ALL THE GHOSTS OF DICKENS' CHRISTMAS

Famous trick question: "How many ghosts visit Scrooge on Christmas Eve?" Everyone would guess three, but it's actually FOUR. Everyone forgets about poor Jacob Marley, but he's as important as the other three because he shows Scrooge his AFTERLIFE. So Scrooge gets to see even what comes AFTER Christmas Future. That then he would be stuck between Heaven and Hell. The other three ghosts are still important: Christmas Past is Memory, a being of light always changing age and gender. Christmas Present is Joy, a pagan Santa in green and holly enthroned on a mountain of good food (in spite of the children under his robe). And Christmas Future is Death (the bony hands, the black cowl - missing the scythe, but everyone gets the gist). All four ghosts contribute to Scrooge waking up a far better man, at peace with his past, full of joy, conscious of death and of the afterlife.

Perhaps that's why the Christmas Carol has been adapted every winter season, sometimes more than once, while other Yuletide classics like the Snow Queen and the Nutcracker get shorter shrift. That, and because ghosts and time travel are very popular now and were in the Victorian era!