edu/.../exhibits/text/dickens.htm
