On this Christmas Day, whom better to focus on than Ebenezer Scrooge?

In one form or another for 180 years, Charles Dickens’ miserly figure of Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” has cemented itself into our culture. From classic movies (the 1951 version is still the gold standard) to less laudatory renditions such as Bill Murray’s “Scrooged” and the lamentable Scrooge McDuck, the lesson is the same: being a Scrooge with his acid-tongued “Bah. Humbug!” is the clichéd antithesis of Christmas. 

But when was the last time you read — rather than watched — “A Christmas Carol”? It’s a relatively short novella packed with nuance and magnificent descriptions of the sights, sounds and characters of Christmas in Victorian England. I reread it every year and find something new each time I do. 

In the printed version, we experience in detail the cold desperate loneliness of Scrooge contrasted with many characters whose lives of far less material wealth than Scrooge are far more happy and content. Dickens makes it clear Scrooge not only was self-satisfied with his coldness, but it was a constant condition, saying “he carried his own low temperature with him.” 

What does the story have to do with the rough-and-tumble, back-and-forth of politics?

Quite a bit. 

The Christmas classic has several lessons for the 21st century political community. If the story is read carefully, it is clearly anything but a call for a progressive mindset. In fact, Ebenezer Scrooge emerges from his encounter with Christmas ghosts into quite the cultural conservative. 

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In this week between Christmas and the dawn of 2025, take the time to crack open the Dickens classic and see what lessons you find. Here are some of mine:

The family is foundational

The stark contrast between Scrooge’s antipathy toward his nephew — his only living relative — and the joy and unity of the Cratchit family is one of the pillars of Dickens’ story. Despite being poorly treated, and badly paid, by Scrooge, Bob Cratchit remains a content father and husband, drawing life from his home.  While Cratchit is so poor he cannot afford an overcoat, the warmth of his family sustains him through a bitterly cold London Christmas. 

Private charity trumps government programs

In an early scene, Scrooge is visited by two men seeking to raise private funds for Christmas meals for the poor. Scrooge sends them off saying his taxes fund government programs (such as execrable debtors’ prisons) which should be more than sufficient. By the end of the story, Dickens demonstrates individual generosity not only gladdens the heart, but can be more effective, implying Scrooge’s benevolence had provided life-saving treatment for “Tiny Tim” Cratchit. 

Active fathers matter

One of the wounds that hardened Scrooge’s heart was his abandonment by his father after his mother died in childbirth giving life to Ebenezer. Young Scrooge comments he has been away so long his father will not even know what he looks like. Father absence, no matter what the reasons, remains a serious scar on American life.  

Change cannot be compelled

The key lesson is Scrooge must choose to cooperate with the ghosts; there is no indication any of these “higher authorities” would have compelled Scrooge to alter his life choices. And at the end, Scrooge has the freedom to choose to alter his ways after finally coming to the right conclusion: 

“Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change.” 

Faith matters

The Dickens story is replete with references to the Christ child. Despite their material poverty and the desperate illness of their youngest child, the Cratchits still express gratitude to God. Bob Cratchit is in awe at the handicapped Tiny Tim, who selflessly says he doesn’t mind people staring at him in church: “It might be pleasant for them to remember upon Christmas Day who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.” 

So on this Christmas Day, let’s be a Scrooge. Let’s take stock and revel in what is good, and seek guidance for what can and must change. Let’s raise our glasses and say, with Tiny Tim, “God bless us. Every one.”

Sean Duffy, a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Bill Owens, is a communications and media relations strategist and ghostwriter based in the Denver area.