Ask anyone what story is introduced by the above line, especially at Christmas time, and see what he says. The right answer is, of course, Charles Dickens’s "A Christmas Carol" and though perhaps not everyone would recognise the quoted line, most are familiar enough with the classic tale to know why it is important for the reader to understand at the outset that Marley is dead (as a “coffin-nail”)—in order to be certain that it is indeed his ghost that appears to his old partner Scrooge and not just a long-lost Marley.
I thought it best to begin an article about the Christmas story with one of the most well-known of fictional Christmas stories. Charles Dickens’s holiday tale has been so well-loved that ever since, the Christmas story has been a literary genre of its own.
In fact, Christmas is the only holiday that has its own literary genre. There is something in Christmas so universal that it lends itself to a variety of story types—humorous, sentimental, retrospective, satirical—and yet so particular that the story will only be brought out in December. I have made a tradition of writing a Christmas story of my own each year, and keep a list of possible story plots to use. I believe I have at present enough potential plots to last me until I am somewhere in my thirties if I continue writing them at the rate of one per year, and I am still adding to the list.
The real trouble of writing a Christmas story, I have found, is making it a Christmas story and not merely a story set at Christmastime. There seems to be a mysterious element in those stories that have managed to become Christmas classics—something that makes them belong to Christmas. I don’t pretend to know what that element is, but there are certain themes that appear again and again in Christmas stories like an echo, or the thread of a plot.
Redemption
After all the plays, musicals, films, etc. based upon "A Christmas Carol," most people are familiar with the basic plot. A wicked old usurer is visited by four spirits on Christmas Eve which show him Christmas from three different perspectives. He is completely transformed by this ghostly experience and spends the rest of his life (especially at Christmas) in nobler pursuits. We have the enjoyment of watching Scrooge change gradually from miser to philanthropist under the spell of Dickens’s inimitable story-telling. The way it is told lends the tale most of its character and energy, but I think a great deal of its appeal comes from the redemption of old Scrooge—a creature most would have thought past redeeming. I have always been partial to stories where the villain is reformed at the end, and in this one, where the villain happens to be the main character as well, it is even more of a satisfaction than usual. We sympathise with a character whose thoughts and feelings we understand. Never mind that he is a bad man. We are all bad enough ourselves to fully appreciate the significance of his salvation, and I think that is the reason this tale has been loved so universally and for so long.
Generosity
“One dollar and eighty-seven cents.” You may not find quite as many people who are familiar with this opening line as you would find familiar with the first one I quoted, but chances are, there are a few. That’s because O’Henry’s surprise-ending Christmas story, "The Gift of the Magi," is another best-loved and therefore best-known of the holiday stories. For my part, I used to be rather bothered by it because the two people in it gave their most prized possessions in exchange for things of much lesser value. I’ve since learnt to be very fond of this story which, like many of O’Henry’s, must be read “between the lines”. The paradox of it is that, although the story centres on the two gifts, it really isn’t about the gifts at all—it’s about an unseen gift manifested in rather an awkward way. It’s the unseen gift of Love that is the core of this story, and I find it interesting to note listeners’ reactions to it. There are some who “get it” and some (like me—at least for many years) who don’t.
Magic
I have always thought Christmas is a magical time, even though I never believed in Santa Claus. I suppose it is partly because even when it is looked forward to all year long it always seems to come rather unexpectedly. And then, there is something of the conjuror in Christmas: you put your hand in a stocking and pull out an orange. It isn’t very surprising that a great many fairy stories have been made up about Christmas—Saint Nicholas bringing gifts, animals talking at midnight, magical nutcrackers, and tailoring mice. It isn’t important to the story whether you believe in magic or not, the important thing is that for a few minutes you suspend your disbelief and wait in firm expectation for the impossible to occur. And it always does, in the best Christmas stories.
Peace
Of all queer Christmases, the queerest are those that come during war time. The two things are such opposites that to think of them both at once is a mental exercise. Yet, some of the best Christmas stories I’ve heard are set during a war, and of these my favourites are those that really happened. I’ve always liked the story "The Truce in the Forest." It tells of an instance that occurred during the “Battle of the Bulge” in 1944, where a handful of American and German soldiers hold an unofficial truce in honour of the season. I don’t know if the story is true or not, but it is very similar to many true instances. There is something in Christmas stronger than officers’ orders, stronger than patriotism, stronger even than hatred, sometimes.
Hope
This theme appears in nearly every Christmas story. I suppose it explains the many otherwise depressing tales of ill children, lonely people, and poverty-stricken families abounding among the more cheerful holiday stories. The idea that good is eternal and hardship only temporary is presented again and again. How else could we justify Christmas if it were only for those who had some good reason for being merry? No, Christmas is for everyone without condition and it brings its own cheer with it to even the poorest or unhappiest. That, at any rate, is what the Christmas stories tell us.
Joy
There is one thing that we can expect from a Christmas story beforehand and that is a happy ending. Christmas stories may be sad or humorous, cheerful or sentimental, but we know whatever happens that everything is going to end well. We may pity Tiny Tim, or our hair may stand on end at the appearance of Marley’s ghost, but the story will end with a smile and the comfortable satisfaction of knowing that it is, after all, “a wonderful life”.
* * *
Perhaps the reason that these characteristics appear so often in our favourite Christmas stories is because they are all a part of the first and true Christmas Story.
* It tells of One who came to save even the worst sinners.
* He came bringing the greatest gift.
* His coming was by magic.
* He came to bring peace, not among men (he brought a sword), but between God and mankind.
* His coming was looked and longed for almost since the world began.
*Ever since He came, those who follow Him have had (as He promised) trials and suffering, but we know, in the tradition of the Christmas story, that at the conclusion there will be a Happy Ending.
Thus, the tradition of the Christmas story continues the tradition of the True Christmas Story, and like small echoes, our favourite holiday tales remind us again each year of what is most important to Christmas.
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