According to an article in The Scotsman, Charles Dickens didn’t become ‘Mr Christmas’ by accident, he practically trademarked the holiday. Dickens, who was in need of cash, wrote a series of stories expressing his vision for the festive season, that Christmas should be a time to remember the poor and to prick the consciences of the wealthy, beginning with a Christmas story, The Chimes, in 1844, which was a huge hit and inspiring five stage adaptations within three months.
The instant popular A Christmas Carol and the subsequent four Christmas stories he delivered were huge successes and echoed his moral themes, while each also proved his reputation as the Christmas man.
The Scotsman article said it was famously reported that after he died, one little girl supposedly asked, “will Father Christmas die too?” But Dickens had ensured that he wouldn’t, by establishing a story which has become almost like a myth, an ideal White Christmas that still exerts a pull, especially after a hard year when a retreat to the past seems tempting.
A Christmas Carol has inspired endless homages but Dickens’s biggest influence, was his value of Christmas as a time for charity, lives on in festive charity campaigns such as Oxfam Unwrapped.
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