By Kendra Hibbert
December 26, 2003
Yes, it’s Christmastime again - or rather post-Christmastime. By the time this column goes up on the site it will be December 26th, but I am writing it on December 23rd originally prepared to review the Python’s new autobiography but over the last two weeks, watching Christmas Special after Christmas special, something that has been bothering me for years cropped up again and this time I’m prepared to do something about it. I’m talking about the complete lack of literary variety in seasonal tributes on all our favorite television shows. Specifically I’m talking about the bizarre dictatorship Charles Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL has over all the other worthy or, in some cases, even superior Christmas stories.
Now I like a good Dickens as much as the next girl, and normally I wouldn’t be complaining about this, but it’s really gotten out of hand. How many interpretations of
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one story can we all take? Why is it so important that people see both Hanna Barbara and Disney’s take on the novel? What could we possibly gain from another interpretation of the character of Scrooge when Michael Caine, Alistair Sim, Bill Murray, Mr. Magoo and
a kagillion more different people have portrayed him on television or in movies or in bad high school Christmas pageants that we’ve all been forced to sit through over the years. It’s time this nonsense stopped. It’s time we all threw open our windows and instead of shouting to the little boy down on the street to get us a nice fat Christmas bird we tell those in charge of making Christmas specials that we want a little variety at this time of year. I mean it’s not like there aren’t plenty of other stories to draw from. Dickens himself has plenty – at least 21 he published in magazines. All of them reminiscent in tone and subject matter to A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Any one of these would make an equally festive story and would save us the pain of having to live through another "God Bless Us, every one."
Or better yet, forget Dickens altogether. There are plenty of other authors to draw inspiration from. The great author of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S and IN COLD BLOOD, Truman Capote wrote two classic Christmas stories – ‘One Christmas’ in which a 6-year-old named Buddy has a disillusioning visit with his estranged father in New Orleans and ‘A Christmas Memory’ 7-year-old Buddy, his best friend/elderly cousin Miss Sook and their dog prepare for the coming holidays in rural Alabama (there is another story to this series ‘The Thanksgiving Visitor’ in which Miss Sook invites a bully over for dinner). These stories have been made into movies once or twice but I wouldn’t mind another few takes on it although, because the characters aren’t as stereotypical – I mean universal – as Dickens’ I don’t expect there to be a Rugrats’ version of these stories any time soon.
One hugely overlooked writer of a wealth of Christmas stories is William Makepeace Thackeray and his THE CHRISTMAS BOOKS OF MR. M. A. TITMARSH which has many charming stories for children including “Mrs. Perkins's Ball," “Our Street," “Dr. Birch and his Young Friends,” “The Kicklebury’s on the Rhine” and "The Ring
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and the Rose" a fairy story that is just screaming out for a Disney adaptation. Why these stories haven’t even been considered as Christmas Specials is a complete mystery to me.
But the gravest exclusion in popular culture at this time of year is the lack of O. Henry. He was a master of the short story and wrote many tales that are perfect for adaptation
into various other mediums. The best in my opinion is "The Gift of the Magi," in which a poor married couple Jim and Della try to find the money to buy Christmas gifts for one another. Della sells her beautiful hair to buy a fob for Jim’s watch and Jim sells his watch to buy a comb for Della’s hair. It’s a simple story and one that’s actually been picked up by one or two television shows as the basis for their Christmas Specials but there are far too few of these shows taking advantage of this story and of O. Henry’s genius in general. Personally I would much rather see A Very Special Holiday Episode of BLOSSOM, in which Blossom sells her hat to buy guitar strings for her boyfriend and her boyfriend sells his guitar to buy a rack for her hat than a tired old Dickensian episode where Grandpa falls asleep and dreams he was visited by three ghosts.
So this season I’m calling for a boycott on Dickens… okay it’s a little too late now to boycott Dickens since this is a day after Christmas and his damage has been done. But next year when you’re sitting down to watch another season’s worth of Christmas specials and THE JETSONS' CHRISTMAS CAROL comes on, don’t just sit back and watch Mr. Spacely "Bah, Humbug" his way through yet another Scrooge, demand more Thackeray from your television, cry out for more Capote. If nothing else, there’s a chance it will inspire you to pick up a classic book or two for the Holiday Season and stop wasting so much time watching cartoons.
Next Column: Happy New Year! A look back at all the good books I missed reviewing in 2003.
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