Scene from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843. Artist: John Leech

Scene from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843. The irascible, curmudgeonly Ebenezer Scrooge, sitting alone on Christmas Eve, is visited by the ghost of Marley, his late business partner. The same night he is visited by three more apparitions, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future, whose revelations cause him to wake on Christmas Day a changed man. He sends a turkey to Bob Cratchit his clerk, thoroughly enjoys the festivities and becomes a kindly, jolly old man. From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. (London, 1843). This was the first in the series of five Christmas books Dickens published. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)