'Every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.' No Christmas is complete without Charles Dickens' classic morality tale in which rich miser Ebenezer Scrooge is shown the error of his ways after visits by the spectral Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet To Come. First published in 184-3, A Christmas Carol reinforced expectations for Christmas Day as a time of peace and goodwill to all men. It's a story everyone should read.