So we've just gotten through the Christmas season, and one of the most recognizable stories is Charles Dickens a Christmas Carol.

It popularized the term Merry Christmas, for gosh sakes. It's warm and full of life lessons. But what's this about Dickens being a political rabble rouser and his warm, fuzzy story being inspired by a statement he was trying to make, but

nobody was listening to. I'm Patty Steele, making a point by telling a story. That's next on the

backstory. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. The backstory is back. As the Christmas season winds down,

it's interesting to trace some of the origins of our traditions, especially the stories we tell.

Okay, perfect example. And no, we're not talking about diehard, which despite lots of disagreement, even Bruce Willis said

was absolutely not a Christmas movie. What do you think of that? We're talking about Charles Dickens,

a Christmas Carol. It was originally published in 1843, and as you probably already know,

is the story of a nasty, miserly old guy named Ebenezer Scrooge. In the tale, he is

visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who introduces him to the

ghosts of Christmas past, present, and ominously the ghost of Christmas yet to come. By the end of the

story, Scrooge has had his

wits scared out of him, and he becomes a kinder, gentler man. So what made Dickens write

a Christmas carol? Well, first of all, it came about at the same time the Victorians in England

were turning Christmas celebrations into a warm, festive, family-oriented holiday

instead of either the insane adults-only drinking fest it was for a lot of folks, or the

ultra-religious snow festivities at all occasion it was for others. This was the era in which

Christmas trees came to be and Christmas carols were becoming more

popular again. Presents and big feasts were all the rage. By late 1842, the year before a Christmas

Carol was published, Dickens was doing pretty well. He'd had six major works and a number of short

stories published over the past few

years. Then on New Year's Eve of 1842, he began publishing a serial novel called Martin

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