A Book for the Christmas Season

Comparison with "A Christmas Carol"

 

A Father Christmas Story belongs to the same genre as Dicken's classic, A Christmas Carol. Like Dicken's short novel, A Father Christmas Story tells a story for and of the Christmas period. A Father Christmas Story, also like A Christmas Carol, operates on two levels, for beyond the festive tales, both novels address deeper issues. In the case of A Christmas Carol it is the redemption of a single individual. A Father Christmas Story deals not with the redemption of an individual (Scrooge), but with that of humanity.

 

Buried within A Christmas Carol one also sees Dicken's social concerns at play, particularly at the departure of the Ghost of Christmas Present, when Scrooge encounters the two children of Man, Ignorance and Want. Within A Father Christmas Story one also finds reference to similar social concerns, particularly at the point where the Earth Spirit reveals to Nicholas, through the medium of his fire, visions of how the Earth Spirit would have the world.

 

A Christmas Carol was written against a backcloth of a declining interest in Christmas and its extinction as a festivity. In contrast to Dicken's time, Christmas is now well and truly established and celebrated, but has perhaps moved to the opposite extreme, where the true meaning of the festivity has been lost. So, unlike A Christmas Carol, which makes no reference to the nativity, A Father Christmas Story integrates this into the story, providing the explanation of how Father Christmas came to be. Hence the sub-title of the book, "Being a tale of How Father Christmas Came to Be".