A Christmas Carol: In prose, being a ghost story of Christmas (by Charles Dickens)

The story is familiar to nearly everyone -- one of the most widely known stories of the past century. Ebenezer Scrooge, stingy and mean, is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley. Marley announces the coming visits of three ghosts -- Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Their coming is an attempt to redeem Scrooge before it is too late, lest he share Marley's fate, and be forced to wander the earth in eternal repentance.

The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge some of the events in his life that led him to become the person he is. The Ghost of Christmas Present shows him what Christmas Day is like for those he knows, and for strangers. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows him where his actions are leading him, and others. Together they engender in him a recognition of his faults and a resolve to change his life.

In the stratosphere of literature, some few books become classics -- stories that are beloved by every succeeding generation, handed down from parent to child, treasured in family libraries, and always in print. A CHRISTMAS CAROL enjoys a status so rare that we don't even have a word for it -- a book that has permanently altered the culture to which it belongs; that has been adapted countless times in stage, screen, art, and music; whose words and phrases have passed into the lexicon of common usage; and whose story is known to everyone, even those who have never read it. It virtually created the modern secular Christmas celebration, along with the attitudes and emotions that accompany it (indeed, Dickens is credited in some quarters with the invention of the phrase, "Merry Christmas"). As such, a reading of the original should be a part of every child's experience.