Christmas Belongs to Dickens

No author trumps Charles Dickens for finding the essence of Christmas. It's not just endless versions of A Christmas Carol that earn him such distinction. In many other works Dickens played with the themes that lie at the heart of Christmas. His great novels often feature poor parents seeking shelter and safety for their children. Nearly every plot highlights a shivering child cleaving to the moral path despite local hostilities.

A literary landscape without the likes of Oliver Twist and Pip would be barren. Each of these characters has to navigate mean, cold streets, searching for a next meal or temporary home, while foes are bent on destroying them. Dickensian villains suffer a range of resentments that cripple their hearts like emotional arthritis. But the author made sure his young heroes would discover that the world's kindness is as vast as its evil. In most of his tales, compassion is the victor and morality triumphs.

If writers had their own literary Christmas, I'd put a tree in the reading room covered with ornaments named for great characters. Imagine green glass wreathes and golden angels etched with words like Bob Cratchit, Uncle Pumblechook, and Miss Havisham. There'd be trinkets for bad guys like Uriah Heep, Quilp, and Fagin. Honestly, you could decorate a tree the size of the White House with the great names and plots that Dickens gave us. Can't leave out Jarndyce and Jarndyce or the Artful Dodger. Maybe a reformed Ebenezer Scrooge could play angel at the top of the tree. Of course, there'd have to be candles and strings of light...and a great big holiday goose. And, please sir, some porridge.