Scrooge Kind Of Day

 If you follow me on either Facebook or Instagram, you might think I haven't done anything today but watch movies.  I mean, based on what I've posted in my feed, that is.  

It all started with this one: 

It is a made for TV cartoon version that we watched every year when I was a kid.  My dad always made us watch it with all the lights turned off, except the Christmas tree and maybe a candle or two.  I'd found it on VHS when Cody was little, but something happened to the tape.  I'm not sure what, but luckly I found it again on YouTube a few years ago.

Before I continue, I have to confess this is the most terrifying Marley's Ghost I have ever seen.  Especially to a 4 year old...  

I guess I was just in a Scrooge kind of mood, because after that I watched the 1935 version, the 1938 version with Reginald Owen, and the 1951 with Alistair Sim.  I finished the day with A House Without A Christmas Tree and A Charlie Brown Christmas, but all that Scrooging put me in mind of a post I'd written years ago about the fictional character I'd most want to be.  

I felt it was time for a rerun.  Here for your enjoyment is the post in its entirety, complete with original formatting. 

The Fictional Character I Most Want To Be Like

I think you may be a bit surprised by my choice. It's not Galadriel, or Arwen, or Xena the Warrior Princess or any of the strong, beautiful women out there. No, the fictional character I would most want to be like is

Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Huh? Why would I want to be like Scrooge? He was a

tight-fisted hand at the grindstone,...a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner...hard and sharp as flint, ...as solitary as an oyster.

Aren't there enough Scrooges out there? It would seem that there were. All over blogland and the web I've seen evidence of his presence. Those who've grown hard and bitter toward Christmas, because it's become too commercial, or it has lost it's true focus, or the pressure to buy, buy, buy has grown so great. So these people let society determine how they will, or will not celebrate, Christmas.

Yes, refusing to celebrate because you don't like the societal pressures is allowing someone else to dictate how you celebrate your holidays.

So why would I want to be like that?

I don't. The world has plenty of those. That's the image people have of Scrooge, but it is an inaccurate one. You see, most people forget that something happened to Scrooge.

He changed.

Now, what happened to bring about that change is an interesting story, but it is less relevant than the fact that he became a different person. So what did happen to Scrooge?

He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for...his own heart laughed: and that was quite good enough for him...and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that truly be said of us, and all of us!

That's the Scrooge I want to be. Someone who still finds joy in Christmas. Someone who still loves the lights, and the trees, and the decorations, and putting a dollar or two in the Salvation Army bucket. Someone who still sheds a tear when reading the Christmas story from the Bible.

Someone who knows how to keep Christmas well.

To all my friends out there in blogland, those whom I've met in person, and those whom I've only met online, I wish you the most joyous of Christmases. I love you all, and leave you with this wish:

As Tiny Tim observed, God bless US, Every One!