It's Dickens Season Once Again.

A variety of books, journals and postcard collections relating to Charles Dickens, his life and his written works

His name is heralded throughout the Christmas Season.

A few years ago he was touted in a recent movie as "The Man Who Invented Christmas."

The man's name - Charles Dickens.

He is the author of many periodicals, novels and novellas. He is known as one of the greatest authors throughout the Victorian Era and into today.

As you continue reading the article, consider whether or not you think the movie title takes away from both the religious connection with Christmas and/or the childhood notions of a jolly old soul named Santa.

The box office take at movie theaters did not do as well as had been hoped..

However, box office sales at various venues around the world, especially in the month of December, continue to hit record numbers year after year. The book itself,"A Christmas Carol." was written by Charles Dickens in a period of just six weeks. It is one of Charles Dickens most popular among his readers as well as audiences of plays, television shows, holiday cartoons and radio recordings.

Lionel Barrymore was the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge on a vinyl record in 1934.

Seymour Hicks stars in a British film adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" which was aired in 1935

Reginald Owen took on the role of "Scrooge" in a Metro Goldwyn Mayer screen adaptation in 1938.

Mr. Magoo, an animated cartoon musical of "A Christmas Carol" became a holiday special in 1962.

The Muppet Movie of "A Christmas Carol" has Jim Hanson's puppets telling the story in yet another holiday special that was released in 1992.

The list above is just a short one of the screen plays, stage productions and radio recordings of Charles Dickens seasonal creation.

"A Christmas Carol" has been popular since its inception in 1843. The publication of the book sold out within one day!

Yet little is mentioned of other "Christmas" stories the author penned.

There were five "short" stories that are listed below. Although there are other Christmas stories, these are listed as the top five he wrote, with a Christmas theme.

• 17 December 1843: A Christmas Carol (Chapman and Hall)
• 16 December 1844: The Chimes (Bradbury and Evans)
• 20 December 1845: The Cricket on the Hearth.
• 19 December 1846:The Battle of Life
• 19 December 1848: The Haunted Man

Scholars studying the works of the author peer into Dickens past as a child, his life as a journalist and his marital woes. It is said throughout a variety of publications that one of reasons that his marital troubles began, stemmed from when he focused his attention on wanting to make his wife Catherine (Hogarth) Dickens a "character" in his books. He is also known to have had a mistress, Ellen Tiernan. Charles Dickens is also said to have declared that his wife was "mentally incompetent." He left Catherine, taking his 12 children with him.

A Christmas Carol, written in 1843, lives on in 2019.

There is an International Dickensian Fellowship Society - various meetings taking place from Boston to London and beyond . Often, performers take on the title or lead role as "Ebenezer Scrooge." David Coffee has played that role of Ebenezer Scrooge for over a quarter of a century at North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Ma. In an earlier interview with The Melrose Mirror in 2017, Coffee related, "one of the things I love about doing this show (playing the role of Ebenezer Scrooge) is that you get to have a catharsis eight or nine times a week. When you leave the show, (at the end of each performance) walking out, you feel so good."

Actor,J. T. Turner takes on the role of A Christmas Carol's Fezziwig (young Ebenezer's boss) at North Shore Music Theater He is also the is also the understudy for the role of Ebenezer Scrooge should actor David Coffee not be able to perform at times. Actress Marci Diamond portrays Mrs. Dickens at a the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation in Waltham, Ma. It's title, "Tea with Mrs. Dickens" Incidentally, J.T. Turner also had a role in writing and researching the script with Marci Diamond.

Despite the marital troubles that occurred in the lives of Charles and Catherine Dickens, Diamond, also in an earlier interview prefers to focus on a time in Mrs. Dickens life that was more positive.

About her one woman performance as Catherine (Hogarth) Dickens "Mrs. Dickens,"( a.k.a. Marci Diamond ) delights in telling stories about her family (of ten children) and reading letters that had been written to her by Charles.Some of those letters include those that she had written to her sisters about the earliest days of their courtship and marriage.

As Diamond was investigating and gaining more knowledge about Catherine Dickens, she also made a decision to try out some Victorian Era recipes. Admittedly, Diamond is a vegetarian who found that the dishes in Dickens day, " had quite a different taste." At an event for the Georgetown Historical Society, she followed Catherine Dickens recipe for Mince Pie, made with meat and made the current fearless version as well. As to another recipe she followed, she says it was similar to an apple crisp, "but the topping was quite dry."
Catherine Dickens, as portrayed by Marci Diamond, briefly mentions a few tragedies (within her show) that had once struck the Dickens household. One of them being the death of their 8 month old child. Diamond explains in a local coffee shop interview, that it was important to her to keep the script mainly to the happier times within the Dickens family than what was recorded later in the marriage that had survived 22 years.
Catherine Dickens was subjected to some harsh words by Charles Dickens. As to those early letters, Diamond states that during her research in getting acquainted with the Victorian woman she was about to portray, Dickens's wife Catherine, she discovered through those letters that "Catherine, on her deathbed, "told one of her daughters to give the letters to the museum because she "wanted the world to know he (Charles)" loved me once."
That love is evident in Diamond's role as his wife in "Tea With Mrs. Dickens," when she is sharing the stories, letters and recipes with the audience.

The performers mentioned in the article are just a few of many actors and actresses who take on various roles in "A Christmas Carol" and other works of Dickens in the New England area.

The famous author , Charles Dickens, own British born great-great grandson, Gerald Dickens, travels in both the United Kingdom and in the United States performing works from his great-great grandfather, which, he too, adapts into script form for his own one-man shows.

In "A Christmas Carol" Gerald Dickens he takes on not only the role of Ebenezer Scrooge but each of the other characters within the book in his one man show. In another 2017 article with The Melrose Mirror, he, too, spoke about his many roles within each performance that he brings to life within each of his performances. During a Question and Answer period with an audience member he was asked,

"What is your favorite role/character to portray in A Christmas Carol and why?"

(Gerald) "I love them all, and they are like friends and colleagues on tour with me, but the best character has to be Scrooge, for he is the only one who undergoes a process of change during the story. It is essential that the Scrooge at the end of the story is recognizable as the man we first met at the start (after all only a few hours have passed), and capturing that effectively is the most challenging part of the show." He continued,"Of the more minor characters I enjoy being is Christmas Present, Mrs Cratchit and Old Joe revoltingly selling Scrooge's clothes – each and every one was brilliantly created by Charles and it is my pleasure to portray them."

But what of the other less popular "Christmas stories" of Dickens time?

Still, many audience members, readers and some educators, when asked, have not heard of these other writings that Dickens has penned.If they have heard of them, they have admitted to never having read Dickens's other Christmas stories

It is "A Christmas Carol" that retains the title as the most popular of Charles Dickens's works during the Christmas season. According to some scholars say that "The Cricket On The Hearth" would be considered Dickens next best "Christmas story" of the five mentioned.

Other publications also bear a Christmas type title. However, they are not among the top five listed in various sources. Still, for those interested in reading them, they are:

A Christmas Tree

"Saint Saviour's, Leeds, boasted a Christmas tree. This new addition to the English Christmas was German in origin and Prince Albert has usually been credited with its introduction to England. It provided the title of the first of Dickens' Christmas Stories which appeared in Household Words in 1850." (Wikipedia)

The Holly Tree , which, within its pages, appears to have nothing to do with Christmas.It was written in 1855 and printed in Dickens's "Household Words."

What Christmas Is As We Grow Older, written in 1851.

Interested readers might want to leaf through some pages of Dickens other "Christmas" works this holiday season.

Readers can then decide if there is agreement among the throngs of revelers that "A Christmas Carol" should continue to retain the title as Charles Dickens's best Christmas story."

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