I have loved A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens ever since I was a child. I know this is a common statement and there is a myriad of people who say the same. As a post-World War II American, it’s common that I first experienced A Christmas Carol in an entertainment form well before ever reading Dickens’ great novella. Actually, I had yet to learn beyond the alphabet the first time I saw A Christmas Carol. But at the age of six, when I saw my first version, I was hooked. It became and has remained my favorite Christmas story and it never gets old. As I grew up and eventually read the novella, my love for the story was stronger (Dickens became and remains one of my favorite novelists although Evelyn Waugh is my all-time favorite English writer). Along with it, my passion for adaptations only grew. Whenever any version was broadcast on television, that was how I spent my time; it was one of the highlights during the Christmas season for me.
It was the VHS / VCR era, after I was finally able to get my first VCR, when I started my personal collection of various versions of A Christmas Carol. Back then the average retail VHS movie cost $30 – 50 retail (or more!), which was a steep price at the time; so obviously, I was recording them as they were broadcast. It was at that time I realized how many dramatizations there were. As the cost of VHS movies steadily dropped, it was wonderful replacing my home-recorded versions with better quality retail ones. What was even better was versions I had never seen before or were rarely shown began to become available! It became an obsession to watch every version I could obtain during the season. As my collection grew, it became hard to watch as many as I could when my free time would allow. There were even times I would do marathon watching, viewing of one right after the other, on Christmas Eve and Day. In all the years I’ve been doing this, attempting to watch them with a semblance of a plan is only recent. I’m watching at least one a night starting at Advent (December 1st).
I don’t anticipate viewing them all, but there will be a lot and it will be personally satisfying. Although I also have and view many of the non-traditional adaptations, spin-offs, continuations, etc., I personally prefer those that are traditional and set in early Victorian London. I very much like some of the non-traditional takes and they are included. I have also loved the many other presentations: the radio shows (I have a few), ballet, opera, stage shows (both non-musical and musical), and even comics!
Many years ago, thanks to our friend The Internet, I learned that I was far from unique in not only my love for Dickens’ story, but there were other crazy folks that collected and watched the ever growing repertoire of adaptations. In the earlier days of the web, I had a very small, personal experimental site dedicated solely to available VHS versions. It was a sub-site to a once very popular, larger site dedicated to a show I’m obsessed with (the site’s been gone since mid-2004).
After my original, long-lived simple site, I began the annual Christmas Carol/Scrooge response/review blogs in 2013. The “editions” up to now have been non-consecutive as there were two different years I didn’t post.
There are scholars that have devoted time and study to the A Christmas Carol phenomenon in its non-print forms. My yearly blog is solely for fun and share with others.
I am not a critic and have no wish to try to appear as one. I will be briefly writing about each version I watch with my personal perceptions or opinions. I have no predetermined order I will be viewing most versions, although I do have personal traditions of watching particular versions on Christmas Eve and Christmas night.