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Yet Another Christmas Carol
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Penumbra: Sister! Tonight you will be visited by three spirits... Wonderella: God, why? I've seen this episode like fifty times! Christ, even Blossom did one of these!
Every television series in the history of the world that lasts long enough to have an episode aired at Christmas 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 It's a 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.
If they're willing to go the extra mile on the homage to A Christmas Carol, then our protagonist will be a Corrupt Corporate Executive or otherwise in a position of power where he or she is able to make life miserable for those under their thumb. Expect one of these underlings to be a stand-in for Bob Cratchit. Bob Cratchit's counterpart is always a sympathetic character who bears the brunt of whatever bad the protagonist dishes out and takes it exceptionally well. Once we have these two roles filled and established, the audience can then wait with bated breath to find out who is standing in for Tiny Tim. Like the original Tiny Tim, the stand-in might be related to our version of Bob Cratchit, but doesn't have to be. However, you can reasonably expect him or her to be Inspirationally Disadvantaged, poor, or otherwise so needy that he or she is automatically sympathy bait for the audience. Whichever way the Tiny Tim is in need, the protagonist is in a position to do something about it, but won't, or else has prevented him or her from receiving assistance, and it will be brought up to remind our Scrooge as well as the audience what a bastard he or she is.
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 Scrooge being forced to confront what he had lost, and what the consequences of his current actions are and would be, the awakened the Christmas Spirit within him. Furthermore, the original had a generally horrible person Aesopped into decency, whereas some adaptations have 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 Fanfiction 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 It's a Wonderful Plot. Related to Time Travel, particularly Intangible Time Travel — as well as Pensieve Flashback.
Examples:
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As plot
Comics
- A comic released in 2010 had the Ghostbusters attempting to catch the three spirits (again). In the end, it turned out that the Ghost of Christmas Future possesed the guy because he was rich and the other ghosts were trying to get their friend/coworker/whatever back.
- A Batman story, collected in the 'Haunted Knight' trade, sets the story at Halloween and casts Batman himself in the Scrooge role.
- 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, and he ends up getting blown up by a bomb Sonic sent back to him in the present earlier, rendering his victory fruitless and short-lived).
- The original Teen Titans comic did an issue entitled "A Swinging Christmas Carol," involving a stingy junkyard owner, junk smugglers, and a young boy in need of a motorized wheelchair. The Titans work out what's going on halfway through and, entirely undisturbed, take the opportunity to play the ghosts.
Fan Fiction
Live-Action TV
Newspaper Comics
- In FoxTrot, 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, who doesn't know what he should do due to only skimming the Cliffs Notes, and ate the feast associated with the traditional depiction of the spirit, remarking "I had (burp) a light lunch, OK?" Paige, as the ghost of Christmas Past, is more concerned with herself than Jason (at one point showing him a Christmas before his own birth and crying "See how happy I was?!"). 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.
- 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 Beano once had a Bash Street Kids story where the kids gave this treatment to their grumpy headmaster.
Professional Wrestling
Radio
- I'm Sorry I Haven't A Christmas Carol; not only is it the core of the story but most of the show's games are in it too. Curmudgeonly chairman Humphrey Lyttleton takes on the role of curmudgeonly music shop owner Ebenezer Scrumph, his put-upon pianist Colin Sell becomes Colin Crotchet, and the three regular panelists are the Ghosts of Christmas Pissed (Barry) Christmas Present (Graeme) and Queen Boudicca (Yet To Come was delayed "due to unforeseen circumstances," and it was an excuse for Tim to yet again reprise the role of Lady Constance from I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again). Other parts were played by the semi regulars including Jeremy Hardy as Marley ("What you are about to hear will curdle your blood and chill the very marrow in your bones." "You're not going to sing, are you?"). At the end, faced with a future in which Nicholas Parsons chairs Clue, Scrumph becomes a cheerful, joyous figure with a song in his heart ... making him totally unsuitable to be the Clue chairman until they get him to snap out of it.
Video Games
- 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).
- Everquest runs a holiday quest called "McScroogle," where a misery old gnome will pay your character to possess his body and go through the revelations for him. Apparently, the ghosts come for him every year and he pays someone to live the night for him every time. They then leave him alone until next Christmas and he can be as big a jerk as he wants without worrying about his conscience.
- Runescape's 2009 Christmas Event had the player character take the role of the ghosts.
Web Comics
- In Kevin & 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).
- 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.
- Parodied in the webcomic Dragon Tails, where the strict, hard-arse 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 realize 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).
- Brawl in the Family did a Super Mario Bros. version for the 2009 holiday season with the Mushroom Kingdom Carol.
 In it, the part of Scrooge is played by Mario who, after finally driving Bowser away from Mushroom Kingdom for good, was convinced by Wario (who is here as Marley) to assemble a financial society, effectively retiring from heroics. However, years later, Bowser Jr. (on behalf of his dad) comes back with a vengeance to take over the Mushroom Kingdom and, not being in his prime physical condition anymore, Mario fails to save now-Queen Peach, leading him to become an embittered old codger with "a wrench up h-", as Daisy puts it, and allow the Kingdom to sink into misery and degradation, with Bowser's Toadies collecting extorsive taxes from the citizens (and even kidnapping their relatives should they fail to pay!). Luigi's role in here is that of Bob Cratchitt, living in poverty without receiving a shred of compassion from his brother. And to top it off, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come are represented by Princess Rosalina, Kirby and Shadow Mario, respectively.
- 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,Helios is filling in as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Death of the Endless is filling in as the Ghost of Christmas Future. And Enrico learns the wrong lesson when he discovers what his Future is like. Instead of realizing that should he lead a crusade against England, he would be consigning himself and others to an early grave, all he sees is Iscariot and Hellsing on friendly terms in the future and believes he's on the right path to prevent that by leading the crusade.
Web Original
- This trope is wonderfully parodied with Kaiba in the Christmas special of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series. The visits only results in Kaiba converting to Judaism and firing his employees after Bakura shows him how horrible the future will be.
- 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.
Western Animation
- 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 it's likely the Ghostbusters were playing at a little known holiday fact.
- Sabrina: The Animated Series had a Double Subversion, where Sabrina tried to give the treatment to Gem Stone after getting sick of her selfish views on Christmas. The plan fails when Gem points out that even though everyone hates her and she'll eventually die alone, at least she'll be rich and popular. Sabrina then tries just going over to Gem's home and giving her a present. Gem 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).
- 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 Yet To Come shows Scotty how fat he's going to become.
- There was also the time when a ghost (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 completely 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, having 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.")
- A more recent episode features a segment which parodies The Muppet Show. Mr Burns mentions being visited by three spirits on Christmas prompting Grandpa and Jasper (standing in for Statler and Waldorf) to say "I wish this show would be visited by three new writers!"
- In the Foster's 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; as well as playing the Ghost of a Christmas Present. Mr. Herriman, despite knowing the story better than Bloo, actually manages to get the "ghost's" message wrong and cancels Christmas instead. Hilariously, during the closing credits after Christmas has been saved, Herriman prays to the ghosts to spare him, and that he will try to cancel Christmas next year.
- 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.
- 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 (With the Ghost of Christmas Present being a package to make the pun). Mr. Spacely was even given a deceased business partner named Jacob Marsley. 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.
- Inverted in Peter Pan & 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.
- The 2008 version of George of the Jungle inverts 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.
- 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 Partner's a Monkey, where the three ghosts try to convince Adam to hate Thanksgiving, and spectacularly fail to get their message across.
- Also used (among other Christmas plots) in the "Animus" special.
- An episode of Arthur had one for Prunella, on the night after her birthday party (Ghost of Presents Past, anyone?).
- 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 (Butt-Head being his Marley), and sees his future tombstone: "Here lies Beavis. He never scored." And 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.
- 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 sleazy Christmas party until the end where he wakes up yet again.
Oh thank God... I thought I'd turned into a complete *censor bleep*.
- Appears in Bravestarr 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, Bravestarr himself lampshades in the end-lesson segment that, while Tex did something good today, the audience shouldn't expect 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. Instead of being visited by ghosts, Swiper and Dora use time-traveling cloaks to travel to the past, present, and future and see how they and the other characters fare.
- 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.
- 101 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 a hold 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.
- An episode of Animaniacs had Thaddeus Plot in the Scrooge role and the Warners as the ghosts each with their own theme song.
- The third All Dogs Go to Heaven movie has this invoked by Charlie. Seeing that Carface is the only one close enough to Belladonna to stop her, he decides to "scare the Dickens" out of Carface. Using magic provided by Anabelle, he, Itchy, and Sasha turn into the three ghosts (Itchy as Ghost of Christmas Past, Sasha as Ghost of Christmas Present, and Charlie himself as Ghost of Christmas Future) and give Carface a scare.
- Rocko's Modern Life has a non-Holiday version of the story in the episode "Power Trip". When Rocko's boss at the comic book store had put Rocko temporarily in charge. Rocko had to follow two instructions: hire an assistant to help him (Rocko hired Filburt); and never press the green button. Rocko pressed it and became a greedy boss who kept bossing Filburt around, friendship be damned. The superhero of the comic book Rocko kept ordering Filburt to sell showed up to remind Rocko of how Rocko and Filburt used to be friends. Then he showed Rocko what the future will be if he doesn't repent. Rocko saw himself in the future mistreating a customer the same way Rocko's boss did at the beginning of the episode. Rocko and Filburt restored their friendship. However, when Rocko's boss returned, he ordered Rocko to fire Filburt since Rocko would be the only needed employee again. Rocko refused to fire Filburt, so his boss fired the both of them.
- The Mutant League Christmas Episode "Strike" is pretty much the same as A Christmas Carol, but with no ghosts.
- Looney Tunes did 2 christmas specials of this nature. Daffy was Scrooge in one and Yosemite Sam was in the other.
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.
- To be fair, they do have the grave-digging weasels say that the man they were burying (Scrooge) had absolutely no mourners or friends to say farewell to make it clear that he would die a lonely death. And the entire story is condensed, not just with the "Future" segment—the "Past" ghost only shows him the Christmas party where he met Belle and their break-up (unlike most versions where we see his childhood, etc), while the "Present" ghost only shows him dinner at the Cratchits (instead of adding on the party at his nephew's). And given that we see the Cratchit family at Tim's grave (his death having been hinted at in the "Present"), I don't think the "Future" ghost missed the point at all.
- 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.
- 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.*
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. The dialogue is closer to the book than many a "straight" film version, too — someone did the research.
- Of note is the tv movie An American Christmas Carol starring Henry (the Fonz) Winkler as a depression-era Scrooge named Benedict Slade.
- 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 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. It is a very faithful adaptation; the most notable deviations are the liberties with the Ghost's designs and the chase scene with the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come.
- 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 catchphrase for the special.
- The Looney Tunes had previously done a short that riffed on the story with Yosemite Sam as Scrooge, Porky Pig as Cratchit, and Bugs Bunny dressing up as a ghost to scare Sam straight. Much looser an adaptation than even most of the other works on this page, as there's only one ghost, he's a fake, he spends much of the cartoon simply spooking Sam with loud noises and ice cold bathtubs, and in the end gets him to change his ways by simply threatening him with a trip "Down There." Of course, it's a seven minute short, adapting the whole story would probably have been impossible. In Bugs Bunnys Looney Christmas Tales, Yosemite stated he was just acting and that he's still greedy and then started to get back everything he donated.
- 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.
- Another interesting change was that two out of three ghosts were people Eddie knew - the Ghost of Christmas Past was his dead father, the Ghost of Christmas Present was Jacob Marley himself. The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come wasn't someone Eddie knew because the "ghost" was someone not even born yet - he's the son Eddie could have if he reforms.
- 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.
- Another Gender Flip version: Ebbie, an '90s made-for-TV movie that re-imagines Scrooge as a selfish and grasping modern-day businesswoman, played by Susan Lucci. This one should get special notice because of a Relationship Writing Fumble — our protagonist has better chemistry with Marley than with her lost past love.
- Ebeneezer is another resetting, starring Jack Palance as a crooked and crotchety saloon owner/gunslinger on the Canadian prairies. This Scrooge does have Christmas dinner—with his friend the madam of the local whorehouse. Marley is his old business partner, Christmas Past is a First Nations woman, Christmas Present a Mountie, and Christmas Future is Ebeneezer's (long-dead) father. Instead of Nephew Fred, there is a young rancher Ebeneezer cheats out of his land and "Marley's" daughter.
- The short story "Solitary as an Oyster" by Mur Lafferty has a real life Scrooge being visited by the crew of a Ghost Hunters type show, with each crew member getting visited by one of the ghosts. It turns out the positive effect of the ghost's visit really only works if you get all three.
- The Gender Flip TV movie Ms. Scrooge features Cicely Tyson as "Ebenita Scrooge," though pretty much the whole story is the same, making you wonder why they bothered.
- A online comic from Antarctic Press artist Rod Espinosa did the gender flipped version, with Scrooge being a woman and running a dress shop. The rest of the story plays out as the original through. Can be read here.
- Hallmark Channel had one called A Carol Christmas in which Tori Spelling plays a selfish trash talk show host. Gary Coleman plays the Ghost of Christmas Future.
- They also made a more direct adaptation, starring Patrick Stewart as Scrooge.
- In 1960, beatnik poet/humorist/monologist Lord Buckley retold the whole story in hipster slang. Listen to it here.
Variations
- The Hallmark Channel's "Karrol's Christmas", in which the three ghosts supposedly visit the wrong guy.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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. Wilma occasionally replaced cast members who caught the "Bedrock flu".
- This one actually went double duty - as the story went on and Scrooge learned his lessons, Fred had to learn the hard way that his family is more important than anything else, after he gets lost in the role and he starts eyeing an actress he was starring with.
- 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. For extra fun, the spirits are played by Lewis' actual family members: Marley is his brother Graham while Past and Present are his mother and father respectively.
- Made better that the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is actually an Early-Bird Cameo of Mechakara.
- In 2011, the same thing happened to the Nostalgia Critic which he defied this trope again with the Ghost of Christmas Future. The Ghost gets his revenge by making the Critic review The Grinch next week.
- "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 Comically Missing the Point they're trying to make. It doesn't really help that the situations they take him to are situations which are even more likely to inspire him to... well...
- Bob of Weebl & Bob gives his advice on how to deal with this sort of thing.
- SFWA writer P. Andrew Miller's short story, "The Dude who Did in Dickens," is about a time-traveler so sick of Christmas Carol remakes that he goes back in time to kill Dickens before the story is written. Unfortunately, this just makes matters worse.
- Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a variation on this, where the ghosts (even though at least one isn't, actually, dead) show the main character his romantic past, present, and future in order to make him give up his womanizing ways.
- Similarly, Least I Could Do had a storyline where three spirits show Rayne his past, present, and future while he was in self-doubt...in order to bring him to the conclusion that he wasn't living his life badly, and that things would turn out just fine for him.
- Although not set at Christmas, the "Trial of a Time Lord" season of Doctor Who is based on the narrative of the Christmas Carol story, with each individual story in the season framed as being 'past', 'present' (or, at least, the adventure he'd been involved in just before being taken out of time for his trial) and 'future' being presented as evidence in the Doctor's trial by the Time Lords. It also showed the Doctor being given a glimpse of an evil future self in the form of the Valeyard.
- The Aqua Teen Hungerforce episode The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past From the Future starts out as a Christmas Carol parody, with the eponymous time-traveling cybernetic spectre showing Carl a Christmas Day from his childhood, before the memory is interrupted by a robot war (which he doesn't remember because back then it was only a prophecy). And that's when shit gets weird.
- "Yuletide Karaoke" by Peter T Garrett, a Twenty Minutes into the Future tale in which media mogul E. Ben Aesir, formerly known as DJ SCRU-J, plots the domination of Yuletide commerce with the aid of his three ghost writers (a woman in a white dress who does historical novels, a woman in a low-cut green dress who does soaps, and a man in a black hoodie who does scifi), before being taught a lesson by the Virtual Ghost of his old DJing partner MC MARL-O.
- PHD had "A Winter Break Carol" with Professor Smith instead of Scrooge. He doesn't get the Aesop though.
- Elizabeth Hand's novella "Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol" is full of sweet nostalgia for the almost-forgotten kids' show host Sandy Becker, especially the Christmas Carol parody he used to do (Christmas Past), and for Joey Ramone (Christmas Present).
- BBC Radio Four's More Or Less, the program about numbers in the news, had "A More Or Less Christmas Carol," in which Scrooge is a banker who is visited by three spirits who show him the origin of the credit crunch, the current situation, and the possibility of it happening again. Confronted with the hatred currently held to bankers, and the prospect of his own bank going under, Scrooge resolves to take steps that will ensure his future is one where people love and respect his profession: "Bob, we're moving to Switzerland!"
- In Multiplex, the staff tries to pull Jason out of his love funk by setting up an elaborate Christmas Carol set up one evening just before Christmas. He's not buying into it, and when he walks out in the middle, Kurt is visibly upset that his "Ghost of Girlfriends Present" costume wasn't fully appreciated. He was dressed as a giant hand.
- Springtime with Roo casts Rabbit as Scrooge and uses Easter instead of Christmas, but otherwise runs pretty much true to type. Easter Future (or Spring Cleaning Day, at any rate) depicts a Hundred Acre Wood which is quiet, orderly and tidy, just as Rabbit wanted... and inhabited only by Rabbit, as all the other animals have given up on him and moved away.
- in the original Pound Puppies episode, "Happy Howladays, Katrina has the pound closed on Christmas Eve, leaving the Pound Puppies out on the street. so with the help of Zasu the Fairy Dogmother, Cooler and the gang enter Katrina's dreams and try to show here the error of her ways by making her she things from their point of view. Katrina dismisses the whole thing (Except the part of turning the pound into a luxury resort for cats) when she wakes up! other people in town help out though.
- A Buffy the Vampire Slayer short story had a snobbish Dickensian Watcher visited by a prehistoric Slayer and the most recently deceased Slayer to encourage him to be more understanding of his current charge. He dismisses them because one's black and the other's French, only for the Ghost of Slayers Future to be Buffy herself. Before long he's prepared to agree to anything, if she'll just stop torturing the English language.
- The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol, which is included in the three-disc Blu-Ray bundle of The Smurfs, has Grouchy being visited by the Smurfs of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.
- In The Stockings Were Hung, The Shadow once visited an old miser who'd embezzled funds from the rightful owner of a business, and stole the business from him on Christmas Eve. Lamont didn't do much, simply asked him what he was going to do with his money when he died. The businessman immediately had a Heel Face Turn, and made things right.
- American Dad started as a basic "As Plot" example when Stan freaked out over the secularization of Christmas, only for the Ghost of Christmas Past to show up and bring him back to the 70's. However, at this point he bolts to go assassinate Jane Fonda, which he believes will erase the liberalism that led to his problems, and the Ghost, named Michelle, has to team up with Francine to find him. It gets even weirder from there. (Still ends with An Aesop, though.)
- Stoked! has a variation in "The Reefinator" where Broseph attempts to give up sandwiches and is visited by the three ghosts of sandwiches past.
- Strange inversion in The Nostalgia Critic: His Babes in Toyland review centers around the Critic stopping the Ghost of Christmas Future from turning the episode into a Christmas Carol parody, since he happens to love Christmas already. At the end he reluctantly agrees to do the Grinch parody instead, for the next episode, based on how much he hates the movie instead of Christmas.
- While there are a large number of Sherlock Holmes fanfics that follow this trope, the stand out is The Christmas Guest by Mary le Bow. The setting is Christmas Eve. Holmes is cast as the Scrooge and Watson attempts to cheer him up with a guest from the medical field. The guest ask Holmes to guess who he is. Holmes, saying that his deduction skills are not a parlor trick and should be taken seriously, is soon coaxed by Watson to perform his skill. Holmes deduces the entirety of the man's life except his name. This includes a hard childhood, a generous sponsor, a kindness towards children, and a loving wife. The doctor says it was his godfather who changed his life by aiding him in education and hospital visits though not before his godfather was converted following his claim that he could see see dead people. Following the deduction, the man leaves for Christmas Eve dinner with his family. As he leaves, it is revealed the doctor is a grown Tiny Tim, now Dr. Cratchit. With this story, Holmes is converted and prepares for a quick Christmas dinner.
- In "The Ghost of Christmas Possible" by Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw, Scrooge bails after Marley's visit and hires a psychic investigator to take his place until the three visitations are over. The story also introduces a fourth Ghost, who has the power to show visions of Christmases that might have been had things been otherwise (his name is Clarence).
- Gets a blink-and-you-miss-it nod at the end of the first Artemis Fowl book: after Artemis decides to give up half of the gold he has won if Holly will heal his sick mother, his newly-healed mother reminds him that it is Christmas morning. This, taken with the magically-extended night that has just ended, suggests that the entire story has been a Christmas Carol of sorts for Artemis.
Web Original
- Alternate Reality Dragon Ball Z had a Christmas special following the story's plot, featuring Vegeta as Scrooge, Raditz as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Goku as the Ghost of Christmas Present, Trunks as the Ghost of Christmas Future, and Gohan as Tiny Tim.
- Dragon Ball Z Abridged on the other hand, parodied this at the end of their Christmas Tree Of Might special. "Vegeta... Ghost Nappa appears Tonight you will visited by three ghosts. And they're all me." two more Ghost Nappa's appear.
- An International Moron Patrol/IMP XS/Voluptuous Victorious Villains crossover called "An IMP Crossmas" featured an interesting take: The IMP's arch-nemesis Santa Claus teamed up with a memory-consuming demon called Memories' Oblivion and recruited the VVV into an army of Ghosts of Christmas Past/Present/Yet To Come to take out both the IMP and the IMP XS (the IMP's successors by 5 years). While cutting in line at Disney Land while in their "Christmas" past, the team leaders Roger and Jake discover Santa's lair, and when the other heroes force the VVV to lead them to Santa's secret HQ, an all-out brawl ensues. However, a paradox causes the universe to explode after numerous plot-holes were exposed, revealing the whole incident to be simply a nightmare of IMP XS member FD.
- In this Walfas flash Reimu gets visited by the ghosts of christmas (Well, one ghost and a half. And a kappa) so that she stops setting people on fire. Much to Parsees dismay.
- Joe Loves Crappy Movies presents a good suggestion on how to change things up a little in the name of a fresher take on the story.
- Akuma TH had the Christmas Special "A Christmas Batol." Fluke visits Kari on Christmas with his Soul Edge shard tagging along *
For those wondering: Fluke is a rookie fighter with an exceptionally powerful and abnormally sentient piece of Soul Edge, and is in love with Kari, who is the world's third strongest fighter. Fluke's shard constantly makes schemes to take Kari's body as his new host and gets rejected. He remarks to Soul Edge in passing that Kari's behavior reminded him of Scrooge, and then explains the plot of A Christmas Carol to Soul Edge. Soul Edge decides he likes the idea and modifies it a bit, visiting Kari's house in the middle of the night to force her into three battles representing the Past, Present, and Future; if she loses a battle, he takes her body. Kari ultimately does learn a lesson, sort of: Her last opponent tells her that curbing her overwhelming desire to become stronger and taking a break from training once in awhile will also help make her strong. So she resolves to gain a social life. For the sake of becoming stronger.
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