Let's Talk Food: Scrooge reinforced the American holiday he imitated

This column first appeared in the Naples Daily News on Dec. 25, 1999. I can think of no sentiments that express the real meaning of Christmas as well as this tale of redemption, love, courage and gratitude. It is my hope that this story will bring insight and a modicum of pleasure to your holiday celebration:

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“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens is one of the most influential books ever written. Because of this story, which reflected the social mores of England in Victorian times, the celebration of Christmas has changed from one of lavish parties and extravagant gifts for the wealthy and privileged to also a time of sharing and caring for the less fortunate.

Since it was published in 1843, millions have read the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and celebrated with the Cratchits at their holiday feast. This Christmas dinner is probably the most famous repast ever prepared and the vision of that meal is part of the tradition of the holiday:

“Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course. Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigor; Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates. At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did and when the long expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose all round the board. There never was such a goose; its tenderness and flavor.”

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In Dickens’s time turkey was a much greater luxury than goose. On Christmas morning, when the penitent Scrooge woke from his dream, he sent a boy to the butcher to buy the Cratchit family a prize turkey. Even for the upper classes, turkey was indeed an extravagant indulgence. The bird did not even arrive in England from America until between 1523 and 1542.

It was several centuries before turkey became the English Christmas staple as it is today. The Victorians and Edwardians loved their food to look elaborate and would often decorate the Christmas bird with brightly colored paper streamers. Another popular practice was to feast on the bird with sausages in links and placed around the neck to resemble chains.

“A Christmas Carol” is believed by most to be totally English in its approach to the holidays. Yet Charles Dickens got much of his inspiration for the book from his visits to the United States. Here he observed that Americans, while caught up in the English traditions of the holidays, were also concerned with providing for the less fortunate.

Dickens had been in America just before he wrote “A Christmas Carol.” He had stayed in the home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who allegedly imparted to Dickens a strong sense of the country’s spirit and customs. And this included the celebration of Christmas.

Prior to visiting the United States, Dickens did not celebrate Christmas; rather it was on New Year’s Day that he entertained his friends. Only after his visit to America did he begin to give large Christmas parties.

Dickens returned to America in 1867 to find that his book had become a classic portrayal of the ideal way to celebrate Christmas. More than any other single work, “A Christmas Carol” provides the paradigm for the moral attitude and obligation that Americans adopted toward Christmas charity. While in the United States he toured the country giving readings of his most famous book and received adulation and celebrity in each city.

“A Christmas Carol” has endured for more that a century and a half, and one cannot imagine this season without it. As the day of Christmas approaches there are no greater or more significant words than those spoken by Tiny Tim, as timely today as they were then: “God bless us every one!”

Doris Reynolds is the author of “When Peacocks Were Roasted and Mullet Was Fried” and “Let’s Talk Food.” They are available for sale in the lobby of the Naples Daily News. Also available is a 4-part DVD, “A Walk Down Memory Lane with Doris Reynolds. For questions and comments regarding today’s column contact Doris Reynolds at foodlvr25@aol.com

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