Christmas Carol - Television Tropes & Idioms

This trope is being considered for renaming. Please feel free to contribute to the discussion and/or vote.

Okay, now that's going a bit too far!

Penumbra: Sister! Tonight you will be visited by three spirits...
Wonderella: God, WHY? I've seen this episode like 50 times! Christ, even Blossom did one of these!

—The Non Adventures Of Wonderella

Every television series in the history of the world that lasts long enough will make use of this boilerplate episode. The hero or heroine of the series lives through his or her own version of Ebenezer Scrooge's Christmastime visitations from A Christmas Carol.

Second only to Wonderful Life as a well-known story which a series adapts to/parodies with its own characters. The original was by Charles Dickens: it was published in 1843, making this Older Than Radio. When used in TV shows, characters from the show frequently fill the roles of the ghosts: Marley, who serves to announce that the other ghosts are coming and serve as an illustration of the eventual fate of Scrooge's soul; the Ghost of Christmas Past, who shows the Scrooge character "You weren't always this way"; The Ghost of Christmas Present, who shows them "Other people aren't this way"; and the Ghost of Christmas Future ("Yet to Come" in Dickens' original, often portrayed as The Grim Reaper), who shows the character "Look how things will turn out if you stay this way." Results in the character having a change of heart and turning away from whatever character flaw was being explored.

Almost invariably (see Blackadder's Christmas Carol for an exception) results in An Aesop. What Aesop is learned can depend, however. In the original Christmas Carol it was the death of Tiny Tim combined with the notion that when he does die, nobody will care, that horrified Scrooge into accepting the Christmas Spirit. Furthermore, the original had a generally horrible person Aesopped into decency, whereas Adaptation Decay has sometimes resulted in a bizarre "You will be merry or else" lesson, where a character who simply doesn't like Christmas is taught the error of their ways. After all, Scrooge hated Christmas...

Similar to the Flash Back and Flash Forward, but bound by the specific narrative structure of the Dickens novel.

Usually these are a type of Christmas Episode, although sometimes a variation is employed that has nothing to do with the holiday season.

A very popular Fan Fiction trope, with most shows having at least one such plot in their Fan Work. For actual Christmas carols, see Christmas Songs.

A Sub Trope of Whole Plot Reference (so anything less than the plot is merely a Shout Out).

Compare How The Character Stole Christmas and Wonderful Life.

Examples as plot

In an episode of The Real Ghostbusters, "X-Mas Marks the Spot", the Ghostbusters are unwittingly sent back into time, where they "save" Ebenezer Scrooge from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. When they return to their own time to find Christmas has been ruined, Egon has to free the ghosts while the other Ghostbusters go back in time and try to fill in for the captured spirits.
- Take this Truth in Television moment with a grain of salt, but there is some truth to this plot. At the time of writing, Christmas was a dying holiday and it wasn't crazy to know someone who held Scrooge's opinions. Many scholars today believe that if it hadn't been for A Christmas Carol, Christmas might not be the big deal it is today. So maybe the Ghostbusters were playing at a little known holiday fact. Or maybe it is just a cartoon...
- The intro on the DVD by J Michael Straczynski stated that he's a big Charles Dickens fan, so it's might be true then the above troper thinks.
Sabrina The Animated Series had a Double Subversion, where Sabrina tried to give the treatment to Jem Stone, The Libby, but she doesn't care about her future, while she has money. Sabrina then tries just going over to Jem's home and giving her a present. Jem brushes her off, but then later realizes this is the nicest thing anyone has done for her on Christmas, so she spends the day at the Spellmans' home.
Stroker And Hoop's Christmas episode centers around Stroker being visited by the three spirits. The Ghost of Christmas Past is his deceased former partner, and all three dead folks turn out to be involved in a shady time-traveling lottery-numbers scam. They try to murder Santa as a cover up. (It's a weird show.)
Probably the freshest take on this ever done by a TV series was the first season Christmas episode of Popular. Funny, and surprising because it came out of left field, it was unique in that it played more as a tragedy exposing the not-so-happy past of the series's lead villain.
- Of course, by the very next ep, this turns into Flowers For Algernon Syndrome as she goes right back to her evil ways with all lessons forgotten!
Roseanne had the title character deciding to give up on Halloween pranks — and being visited by the ghosts of Halloween past, Halloween Present, and Halloween Future. They show that if she gives up the pranks, she'll turn into her mother (literally).
Sam and Al staged a Christmas Carol-themed intervention for an obnoxious millionaire in the Quantum Leap episode "A Little Miracle", aided by the fact that the target's brain structure was coincidentally close enough to Sam's that he could see and hear Al's projected image.
Comic strip example: In Fox Trot, Jason has a dream sequence where his family appears as the Christmas ghosts — but with their original obnoxious personalities. For instance, Peter, as ghost of Christmas Present, is too lazy to plan what he's going to tell Jason, and he responds to Jason's inquiry as to why he doesn't have an enormous feast at his feet like the traditional depiction of the spirit with "I had (burp) a light lunch, OK?"
- Peter actually initially appears as the "Ghost of Christmas Presents" due to him skimming the Cliffs Notes.
- And Marcus, as "Jacob Marcusly", gets weighed down with "the cables of the many video game controllers I selfishly clung to in life". The warning he gives "Jasonezer", incidentally, is to not waste his money on a particular brand of joystick.
Webcomic example: in Kevin and Kell, Lindesfarne gets access to her estranged mother's computer (formerly hers) and does "Application of Christmas Past|Present|Future" to convince Angelique to return home from Aruba to spend Christmas with the children she adopted as a result of her second marriage (Lindesfarne was adopted by Angelique and her first husband, Kevin).
Blackadder presented a Christmas special based on Dickens' original story - the twist being that the main character, Ebeneezer Blackadder, started out as the nicest man in England and, following an inadvertent tour through his ancestral history and future, was inspired by the exploits of his namesakes (as well as a not very pleasant vision of what his descendants will become if he remains nice) to become a ruthless bastard instead.
The Simpsons parodies the trope by having Homer change channels on the TV and come across a number of such episodes, including Mr. Magoo, Family Matters, and a Star Trek adaptation where the Ghost of Christmas Future shows Scotty how fat he's going to become.
- And do not forget the time when a ghost (that would be Marley) appears before Mr Burns. He sucks it with a hand vacuum cleaner.
- Also in "Grift of the Magi," Mr Burns is visited by three ghosts on Christmas and decides to fund the elementary school. The gag is that it happens offscreen, and is only mentioned briefly during a montage in which we hear about various cliched Christmas plotlines which supporting characters experienced that year. ("And Moe, been shown what the world would be like if he'd never been born, took his head out of the oven and replaced it with a plump Christmas goose.")
- Considering the Simpsons has gone on for 20 years now, has a huge cast of characters to fill the various roles (often to a tee) and hasn't done a straight Christmas Carol episode has to be an celestial error of some sort.
In the Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends Christmas Special, there's a five minute scene in which Bloo tries to run a Christmas Carol scam on Mr. Herriman, so that he'll get more than "just one gift". He has a distorted recollection of the story; notably, he plays Herriman's old partner as Bob Marley (instead of Jacob), complete with Jamaican accent and dreadlocks.
- Not to mention that Mr. Herriman, despite knowing the story better than Bloo, actually manages to get the "ghost`s" message wrong and cancels christmas instead.
Xena Warrior Princess put a pre-Christian Spin on the story with "A Solstice Carol".
The original The Odd Couple included an episode "Scrooge Gets an Oscar".
The fifth season of Sanford and Son featured an episode "Ebenezer Scrooge" which included the exchange:
Lamont: You are Scrooge. This is just like that story, Christmas Carol.
Fred: What the Dickens are you talking about?
On Highway to Heaven, Jonathan and Mark reform a crooked used-car dealer in an episode called “Another Song for Christmas”.
In the Northern Exposure episode "Shofar, So Good", Dr. Fleischman was visited by the Ghost of Yom Kippur Past, Present and Future (only one ghost, his childhood rabbi, but different costumes for each). Lots of Lampshade Hanging, including Fleischman sarcastically asking who's playing Tiny Tim.
Sluggy Freelance did a parody of this, where it happened to psychotic rabbit Bun-bun, who wound up killing the ghosts and trying to blow up Santa's workshop.
The British series Hustle had a non-mystical version, focusing on their mark receiving Amnesiac Dissonance,and reforming as a result, making the protagonists uncomfortable with conning him. This was a Christmas Episode, and like Dickens' original story, evoked sympathy for the hard-hearted businessman character by explaining how he had become this way.
Pepper Ann features a twist on this story, in which the titular character is shown the true meaning of Valentine's Day. It plays out mostly the same as the original story, though the Ghost of Valentine's Day Future, rather than showing nobody caring about her death, shows her as an immortal robot CEO "with a heart of steel" who has banned all displays of love or affection.
Subverted in the Smallville episode "Lexmas," which deals only with the future. The ghost in this version is the apparent ghost of his mother and Luthor sees a future where he's given up on ambition and lives a happy life with Lana. The lesson that he takes from this is that he should be ruthless, because in this good future Lana dies in childbirth, because Lex, having rejected his evil father, can't get help from him that might save her. Apparently it never crossed his mind to adopt.
WKRP In Cincinnati had a mostly-serious episode where Mr. Carlson fell asleep and was visited by three "ghosts" (played by other characters). He was eventually shown the future of miserliness: A bleakly clean automated radio station whose only employee was Herb the sales manager. As for him... "I don't want to know what happens to me. ...I'm dead, aren't I? No, I don't want to know."
The Jetsons did one with Mr. Spacely as Scrooge, George Jetson as Bob Cratchit, a dying Astro as Tiny Tim and robots as the ghosts. Mr. Spacely only decided to make nice out of self-interest, however. You see, since Astro had become ill from choking on a Spacely Sprocket, the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come showed Mr. Spacely a future where the Jetsons had successfully sued him and gotten all his money. Of course, that's the only thing the Jetsons could sue him for. The origin of the plot was lampshaded when George, complaining about Spacely, commented that Scrooge was nice in comparison and that Spacely would end up scaring the ghosts away.
This trope is wonderfully parodied with Kaiba in the Christmas special of Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series. The visits only result in Kaiba firing his employees on learning how horrible the future is.
Inverted in Peter Pan and the Pirates. Captain Hook gets the treatment, and is suitably appalled at what the future holds: When he dies, he's entirely forgotten; even Peter doesn't remember him. So, Hook resolves to change his ways: He'll be even worse, and drive himself so firmly into Peter's head that he'll never be forgotten.
A variation on the theme appears in the Christmas episode of Back To The Future The Animated Series, where Doc and family, plus Marty, travel back to 19th century England during Christmastime to escape some nasty summer heat. One of the B plots of the episode features Ebiffneezer Tannen, who forecloses on the owners of a toy shop the main characters met in the beginning and sends them to debtors' prison. Clara, who was in the shop at the time and refused Ebiffneezer's advances, is sent too. Marty, attempting to break Clara out, is told Ebiffneezer is a real "Scrooge," which inspires him to pull the Ghost act on the Tannen. Ebiffneezer is a hard sell, though — even after seeing stuff that "would make the Terminator cry," he refuses to change. It's only through Marty dropping and accidentally activating a projection movie system that he was watching on his hoverboard at the beginning of the episode that Ebiffneezer is inspired to change — the Tannen is terrified by the Godzilla movie and swears to be good. The episode may be unique in having the lesson also not STICK — Ebiffneezer reverts near-immediately to his nasty self once he sees Marty at the end and realizes he's not a ghost. There's an amusing bit of lampshading when Marty first appears as the ghost — Ebiffneezer asks him if he's "Past, Present, or Future," and Marty, being a time traveler, admits to being all three.
This trope is used in the Christmas episode of the second season of Family Ties, when Alex P. Keaton views the holiday season as "a silly sentimental farce" - and only has money on his mind. After he goes to bed, The Ghost of Christmas Past appears as his youngest sister, Jennifer. She takes Alex back in time by ten years, and shows him how much he used to love Christmas. Then The Ghost of Christmas Future appears to him as his older younger sister, Mallory. She takes Alex forward in time by thirty years, and shows him how the Keaton family have fallen on hard times - and became extremely poor. Alex did end up becoming rich, but is also fat and balding. While Alex is horrified by his balding head, he is also stunned and horrified by how callous his older self became. When he wakes up, he goes out to buy presents for his family - but he couldn't buy very many presents. It's interesting to note that this episode has some parallels to Back To The Future, which Michael J. Fox would star in a year and a half later - in particular, Part II, which was filmed after the conclusion of the Family Ties series. In that movie, Marty McFly's girlfriend witnesses Marty's life - also thirty years in the future, and Marty has also aged badly and turned into a crotchety old man.
Parodied in the webcomic Dragon Tails, where Enigma gets the Scrooge treatment. Unfortunately, the ghosts all fail horribly, such as the past ghost trying to remind Enigma of when he put his family's feelings first (failing to realise that Enigma was heavily sarcastic in the scene), the present ghost showing Enigma his cruelty towards Norman (and then laughing along at Norman's torment), and the future ghost showing Enigma his funeral (which turns out being his birthday party).
- Not that Enigma was really a mean or Scrooge-like character in the first place. Just a strict hard-arse.
A filler section of Sovisa takes a half subversion-half take that method with Ryn. She immediately resolves to mend her wicked ways upon being confronted with the Marley-esque spirit, and is rebuffed with a "nice try, you're going to get an even longer one for that stunt" comment. When the spirit of the past shows up, and takes her back to where she grew up, she shoots the spirit. As a result, the rest of the story is a trapped in the past style scenario that she returns from in the end because, well yeah.
The 2008 version of George of the Jungle subverts this when George is introduced to his first Christmas ever and likes it so much he tries to make every day Christmas. The three ghosts (or goats, when George misunderstands the word) then attempt to show George how horrible his life will be unless he stops celebrating Christmas. Additionally, since it was George's first Christmas, the "Goat" of Christmas Past is forced to make up a past Christmas from scratch.
The Angry Video Game Nerd did a take on this as a christmas special: Disillusioned with christmas because of all the terrible games he's had to put himself through, the Nerd receives visits from the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future (played by Screwattack regulars Stuttering Craig, Handsome Tom and Dracula from the Castlevania games) to show him the good times he had in his childhood with the early Nintendo systems, as well as his future where he reviews Wii games as an old, bearded man. In the end, the Nerd decides to only play good games, a decision that didn't last very long.
There was a very much obscure Mario version starring Wario as Scrooge and various Nintendo characters as the ghosts that came with the German Club Mrio magazine, which was called Warios Weihnachtsmärchen (Wario's Christmas Tale).
The Six Million Dollar Man episode A Bionic Christmas Carol.
The Nickelodeon sketch comedy Roundhouse spoofed this in its Christmas episode with the Ghosts of Christmas Specials, who had to quickly lead the teen protagonist through the usual setup due to a scheduled Saved By The Bell appearance later.
Parodied in Kappa Mikey, where Ozu is visted by the three ghosts. However, when the Ghost of Christmas Past sees how horrible Ozu's past christmas was, he and the Ghost of Christmas Present decides to help Ozu destroy Christmas. They are set straight by the Ghost of Christmas Future.
Done with Thanksgiving in My Gym Partners A Monkey, where the three ghosts try to convince Adam to hate Thanksgiving, and spectacularly fail to get their message across.
An episode of Arthur had one for Prunella, on the night after her birthday party (Ghost of Presents Past, anyone?).
Perhaps surprisingly, The 2008 Christmas Eve episode of UK soap Eastenders had a slightly subtle Christmas Carol. Ian Beale played the part of Scrooge, with various other cast playing the roles of past, present and future. While the episode played out with the usual 'realism' of the soap, the various 'spirits' made pretty rapid stage exits the moment Ian's back was turned at the end of the scene to clue in any viewers who may have been a bit slow on the uptake. (As it was, this troper's brother predicted the tropes use before the episode even began, and was pretty sure of it within a few seconds of Ian meeting his Christmas past in the form of Dot and a VCR player.)
Adventures In Odyssey did this on KYDS Radio where they presented a play called "A Thanksgiving Carol" where Christmas was replaced with Thanksgiving. The Scrooge character however was visited by only one ghost due to "cutbacks".
Mike And Angelo had an episode where they go back in time and do this to a boy's father who doesn't treat him nicely.
In Beavis And Butthead, Beavis has a dream where he manages the Burger joint rather than screwing around in the back. He lives alone, abuses his employees, and watches porn alone at home. Naturally, he thinks this is phenomenal, until he is visited by the three spirits, and sees his future tombstone: "Here lies Beavis. He never scored."
- You know how in most of these, the ghosts are people the character knows, but doesn't notice? Yeah, that doesn't happen here.
I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past.
What are you talking about, Anderson?
Dammit boy, I already told you. I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Done in Holby City's 2008 Christmas episode, with Maria being visited by the three spirits.
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Christmas Carol has to be one of the funniest things This Troper has ever heard, not only is it the core of the story but most of the show's games are in it too.
The Venture Bros. Christmas special begins with Doc Venture as Scrooge at his grave in Christmas Future - he wakes up and is so overjoyed his heart grows three sizes...his nose glows red - he can fly!...he cries out 'Merry Christmas!' like George Bailey to the folks below...then he wakes up again. The rest of the show is at his at his sleazy Christmas party until the end where he wakes up yet again.
Appears in Brave Starr of all places, in the episode "Tex's Terrible Night," where we are given insight into villain Tex Hex. Since Status Quo Is God, it doesn't accomplish much...
- To be fair, the ep in question never has Tex reform, merely relent in a scheme that would have hurt the woman he once loved. Add to that, Brave Starr himself lampshades in the end-lesson segment that, while Tex did something good today, the audience shouldn't expect it again.
Radio Active had an episode in which the students plan to use this to convince Ms. Atoll not to give them homework over the holidays. She survives their rather pathetic versions of the ghosts' visits - including a past in which she was black - only to wake and realize it was all a dream. When the students show up to start their plot she immediately takes back the assignments so she doesn't have to go through it again.
Dora and Swiper of Dora the Explorer have a Christmas Carol experience in Dora's Christmas Carol Adventure when Santa places Swiper on his naughty list.
Brawl In The Family is heading this direction for a Mario-based version.
As is And Shine Heaven Now, Iscariot flavored. Enrico Maxwell is Scrooge, original character Lisa the Angel is filling in as the Ghost of Christmas Past,and Helios is filling in as the Ghost of Christmas Present.
A Batman story, collected in the 'Haunted Knight' trade, sets the story at Halloween and casts Batman himself in the Scrooge role.
In an episode of Avenger Penguins, the titular penguins take on the role of the three ghosts to thwart villain Caractacus P Doom's plot to ruin Christmas by turning off the city's power. Doom ends up putting an end to the plan when he sees continuing with it will mean the Earth being sucked into a black hole, but doesn't really change for the better beyond that.
The Beano once had a Bash Street Kids story where the kids gave this treatment to their grumpy headmaster.
American Dad had Stan being visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past after the former gets enraged at the secularization of the holiday. After the Ghost sends him back in time, Stan uses this opportunity to kill Jane Fonda, which he thinks will save Christmas.
One Hundred And One Dalmatians the Series had "A Christmas Cruella" with guess-who as the Scrooge character. After firing Anita for wanting Christmas off, Cruella gets knocked out and has a Dream Sequence. In it she is visited first by Horace and Jasper as Marley, then by Cadpig as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Rolly as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Spot in a robe as the Ghost of Christmas Future, who only speaks in clucks (except for her one aside: "You know, I had a great song and dance number here. They cut it!"). Lucky, his leg sprained from a recent accident, fills in for Tiny Tim, and Anita's sudden unemployment explains why the Dearlys can't have a nice Christmas. It works pretty well actually, even if Cruella is back to her mean old self by the next episode.
Even The Animated Series of Littlest Pet Shop got in on the act, with the episode "Who Scrooged McRude?" The ghost of Christmas Past and Jacob Marley were squeezed into one, who showed a few of the pets the past Christmases of Angus McRude, a scotsman who got ahold of the pet shop's lease and evicted them on Christmas Eve. When he finally notices his mistake, he simply says "I'll have to try again next year," and disappears, so the pets take it upon themselves to give Angus a change of heart and keep their shop. Which they achieve by reuniting him with his beloved toy dump truck that they saw in the past.
Archie Comics' Sonic The Hedgehog #6 did a (non-canon) retelling with Robotnik as Scrooge, Rotor as Cratchit, and Sonic as all three ghosts. The spirits almost succeed when they show him the future, where he's grown old and the Freedom Fighters still oppose him, until he sees he wins the final battle (even though he's destroyed everything else, rendering his victory fruitless.

Famous remakes and re-imaginings

Perhaps the most famous example is Mickey's Christmas Carol, though this is more a direct adaptation using the Disney character designs and voices than an adaptation of the story to the Disney characters. (It helps that they already had a Scrooge in Scrooge McDuck.) Also notable for actually using the phrase "Ghost of Christmas Future" instead of "Christmas Yet-to-Come"... as well as skipping almost all of his role in the story right to showing Scrooge's grave. Which kind of misses the point.
But it's not the first; that prize goes to Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol, which predates the tradition of bringing in most of the core cast of the original work; only Mr. Magoo himself is recognizable. It has the wrapper story that Magoo is in a production of A Christmas Carol on Broadway, and the special is a musical.
Movie example: The Muppet Christmas Carol. Like the Disney version above, this was a semi-straight adaptation of the book rather than a use of its plot on an extant character. Surprisingly, while many of the book's characters were played by established Muppets, the three spirits were original character designs in line with Dickens's descriptions. (The dialogue is closer to the book than many a "straight" film version, too — someone did the research.)
- From what I hear, they originally were going to use already established Muppets for the Ghosts, but decided it would detract from the mysterious air they were supposed to have.
- They did make Marley a brother act, so they could use Statler and Waldorf. As Jacob and Robert Marley... think about it...
- Not to mention it starred Michael Caine, whose performance would not have been out of place in a straight live-action adaptation.
Scrooged is a modern cinematic retelling, with Ebeneezer Scrooge the greedy banker replaced by Bill Murray as a morally bankrupt TV executive.
A Diva's Christmas Carol is a made-for-TV modern retelling on VH-1 with Vanessa Williams as singer Ebony (Scrooge). Amusingly, the Ghost of Christmas Future is an episode of Behind The Music.
Inspecting Carol is a play about a group of bungling actors attempting (and failing) to put on a successful production of A Christmas Carol.
Barbie does her own Gender Flipped version of A Christmas Carol for a Direct-To-DVD movie. This time the Scrooge who gets the ghostly visits is a bossy Victorian theater owner/diva named Eden Starling.
Karroll's Christmas, a made-for-TV movie, puts a spin on the story by having the ghosts visit the wrong house due to a clerical error. Their main target was supposed to be the protagonist's Scrooge-like neighbor. Instead they proceed to show the protagonist the neighbor's past, present and future; afterward the protagonist proceeds to try to change his neighbor for the better himself.
Robert Zemeckis' 2009 animated version is a straightforward telling done in Motion Capture (similar to his takes on The Polar Express and Beowulf) with Jim Carrey as Scrooge and all three ghosts of Christmas and Gary Oldman as Marley, Bob Crachit and Tiny Tim. This one reimagines the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Future; Past is a floating candlestick, basically, and Future is a shadow.
Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas Special is a 2006 animated special starring the Looney Tunes. Granted, the story takes place in modern times instead of the traditional Victorian setting, but it follows the same formula with Daffy in the role of Scrooge who makes Bah, Humduck! his catch phrase for the special.
A TV movie in 2000 set the story in modern day inner Britain, and featured Ross Kemp as 'Eddie Scrooge'. One of the most noticeable additions to the story it gave was the Groundhog Day Loop Scrooge goes through after each spectral visitation.
There was a CGI-animated, direct-to-DVD adaptation which made the characters talking animals. Disneyfication abounds in this version, to the point where Tiny Tim doesn't die in the Christmas Future segment.

Variations

Rod Serling penned Carol for Another Christmas in 1964, which used the structure to plea for world peace (it was created to foster support for the U.N.).
The TV movie A Valentine Carol is a romantic comedy version.
- There's a novel, Hating Valentine's Day, that does the same thing.
- There's also a belief that if Valentine's Day had been invented by then, Dickens might have chosen that holiday as its setting instead. The romantic aspects of the book are usually glossed over or forgotten as part of Adaptation Decay.
  - There are romantic aspects of the book? Wow, I gotta re-read that one...
The 2008 film An American Carol has a Michael Moore stand-in as the Scrooge character, who wants to abolish the Fourth of July; the spirits (JFK, Patton, Washington, and an Angel of Death) reinstill patriotism in him. Though it's a comedy, the topical message is intended to be taken seriously.
Veggie Tales had "An Easter Carol", a sequel to their Christmas show "The Star of Christmas". It took the framework of the Christmas Carol and used it as a way to teach the real story of Easter, with an angel named Hope replacing all the ghosts.
The Flintstones featured in the mid-90s Christmas special "A Flintstones Christmas Carol" the cast putting on for a community theater production a prehistoric version of "A Christmas Carol", with Fred playing "E-bone-ezer Scrooge" (and the play accordingly set in a Stone Age version of 19th century England). Despite the Neolithic trappings, the version of Dickens' story here was done quite faithfully to the original.
Parodied on Atop The Fourth Wall's 2009 Christmas episode. When the ghost of Marley appears, Linkara shoots at him and points out that there's no need to do a Christmas Carol episode, since he already loves Christmas (and comic books), but Marley says the Spirits are already booked. They show up periodically throughout the review, but he quickly dismisses them.
"Adaptation" by Connie Willis opens with a book store clerk ranting about how there's hundreds of Christmas Carol adaptations and not one with half the magic of the original, and takes the three spirits in a different direction: despite a feint toward the standard Scrooge plot, it turns out that their mission on this occasion is to restore seasonal hope and joy to a man for whom the approach of Christmas is a dreaded reminder of what he's lost.
Used in a Christmas Edition of Sweet Valley Twins, in which Jessica has been pulling numerous selfish stunts, most recently, sabotaging a celebrity lunch that her twin sister ELIZABETH was meant to have in order to garner said celebrity's support for a charity (Jessica could care less about the charity, she just wants to meet a celebrity). So she's not shunning Christmas, but is instead, completely focused on her own happiness and no one else's. While there's no Marley character, three ghosts are present. Christmas Past—shows how Jessica used to love sharing her toys and clothes with her sister. Christmas Present—shows how Jessica has become selfish and estranged from her sister. Christmas Future, who in true Dickens style, is a ghostly, shrouded figure—fast forwards to a teenage Jessica and Elizabeth. Jessica is unpopular and loathed by nearly everyone because of her cruelty and selfishness. Of course, she wakes up determined to change for the better.
In a Marvel Comics Presents Christmas issue, the three ghosts end up incorrectly trying to convert the Fantastic Four's mailman, Willie Lumpkin. An address screw-up caused them to think they were targeting J.Jonah Jameson.
The Dukes Of Hazzard had the cousins try to pull the ghost scam on Boss Hogg, but it falls apart in a major way. Turns out Roscoe gave Boss a copy of the book as his gift. Reading it while alone on Christmas Eve, Boss has a change of heart—for that episode, anyway.
In the webcomic Sexy Losers, in the Chafed Dickens storyline (NSFW) "ghosts" (sometimes images of people who're alive) visit compulsive masturbator Mike and try to show him the error of his ways. It ends with him Completely Missing The Point they're trying to make.