A Christmas Carol

A few days ago Jammy and Macho picked out a new Christmas dvd at Target called Bah-HumDuck!  They haven't watched it yet, but it has inspired endless questions from Jammy.


"What is a HumDuck?" It is a play on words that came from a story called A Christmas Carol.  There's a grumpy old man named Scrooge who says "Bah Humbug!"
"There are ghosts in this picture [on the dvd box]." Yes, the ghosts come because Scrooge doesn't believe in Christmas.
"Why do ghosts come when you say, 'Bah Humbug?'" Ghosts don't come because he says, "Bah Humbug.'"
"But he says, 'Bah Humbug,' and the ghosts come." He says, "Bah Humbug," because he doesn't have Christmas spirit, and the ghosts come because he doesn't have Christmas spirit. But, the ghosts don't come because he says, "Bah Humbug."

This weekend the boys had the chance to watch All Dogs Christmas Carol, which Mom thought would answer some of Jammy's questions about the classic story.


But, there were more.

"How many ghosts are there?" Didn't you watch the movie?
"So, is a Christmas carol really a ghost?" No, it's a Christmas song.
"Why is it called A Christmas Carol?" Because that is the name of the book.
"Why is the book called A Christmas Carol?" Because . . . um . . . because it is about spreading Christmas spirit (?)
"So is a Christmas carol like a ghost?" No.
"Are the ghosts real?" Ghosts aren't real.
"I mean in the movie, are the ghosts real?" Didn't you watch the movie?
"Well, in the movie, the dogs were just pretending to be ghosts." Oh . . . well in the original story, the ghosts were not dogs pretending to be ghosts.
"Were they real ghosts?" It's hard to say for sure if they were real.
"How many ghosts were there?" (sigh)

And so on.

Tonight, Jammy had his heart set on watching the "real" movie, the one with real people and real ghosts.  Mom thought it might be a little scary, but it is a classic Christmas story after all, so why not.  Jammy quietly watched the whole movie, but Macho fell asleep after Marley's ghost came to warn Scrooge (which Macho watched through the fingers of both of his hands over his eyes).

This is the version that the boys watched, and it is very good.

After it was over, Jammy still had questions. Mom could see that he was looking for more details, so she got out the book, but she didn't know if he would really be able to follow along.

She shouldn't have worried.  She read him the original "complete and unexpurgated" Stave One of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  She stopped a couple of times to ask him if he wanted to keep reading and answered a few more questions until he was satisfied: "Why was Marley's ghost wearing chains? Why was he getting so angry?" etc.

This is the book that Mom is reading to Jammy.  It is an excellent version to read with a child, because it is beautifully (and thoroughly) illustrated. Of 158 pages, there is only a handful of instances where 2 pages in a row are without illustration.

Jammy is looking forward to reading the "Stave" 2-5 over the next couple of days.  He loves ghost stories. Mom is excited that Jammy is enjoying 150 year old British literature.  After Christmas she's going to break out Oliver Twist!