Rewriting “A Christmas Carol” for children: “A Christmas Dream and How It Came True”

I came across an article on Scotsman.com about why we so often associate Charles Dickens with Christmas  (see The father of Christmas: What the festive season owes to Charles Dickens) and it really opened my eyes.

The influence of Charles Dickens

Despite that fact that I have read so little of Dickens, I could still feel his influence on Louisa’s Christmas stories (although hers are shorter and sweeter than his – I understand he got paid by the word :-)). Among other things, it made me realize that I must expand my reading horizons so as to understand where Louisa’s influences came from.

Learning to appreciate Dickens

I actually read (or heard through an audio book) A Christmas Carol for the first time yesterday. At first I was put off by the endless description as it seemed I could have said in five words what he said in fifty (and I am certainly not pithy!). I felt myself getting impatient, wanting him to stop beating around the bush and get to the point!

But by the time the third ghost appeared, I was among the initiated. I began to love the way everyone except Scrooge knew the obvious fact that he was the dead man. The suspense kept building along with Scrooge’s horror so that when he repented of his sins, it was heartfelt and authentic.

I’ve started listening to The Chimes and will also take on The Cricket in the Hearth. I love Google Books!

Rewriting Dickens for children

The article I eluded to at the beginning of this post mentioned that Louisa’s “A Christmas Dream and How It  Came True” was A Christmas Carol rewritten for children.

But rather than a misery and miserable old man, we have a very spoiled and miserable little girl, Effie. She had everything and was bored with it all.

She announced to her mother that she was “tired of Christmas”:

” . . . it [Christmas] is always the same, and there isn’t any more surprise about it. I always find heaps of goodies in my stocking. Don’t like some of them, and soon get tired of those I do like. We always have a great dinner, and I eat too much, and feel ill next day. Then there is a Christmas tree somewhere, with a doll on top, or a stupid old Santa Claus, and children dancing and screaming over bonbons and toys that break, and shiny things that are of no use. Really, mamma, I’ve had so many Christmases all alike that I don’t think I can bear another one.”

Effie wished she could be instead a beggar-girl. It made me cringe.

Scrooge’s story spawns a dream

At her mother’s suggestion, Effie found a copy of A Christmas Carol and read it before bedtime. In a way she couldn’t articulate, it made her feel better. And it fueled a long dream that “she never quite forgot.”

She realized a wish in her dream, that of becoming a beggar-girl: cold, hungry, wet, and feeling quite desperate.

A Christmas Spirit

While Scrooge had a vision of the 3 Spirits of Christmas; Effie was visited by one of many:

“A child’s voice sang, a child’s hand carried the little candle; and in the circle of soft light it shed, Effie saw a pretty child coming to her through the night and snow. A rosy, smiling creature, wrapped in white fur, with a wreath of green and scarlet holly on its shining hair, the magic candle in one hand, and the other outstretched as if to shower gifts and warmly press all other hands.”

The world of Christmas

The Spirit gave comfort to Effie and showed her the world of Christmas – many Spirits, old and young, working hard to create Christmas magic for the poor in the world. Louisa’s ever-fruitful imagination spun a world of wonder – she never lost sight of the child within herself despite all the hardship she lived through.

Effie even saw 4 Santa Clauses! (Were these the “Santa’s helpers” that I was always told about when I was a child? After all, how could Santa be at the North Pole and in my favorite department store at the same time? :-))

But that was only part of the story – the best was yet to come.

The Spirit then showed Effie how the all the wondrous things made in the world of Christmas was distributed throughout the world to deserving children everywhere. She saw how the poor children especially responded to such kindness and longed to give as the Christmas Spirits gave.

Becoming the Spirit of Christmas

Upon awakening, she told her mother all about her dream, and her mother made it come true. Effie became that Spirit of Christmas, dressed just like the Spirit in her dream, distributing Christmas magic to poor girls in a nearby orphanage.

Never again would Effie declare that she was “tired of Christmas!”

I loved the sweet and imaginative way that Louisa borrowed from the Dickens classic to create a story that would charm children into taking care of those less fortunate than themselves.

And I love the way that each story I read wraps me in the comfort of Christmases past while gently pricking my conscience here in the present to care more for those around me who are less fortunate.

I’ve never spent a Christmas before with Louisa May Alcott; it’s a Christmas I won’t soon forget.

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