(gentle calm music)

- Dead.

- [Narrator] Marley was dead, as dead as a doornail.

Scrooge knew he was dead. Of course he did.

How could it be otherwise?

Scrooge and he had been partners

for I don't know how many years.

Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator,

his sole friend, and the only man who mourned him.

If Scrooge can be said to have mourned at all.

And the mention of Marley's funeral brings me back

to the point I started from.

There is no doubt that Marley was dead.

This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful

can come from the story I am going to relate.

So now it begins.

(bright lively music)

(bright lively music continues)

(bright lively music continues)

(gentle peaceful music)

It was bitterly cold on the night of Christmas Eve of 1843

when Scrooge sat busy in his counting house counting his money

with his clerk nearby trying to warm himself at the candle,

but since he didn't have much of an imagination, he failed.

(gentle peaceful music continues)

(bell rings)

- A Merry Christmas, Uncle. God save you.

- What?

- I said Merry Christmas.

(footsteps)

- [Scrooge] Bah humbug.

- Christmas humbug? Uncle, you surely don't mean that.

- Of course I mean it. Merry Christmas indeed.

What reason do you have to be merry?

You're poor enough.

- Come now, Uncle. What reason do you have to be dismal?

You're rich enough. (chuckles)

- Bah. Away with Christmas.

What's Christmas to you but a time of paying bills

without money, a time of finding yourself a year older

and not an hour richer?

If I could work my will,

every idiot that goes about with Merry Christmas on his lips

should be boiled in oil and buried with a stake

of holly through his heart, he should.

- Uncle!

- Nephew, you keep Christmas in your way

and I'll keep it in mine.

- Keep it? But you don't keep it.

- Let me live it alone, then.

A lot of good it has done you.

- Well, there's not many things from which I have benefited,

but I dare say, Uncle, that it's a time to share Christ

and for people to be able to come into the knowledge

of knowing that, that we have a Savior

and that He can save us from our sins at this time or,

or even throughout the year, it doesn't matter.

I know it hasn't put a scrap of silver or gold in my pocket,

Uncle, but I believe it is good

and I believe it is righteous and I say God bless it.

(Bob clapping)

- Another word out of you, Cratchit,

and you'll be keeping your Christmas

by losing your position.

- Don't be angry, Uncle. Come and dine with us tomorrow.

- I'll see you in hell first.

- [Fred] But why, Uncle?

- Why? Let me ask you a question.

Why did you get married recently?

- Because I fell in love, of course.

- Love. You fell in love.

Good afternoon, Nephew.

- (chuckles) But you never came to see me

before I was married.

Why give it as a reason for not coming now?

- Good afternoon.

- [Fred] I want nothing from you.

I ask nothing of you. Why can't we be friends?

- Good afternoon!

- I am sorry to find you in so resolute.

Why, we've never had a quarrel, you and I,

but I came all this way to give you a greetings

and just to say God bless you and Merry Christmas,

so Merry Christmas, Uncle.

- Good afternoon!

- [Fred] And a Happy New Year.

- Good afternoon!

- And a Merry Christmas to you, Bob Cratchit.

- [Bob] Thank you, sir. And Merry Christmas to you.

- [Scrooge] (chuckles) There's another fellow, my clerk.

With 15 shillings a week and a wife and family to feed,

talking about a Merry Christmas.

(bell rings)

footsteps

Scrooge and Marley's I beleive

Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge or Mr. Marley?

- Marley's dead.

In fact, he died seven years ago this very night.

- Oh, I am quite sorry to hear it, but I have no doubt

his generosity is well represented by his surviving partner.

At this festive season of the year,

Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable

that we should make some slight provision

for the poor and needy,

those who suffer greatly at this present time.

(Scrooge yawns)

Many thousands are in want of basic needs.

Hundreds of thousands are in want of common comfort, sir.

- Are there no prisons? Did they disappear?

- Oh no, sir. There are still plenty of prisons.

- And the workhouses for the poor

are still in operation, I assume?

- They are. Still, I wish I could say they were not.

- The treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigor, then?

- Uh, yes, uh, very busy, sir.

- Well, I was afraid from what you had said

that something had stopped them from their useful course.

I'm glad to hear it.

- Given that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer, sir,

a few of us are trying to raise a fund to buy the poor

some meat and drink and some means of warmth.

We choose this time because it is a time above all others

when want is keenly felt and abundance rejoices.

What shall we put you down for?

- Nothing.

- Uh, you wish to remain anonymous?

- I wish to be left alone.

I don't make myself merry at Christmas,

and I can't afford to make idle people merry.

I am taxed for this institutions that I have mentioned

and they cost enough.

Those who are badly off must go there.

- But many can't go there and many would rather die.

- Oh well, if they would rather die,

perhaps they should go ahead and do it

and decrease the surplus population.

Besides I wouldn't know anything about it.

- [Man] Well, you could know it, sir.

- It's none of my business.

I have too much of my own business

to interfere with other people's.

Mine occupies me constantly,

and I thank you to leave me to it.

Good afternoon, gentlemen.

(bell rings)

(gentle peaceful music continues)

You'll want all day tomorrow, I suppose.

- If it's quite convenient, sir.

- It's not convenient, and it's not fair.

If I was to hold back a half a crown for it,

you'd think you were being abused, no doubt.

And yet you think me ill used

when I pay a day's wages for no work?

- It's only once a year, sir.

- Huh, poor excuse for picking a man's pocket

every 25th of December.

But I suppose you must have it.

Be here all the more earlier the next morning.

- Oh yes, sir, I shall, certainly shall.

(footsteps)

Goodnight, Mr. Scrooge.

(bell rings)

(Bob grunts)

(gentle mellow music)

Hello, son.

[Tiny Tim]- Papa!

Papa, look! It's Jesus in the manger.

You know, I'm glad I'm a cripple.

- And why's that, son?

- Because it makes people remember

who made the lame men walk and the blind men see.

- That's right, that's right. Out of the mouths of babes.

♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪

♪ Glory to the newborn king ♪

♪ Peace on Earth and mercy mild ♪

♪ God and sinners reconciled ♪

- [Scrooge] Time to go home.