"The Man Who Invented Christmas"

Okay, so we've already established that we've gotta have some classic Christmas movies lined up for viewing once the season gets underway, and we've specified some characteristics of what makes a Christmas film a classic, namely a 1940s setting (or anywhere between 1930 and 1959), scenes featuring shoppers in the city, brightly lit department store windows at night, Salvation Army Santas ringing their bells, all with snow falling and everything shot in black and white. These are just a few of the necessary elements for a classic Christmas film, and we have just this week watched two that we had never seen before, "The Lemon Drop Kid" and "The Bishop's Wife". Two more are on the way from the Libe, which should arrive for viewing no later than next Tuesday, and we are exited about that.

There is another seasonal must-have, though, as far as movies are concerned, and that is anything at all that has been based on the works of Charles Dickens, even if it doesn't directly have to do with Christmas. Most of his books did not reference the holiday, and of course only one was deliberately written about Christmas, about it's meaning and it's effect on a Certain Person named Scrooge.

Over the past few years we watched every version of "A Christmas Carol" that was ever made, and we got hooked on Dickens in the process. We developed a Dickens addiction so powerful that it didn't matter that any newly discovered production (usually for the BBC) was not related to Christmas. In all of his stories, the Victorian settings in dingy London, along with the Cockney accents and class differences made all of his tales - and characters - feel related to old Scrooge and Bob Cratchit.

Thus we came to associate all of Dickens' work with Christmas, and the BBC adaptations of his books also became compulsory Christmas viewing beginning about three or four years ago.

So tonight it was quite a treat to watch a movie that was about Charles Dickens, and not only about him but about the writing of his most famous book, "A Christmas Carol".

The movie was called "The Man Who Invented Christmas" (2017). It was a gem from beginning to end. The story begins in America in 1843. Charles Dickens has just returned from a triumphant theater tour of the States. He is back home in England, but over the course of the next 16 months, he releases three new novels, all of which flop. He is already well-off, having had great success prior to the flops, but he lives extravagantly and his finances are being stretched, especially now that his destitute parents have come to stay at his house. His agent is keeping his publishers at bay. They have fronted Dickens an advance on a new book - despite the three previous flops - and they are waiting for some news on their return.

But Dickens is stonewalled for ideas. He has writer's block and is sinking fast.

But suddenly, his predicament causes his technique to kick in. He has a writer's habit of studying the people around him, wherever they may be (in a restaurant, on the street, at home), and he gets notions too from peripheral images, such as the clang of heavy iron chains he sees falling from a strongbox.

He jots every observation down in his notebook, names especially. The sound of certain last names inspire him by their sound ("Marley"!), and by his visual association with their persons. As the pressure builds from his publishers, and his need for money to support his lifestyle and the remodeling of his home, he comes up with an idea for his new book, based upon some local characters he has interacted with, set into the context of the upcoming Christmas holiday. His young housemaid, who knows how to read (not common at the time among working class folks) likes ghost stories, so he uses her to bounce his ideas off of.

Suddenly he has come up with a lead character. He fumbles for a name for this horrible, miserly man.

Finally after many tries, he gets it : "Scrooge"! (it has a bit of the Screw in it that he had been reciting out loud and playing with).

Once he names his lead character, Mr. Scrooge comes to life in the form of Christopher Plummer. From there, Scrooge helps dictate the rest of the story to Charles Dickens, though he also torments him along the way, because Dickens has a bit of Scrooge inside himself. He has a big secret he has kept from everyone regarding his childhood and his irresponsible father.

All of these influences help to break his writer's block as he strives to finish his Christmas book.

It is interesting to see that Christmas was regarded as a "minor holiday" in England, and presumably the world, as recently as 1843, before "A Christmas Carol" was published. The idea of a Tannenbaum, a Christmas Tree, was relegated to Germany. But after Dickens popularised the Tannenbaum, it became a symbol of the holiday, only 117 years before I was born.

We think these things have always been around, but many traditions are fairly recent.

"The Man Who Invented Christmas" is an instant classic. Dan Stevens, the actor who plays Dickens, absolutely captures his exuberant creative methods, his joy in birthing his characters, and his frustration at having to deal with the real world : the money matters, his father, and the childhood torment in the workhouse that he faced when his dad was placed in a debtor's prison when he was 11 years old, a secret he carried his whole life.

That is why Dickens wrote about the plight of the poor and championed social justice, because he had been a child enslaved in a workhouse. This theme is central to the movie. The grim subtheme affects but does not not override the sentiment of his triumph in completing his book, just in time for Christmas 1843. He wanted it to be a work of art, complete with illustrations and gold leaf pages.

Six thousand copies were printed and the first printing sold out within days.

Dickens' popularity soared and his literary reputation was re-established.

He invented Christmas as we know it, at least as far as the sentiment is concerned, which is why we insist on such unfettered emotion in our Christmas movies to this day.

Dickens opened up the heart of Christmas by opening the heart of Scrooge, and in doing so he caused us all to feel it, to feel the spirit of the season.

Two Giant Thumbs Up for "The Man Who Invented Christmas", a must see.

And with that, I will see you in the morning.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)