A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol is an all-time favourite Christmas story in World literature. It tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a greedy, selfish and miserly London money lender who is running his business alone since the death of Jacob Marley, his partner. Whenever anyone wishes him, “Merry Christmas!” Scrooge mocks them with, “Bah, humbug!”
On this Christmas Eve, Scrooge sees a series of visions about his dead partner Marley. Marley is punished by heaven to wander the earth bound in heavy chains on account of his selfishness and greed. Marley shows him three ghostly visitors—Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas-Yet-to-Come. Past midnight, the first one, shaped like a glowing child, calls on Scrooge. It takes him back to his childhood and early youth. He sees his happy schooldays and youth. The ghost also shows him how, working as an apprentice under a jolly businessman named Fezziwig, his lust for money dehumanised him and he refused to marry Belle, his sweetheart. After this vision, Scrooge is visited by Christmas Present, which shows him how joyfully the poor people like his clerk Bob Cratchit’s family celebrate Christmas. He also has a glimpse of Tiny Tim, the crippled son of Cratchit, whose humility and innocence pulls at his heart. Scrooge gradually catches the spirit and wants to see more of this. But the Spirit transforms into an older one and then shows two starving children living under his coat. They are named Ignorance and Want. Soon the third ghost, Christmas-Yet-to-Come, arrives. This time Scrooge is taken into the future where he sees some businessmen discussing a dead man who has no heirs to inherit his wealth, and a poor couple expressing relief at the man’s death. He wishes to know who it is. The Spirit takes him to a graveyard where he reads the headstone with his name on it! As the night ends, Scrooge gets out of his bed and hurries out, visiting those whom he had spurned before. He sends the gift of a big turkey to Bob Cratchit’s family, and then makes a surprise appearance at Fred’s Christmas party. He becomes a generous and humble man, having learned “how to keep Christmas well.” He becomes a second father to Tiny Tim.
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Papa Panov’s Special Christmas
By Leo Tolstoy
Papa Panov was an expert shoe maker. His wife was dead, and his children had grown up and moved on. He lived alone now. On Christmas eve, he had an unusual dream. Jesus appeared to him and told him: “I will visit you tomorrow.”
He got up early, got his house ready for Jesus’ visit. What gift would he give Jesus? He had only one nice gift: a beautiful pair of shoes he had made.
He looked out through the window to see if Jesus was coming, and saw only a poor man sweeping the streets in the bitter cold. He called him in, and offered him hot coffee. The man was so happy to enjoy the warmth of the home and the hot coffee.
When Papa Panov looked again, he saw a young woman with a little girl, walking in the snow. They were evidently tired and hungry.
He asked them to come in, and gave them hot soup. Then he found that the child had no shoes even in the severe winter. Papa Panov put the pair of shoes he had made—the beautiful pair—on the child’s feet. They fit. He asked the mother to keep them.
Later he went out to take food and drink to the beggars nearby.
It was getting late, and Jesus had not yet appeared. So, he thought, it was just a dream.
Then he fell asleep again, and, once again, he heard Jesus’ voice. He saw the sweeper and the woman with the child and the beggars he had fed. In seeing them, he heard Jesus’ voice asking him, “Didn’t you see me?”
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