If you see this, my friend Afnan is raising money to support her family in Gaza and she hasn’t even reached one-fifteenth of her goal. Please, share and donate. chuffed.org/project/1440...

All in all, Stewart’s narration really makes this one, and I look forward to integrating this into my Jimmy Stewart Christmas traditions.

This episode was later adapted for television, General Electric Theater’s “The Trail for Christmas,” directed by Stewart himself. I would love to watch it, but I can’t find it anywhere online. :/

As with last week, there’s not a lot of fun ghost stuff, and Christmas Past especially is sadly just Some Guy, but there is a neat twist where they’re all the same spirit who change from past to present to future. It’s a variation I’m surprised isn’t more common.

It mostly avoids directly quoting from Dickens, aside from the obligatory “God bless us, every one.” Even at this point, A Christmas Carol was a story that basically everyone knew.

The framing device is Stewart as Ponset retelling the story to a boy running away from home, with Scrooge now a rancher in the American West. Obviously the boy has a change of heart, and Britt helps him return home with a Christmas tree.

If you see this, my friend Afnan is raising money to support her family in Gaza and she hasn’t even reached one-fifteenth of her goal. Please, share and donate. chuffed.org/project/1440...

In keeping with the setting update, Tim explicitly has polio in this version. Then it ends with Diamond singing “Mele Kalikimaka.”

It’s a brisk half hour, so a lot of stuff gets cut even as the major beats are hit. This being an audio medium, we don’t get a lot of cool ghost effects, and Christmas Present’s voice is oddly whispery instead of the expected booming.

The introduction in which Diamond explains the premise of the episode is surprisingly long, but considering this is from when this would have been a novelty instead of a cliche, maybe it was necessary.

“A Contemporary Christmas Carol” is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of telling the audience about one of his cases, Diamond retells A Christmas Carol in late 40s New York, with his regular cast playing the characters.

gofund.me/3e0fc876 Direct update link ugh.

@mommunism.bsky.social can you share this? Shaima could really use the promo

Rosette and her three children had their first fundraiser shut down, and have started a new one. They also recently lost their father. chuffed.org/project/1372...

Tasneem and her three children have raised almost a quarter of their goal. www.gofundme.com/f/help-tasne...

Sahar and her two children have raised almost half of their goal. www.gofundme.com/f/help-sahar...

Afnan, her husband, and their two children have raised almost half of their goal. www.gofundme.com/f/help-afnan...