A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

1999 Edition, published by Bethany House Publishers

  • A Christmas Carol is a classic literary novel written by acclaimed author Charles Dickens, first published in 1843. The events of the book famously take place during the Christmas season in London, England.
  • A Christmas Carol tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a grumpy and selfish businessman who has lived his adult life miserably without regard for anyone but himself. Scrooge treats his employee cruelly, refuses to make charitable donations despite his wealth, and refuses his nephew’s invitation to Christmas dinner. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is haunted by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley who was tortured in the afterlife as punishment for his wrongdoings and self-centeredness. Scrooge is then visited by three wraiths (image below) who show him visions of his past, present, and future in an effort to make him a more moral and generous person.
  • Weather is a core motif throughout A Christmas Carol. Beyond creating atmosphere and adding elements to the setting of the story, weather serves as an analogy for Scrooge’s spirit and morality. At the beginning of A Christmas Carol, Dickens describes the weather as “cold, bleak, and biting” much like Scrooge’s personality.  By the end of the story, Scrooge learns the errors of his ways and commits to being a generous and kind-hearted person. While the weather in London is still cold, it is described more positively as “clear, bright, jovial, and stirring.”

An illustration of the Ghost of Christmas Present, one of three wraiths, visiting Ebenezer Scrooge (from the Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2023).

How is this related to climate?

  • The weather described throughout A Christmas Carol was inspired by the Christmases experienced by Charles Dickens during his childhood. Dickens was born in 1812 in Victorian England, during a period known as the Little Ice Age. During the Little Ice Age, average annual temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere decreased by 0.6°C (1.1°F), and certain areas experienced cold episodes for several decades with temperatures dropping by as much as 2°C (3.6°F) relative to thousand-year averages. Between 1805 and 1820, parts of Europe experienced some of their coldest winters. In 1814, it was so cold that the River Thames, in England, froze solid (image below).

Illustration of an impromptu “frost-fair” on the frozen River Thames in 1814. This is the last time in the past 200 years that the ice has been thick enough to hold one there. From 1309 to 1814, during the Little Ice Age, the Thames has reportedly frozen over 23 times (from de Castella, 2014).

    • With its popularity, A Christmas Carol helped revive Christmas traditions in Victorian England. Dickens’ novel has also contributed to the idea of a “White Christmas,” or a snowy Christmas day. Snowy days in December are more uncommon today than they were during Dickens’ childhood. The U.K. experiences a White Christmas once every six years on average, compared to almost every year during the early 1800s.

References and additional resources