Do you read or watch A Christmas Carol during the festive season? Did you know that A Christmas Carol is one of Charles Dickens’ most popular works.
When it was first published in December 1843, Dickens believed it would sell well, hoping the income might relieve his financial troubles. Yet he couldn’t have predicted how the story would capture the public’s imagination, or that it would become a timeless classic.
Dickens began drafting A Christmas Carol in October 1843, racing to complete it in time for Christmas. But this urgency wasn’t solely creative; he was also in desperate need of funds. Although he had once seen success with novels like The Old Curiosity Shop, his current serialized story, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, was underperforming. His publishers proposed reducing his pay from £200 to £150 per month, a potential disaster as he was already in debt with a family to support, including a fifth child on the way and his father, who was also a financial strain. Dickens hoped a Christmas story could earn him roughly £1,000 (between £130,000 and £160,000 in today’s money).
While money was a factor in writing A Christmas Carol, Dickens also aimed to highlight society’s neglect of its most vulnerable. Earlier in 1843, he read a parliamentary report exposing child labor’s grim realities, with children enduring long hours, low wages, and hazardous conditions.
That year, Dickens also visited ragged schools in impoverished areas, where children often lived by theft or prostitution. In October, he delivered a speech in Manchester on the need for education further strengthened his resolve, and the idea for A Christmas Carol soon took shape—a story that would reveal the plight of the poor and the transformative power of generosity.
Dickens completed A Christmas Carol, a novella of less than 30,000 words, in just six weeks. This compressed timeline was unusual for him, as his novels were typically published in serial installments over months or years. Yet, the short timeline may have contributed to the novella’s focused, impactful narrative.
The initial print run of 6,000 copies of A Christmas Carol, released on December 19, sold out within a week. The book arrived at a moment ripe for a Christmas story: Prince Albert and Queen Victoria were popularizing Christmas trees, and Christmas cards were just becoming a tradition.
Despite its success, Dickens didn’t achieve the financial gain he’d hoped for. The book’s elegant production—red cloth binding, gilt-edged pages, and colored illustrations—meant the costs exceeded sales, and Dickens ultimately received only about £250, far less than his anticipated £1,000.
A Christmas Carol has since inspired countless adaptations. Unauthorized stage versions began appearing shortly after publication, though Dickens rarely benefited financially. The story has since been portrayed in films, from the silent era to versions with the Muppets, Bill Murray, and Toni Braxton. Dickens himself adapted A Christmas Carol for public readings, performing it 127 times between 1853 and 1870.
One businessman, after hearing Dickens read A Christmas Carol in Boston on Christmas Eve 1867, decided to close his factory for Christmas and gifted each worker a turkey, just like Scrooge. These readings helped spread A Christmas Carol’s message.
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