In 1843, Charles Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol.” The story was so popular that it transformed a religious day into a holiday dedicated to generosity of spirit, heart and purse that lives to this day. The story is about Ebenezer Scrooge who is taken by ghosts in the night to see his past reenacted, his present interpreted, his future imagined, so that he may be moved to transform himself into a man who can give himself to others and take part in this glorious celebration once a year.

In this interpretation of the classic, it has been observed that Fred, Scrooge's nephew and charge as a boy, grows into a man who is everything the old man should be if only he would notice. Scrooge is frightened by his own dreams, his conscience, into the family embrace which he then extends to the Cratchits.