Best Christmas films

[jian]

My Eng Lit major partner considers a Christmas Carol to be anti-Semitic. The reason Scrooge doesn’t celebrate Christmas (and remember he was left at boarding school as a child) is he is Jewish.

Do we have any reason to believe he’s Jewish? It probably would have been mentioned in the book by one of the characters. He was left at boarding school over Christmas because his strict father wanted him to, to toughen him up.

Ebenezer (despite being named after a battlefield in the book of Samuel) is more likely to be an English (or Scottish - Dickens apparently said he’s named after Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie, a well-known Scottish miser of the period, though there’s no evidence that such a person existed) name than Jewish. His sister’s name is Fanny and his nephew’s is Frederick, so that’s of little help. I don’t think we know either way, but he’s unlikely to be Jewish.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Do we have any reason to believe he’s Jewish? It probably would have been mentioned in the book by one of the characters. He was left at boarding school over Christmas because his strict father wanted him to, to toughen him up.

Ebenezer (despite being named after a battlefield in the book of Samuel) is more likely to be an English (or Scottish - Dickens apparently said he’s named after Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie, a well-known Scottish miser of the period, though there’s no evidence that such a person existed) name than Jewish. His sister’s name is Fanny and his nephew’s is Frederick, so that’s of little help. I don’t think we know either way, but he’s unlikely to be Jewish.

I didn’t say I agreed with her interpretation, and I think it’s largely based on his occupation as money lender and drawing parallels with Fagin. There is nothing to say he is a Christian though. Indeed the story is very secular, and had a lot to do with the commercialisation of Christmas.

 

[Deset Gled]

There is nothing to say he is a Christian though.

During his bit with the Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge is seen celebrating Christmas as a child with his sister, and also celebrating Christmas Eve with Fezziwig and others. His ex Belle also celebrates Christmas; while it wouldn't be impossible for that to be an interfaith relationship, it seems like a kinda notable thing to gloss over.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

celebrating Christmas Eve with Fezziwig and others

Generally, Works Christmas parties are compulsory, regardless of religion. And Fezziwig's party is itself notably secular in nature. Standard now, but unusual at the time it was written.

My personal take though is it is anti-puritan. Dickens makes Christmas about singing and dancing, drinking and eating, playing games and flirting. All things puritans would have heartily dourly objected to.

And Ebenezer is the sort of name puritans used at that time.

 

[Cadence]

Radio show on Dickens, A Christmas Carol, poverty and celebrity at the time it was written, and celebrating Christmas.

 

[Mannahnin]

It's a brief mention, but Scrooge also attends church on Christmas morning before going to see Bob Cratchit. He's definitely Christian in the story, even if not previously observant.

 

[Piperken]

Generally, Works Christmas parties are compulsory, regardless of religion. And Fezziwig's party is itself notably secular in nature. Standard now, but unusual at the time it was written.

My personal take though is it is anti-puritan. Dickens makes Christmas about singing and dancing, drinking and eating, playing games and flirting. All things puritans would have heartily dourly objected to.

And Ebenezer is the sort of name puritans used at that time.

Comment to add one should always pay close attention to what names Dickens' characters have, often the flag they fly.

 

[jian]

Generally, Works Christmas parties are compulsory, regardless of religion. And Fezziwig's party is itself notably secular in nature. Standard now, but unusual at the time it was written.

My personal take though is it is anti-puritan. Dickens makes Christmas about singing and dancing, drinking and eating, playing games and flirting. All things puritans would have heartily dourly objected to.

And Ebenezer is the sort of name puritans used at that time.

I don’t think there were a lot of people who’d have called themselves Puritans in England in the 1840s, though many Christians would indeed have objected to the public celebration of Christmas, mostly considering it a private holiday for family.

ACC certainly helped promote the notion that it was a time for public and community celebration and generosity; Prince Albert had also popularised this concept by bringing in more German ideas about Christmas, including the Christmas tree.

I see that the film The Man Who Invented Christmas runs with this, starting with the idea that Scrooge's parsimony is a reflection of Dickens' own money troubles and difficult relationship with money, blaming his father John, a notorious spendthrift who spent some time in a debtor's prison (forcing Charles to go to work as a child), which is something I've heard elsewhere too.

(Is The Man Who Invented Christmas a Xmas film? Yes, probably.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don’t think there were a lot of people who’d have called themselves Puritans in England in the 1840s

Plymouth Brethren, Quakers, Wesleyan Methodists, Tea Total movement…

 

[jian]

Plymouth Brethren, Quakers, Wesleyan Methodists, Tea Total movement…

Not a lot of Puritans there, many of them are OK with celebrating Christmas (also: playing cards, plays, popular entertainment, bowling), especially the Victorian Temperance movement, who embraced “Christmas at home with your family and singing carols” as opposed to “Christmas in the pub getting drunk and then going home to beat your family”.