My family used to read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens every year leading up to Christmas. I even recorded myself reading the story stave by stave and posted it to YouTube (public domain ftw) so I can easily watch it every year.
I love this tradition.
Yes, admittedly, we haven't always made it all the way through A Christmas Carol every year, I still think of it as a beloved family tradition. Reading aloud is so soothing to me (especially because often if I did the reading, I was the recipient of head scratches--yes, I am just like a pet). There is something peaceful to me about hearing a familiar story, read by a loved one. Maybe because I grew up being read to, or maybe that's just how my brain is wired. Regardless, I enjoy the act of reading aloud very much.
I also really love A Christmas Carol. I've admittedly only read two of Dickens's books (and the other I hated, but perhaps that was due to a poor teacher), but I think A Christmas Carol is special. It has heart (think Tiny Tim), humor ("There's more gravy than grave about you"), and horror (I think the appearance of Marley's ghost is actually quite scary) in well-balanced measure. It also feels still quite revolutionary (""Business!" cried the Ghost wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water and the comprehensive ocean of my business!"" or "This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy,").
In my dreams, I produce my own audiobook and staging of A Christmas Carol, that's how much I love it (in the stage play, the narrator would be a drunk guy at a bar--imagine it: a guy bursts through bar doors, shouting, "Marley was dead: to begin with!"). That is how enamored I am with this story.
I want to pass along that love to my future family. Having the videos will certainly help as they can simply be played and, additionally, they give me an estimate for how long it'd take to read each stave aloud to help me figure out pacing if I choose to do a liver performance!
Perhaps because my name is Christmas-y, but I love Christmas time. I guess maybe I just love a theme, but embracing the time of year as something special is important to me. Sure, we don't need to do every tradition my family has done, but it'd be nice to at least keep up reading A Christmas Carol.
P.S. For those wondering, I think The Muppet Christmas Carol is an excellent version of A Christmas Carol.
(Prompt provided by Amelia Sacco)
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