December's Swap

The Theme for December's swap is A Christmas carol by Charles Dickens


The story of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge and his meetings with the ghosts of Christmas Past, present and of things yet to come.




The tale begins on Christmas Eve in the 1840's, exactly seven years after the death of Scrooge's business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge is a greedy and stingy businessman, who has no place in his life for kindness, compassion, charity or benevolence. After being warned by Marley's ghost to change his ways Scrooge is visited by three additional ghosts; each in its turn, accompany him to various scenes with his life in hope of achieving his transformation.
The first of the spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to the scenes of his boyhood and youth, which stir the old miser's gentle and tender side by reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to several radically differing scenes (a joy-filled market of people buying the makings of Christmas dinner, the family feast of Scrooge's near-impoverished clerk Bob Cratchit, in order to evince from the miser a sense of responsibility for his fellow man. The third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, harrows Scrooge with dire visions of the future if he does not learn and act upon what he has witnessed. Scrooge's own neglected and untended grave is revealed, prompting the miser to aver that he will change his ways in hopes of changing these "shadows of what may be".
 Scrooge awakens Christmas morning with joy and love in his heart, then spends the day with his nephew's family after anonymously sending a prize turkey to the Cratchit home for Christmas dinner. Scrooge has become a different man overnight, and now treats his fellow men with kindness, generosity and compassion, gaining a reputation as a man who embodies the spirit of Christmas.