Charles Dickens “Carol Philosophy”

I have a collection of books by Charles Dickens, and it includes 9 versions of his most famous one, ... “A Christmas Carol'. Now is the time of the year that I take them from the bookshelf and highlight them for all to see. When I did this today it got me to thinking about him as a writer and a man. I decided to do some searching to see if I'd missed anything of interest. Lo and behold I had, and I am passing it on to you.

Evidently Christmas was not a huge deal in Britain and America until his masterpiece “A Christmas Carol” came out in 1843. It seemed to rekindle the joys of Christmas and today, more than 178 years later and despite the materialistic trappings of the season, Dickens' words seem to still get to the heart and soul of the holidays.

Dickens himself, although never lacking in egoism, seemed surprised to have his book have such an impact year after year, but he soon became tired of the same old questions about his “real” thoughts on Christmas and he finally wrote what he called “The Carol Philosophy”.

In it Dickens describes the holidays as "a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of other people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." 

He carried copies of it and when the question of Christmas was broached the questioner would get a copy.