It's Christmas Eve. You're sitting by a warm fireplace, listening to your family read a story

about a grumpy man named Ebenezer Scrooge who hates Christmas. As the story unfolds,

three ghosts visit Scrooge and show him the error of his ways. By the end, he's a changed man

who loves Christmas and helps everyone around him.

This is A Christmas Carol, one of the most famous Christmas stories ever written.

But did you know that the man who wrote it, Charles Dickens, had a childhood so difficult

that it changed his life forever?

Let's discover the amazing story of Charles Dickens and how he created a book that changed

Christmas for the whole world.

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England.

He was the second of eight children.

His father, John Dickens, worked as a clerk in the

Navy pay office. When Charles was about five years old, the family settled in a town called Chatham.

These were the happiest years of Charles's childhood. He went to school, loved to read books,

and went on long walks with his father.

His father would point to a big house on a hill called Gads Hill Place and tell him,

If you work very hard, you might live in a house like that someday.

But when Charles was 10 years old, everything changed.

The family moved to London, and things got worse quickly. John Dickens was not careful

with his, with money. He spent more than he earned, and the family fell into deep debt. Then in 1824,

when Charles was only 12 years old, his father was arrested and sent to prison. After this, Charles

was sent to work in a factory.

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