This is awesome:
Got some dust in my eye.
Last year I spent way too much time and too many words writing on movies based on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I got to know the movies – and the original source material – more than I probably ever wanted to. :)
…but one thing that sticks out to me in this very unusual Christmas of 2020 are three scenes that are in the original story, but which are almost always left out of the movies. They’re three scenes with the Ghost of Christmas Present.
Everyone knows that this ghost is the jolly one. He’s Bacchus come to life: drinking, feasting, laughing, his voice booming. He’s the friendliest ghost. Or at least is, at first.
And in the book, towards the end of his time with Scrooge, this ghost does something unusual. He takes Ebenezer out of London, far away north, to the bleak, foggy, cold and stormy moors, where miners work all the year round.
And they go to an isolated reef of stone out at sea which holds a solitary lighthouse, late at night with a gale of a storm blowing in. And finally fully out to sea, with a sailing ship negotiating the storm on a Christmas Eve night, sailors diligent to avoid disaster in terrible weather.
These scenes are different from the other scenes in the book (and movies) set in and around London. They’re easy to edit out, and almost always, they’re cut. And when they’re edited out, A Christmas Carol starts to seem like a story whose moral is that Christmastime isn’t really Christmas without being surrounded by family and friends. The tale is pretty much about Scrooge and his family and the Cratchits.
But that’s not what Dickens had in mind at all. And the real point of the visits to the mines, to the lighthouse, and the ship at sea was to show Scrooge people who were by most standards isolated and separated, working on the holiday, spending Christmas far from loved ones and warm hearths.
And yet…in those dire settings, there were the miners gathered around a fire in a cabin, making a Christmas meal. There in the lighthouse, the two keepers bid one another a happy Christmas, drink their grog, and sing Christmas carols.
And out at sea, the sailors concentrating fully on their jobs at the helm or on the rigging or manning the watch all hum Christmas songs to themselves. or share stories with one another as they can about happy Christmases past, their hearts, the Spirit informs us, full of extra kindness this day.
And that is Dickens purpose here; that not all Christmases are postcard perfect. Sometimes, the real world, fate, and responsibilities intervene and we’re all the miners, or the lighthouse keepers or the sailors in the story.
Christmas is great when we’re surrounded by friends and loved ones and family. But it may not always be so, and in a year of pandemic like this one, it’s just as valid and completely OK to keep the holiday drawn in close and to celebrate as you’re able and as you like.
Merry Christmas, or happy whatever holiday is your thing, y’all. :)
Merry Christmas!
2020 has been tough for everyone, and at least I finally managed to discover the limits of my introversion. Spending Christmas alone for the first time in ages is kind of driving that home. (I’ve been culturally conditioned to believe that the elaborate Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve is basically the high point of the holidays. Sure, I could spend a while cooking said elaborate meal, but it’s pretty hard to stretch the actual act of eating for longer than 15 minutes without some company.)
Anyway, thanks to everyone on Qt3 for this year. It would have been an even shittier year without all y’all.
Merry christmas guys n gals. I <3 the lot of you. Stay weird. Or normal. Whatev, you do you :D
Merry Christmas everyone!
The cat keeps attacking the tree skirt. About 10-20% of the lights twinkle randomly & independently (I love that).
Merry Christmas to all. (Or Happy Holidays, if that’s your jam.) I’m impressed with the trees. Mine is languishing due to lights and laziness. Latest I’ve ever put it up in a year when I put one up!
I like to cozy up next to the fire with a good book and a warm drink on Christmas Eve:
Merry Christmas!
You know you would think the pain and physical damage to his body that Anakin went through on Mustafar, that he would have made his suit of armor totally fire resistant.
Well, it does seem to hold up after five hours in that YouTube video. Hardly seems damaged at all! ;)
True!
Trees are so much easier in modern times. I remember when each tree branch had to be put on one at a time. My job was to hand them to my father out of the box.
And the lights were a nightmare!
Now the tree comes in three parts - stick them together with lights already attached. My father would be flabbergasted.
I just wish there was a machine that could wrap the presents.
Thats the reason our 25 year old tree isn’t up, its in like 70 pieces in a box in the attic. :P
Christmas gift bags and tissue paper. :)
When does everyone open their presents? When my kids were young it was in the morning but when they got older we did it on Christmas Eve night. That allowed us to travel easier on Christmas day.
1 tonight before bed (11pm), the rest in the morning when time permits. :)
I agree but I think my wife considers it cheating!!
Think of the savings, them bags get re-used forever, since they are only used 1 day per year. :)
As a kid, all presents were opened Christmas morning. My wife’s family opened family gifts Christmas Eve and Santa gifts Christmas morning. We do it her way now that we have a kid because I don’t have strong feelings about it. He does have to wait until after dinner to build character though :-)