The Real Transformation of Scrooge
Growing up, the CBC would play a family movie every Sunday night and every year around Christmas time, that movie would be Mickey's Christmas Carol. I looked forward to it every year. Goofy as Jacob Marley, the silly giant Ghost of Christmas Present, and the heartwarming message of good will to all men (and mice). The Dickens classic formed as significant a part of my childhood Christmases as any other holiday cultural phenomena and I'm grateful to Disney for introducing it to me but I think there is a key lesson from the tale of Scrooge that I missed thanks to Mickey Mouse's interpretation. I have read the original version a number of times and in a number of languages but this year I attempted to read it to my 5 and 3 year old daughters. It took about a week of reading every night with them, and I'm not going to pretend like they loved every minute of it either but we accomplished the goal and I gained a fresh perspective on the classic by reading it aloud....