A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol is the story of the mean and pusillanimous Ebenezer Scrooge, whose mind gets blown after he's visited by the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come. Inspired by the ghastly conditions in which the poorest children of London lived and worked, Dickens wanted to do something to change the situation, but was at odds about how to help matters. He was going to write a pamphlet that was an appeal to reform, but after giving a speech to a charity in Manchester the plot for A Christmas Carol came to him, which he decided would deliver a more powerful message.

The transformation of Scrooge from the greedy, miserly, and cruel old man into the generous and saintly gentleman has been celebrated ever since A Carol came out, and it was adapted for the stage immediately. The legacy of the book is the phrases "Merry Christmas," "Bah! Humbug!" and the reference to somebody as a "Scrooge." Though his work did help to secularize Christmas in a lot of ways, it also perhaps had the intended effect of making people more generous...at least around Christmas time.