Charles Dickens’ little novella, “A Christmas Carol,” has been a highlight of the Christmas season for generations. Who can forget Ebenezer Scrooge, so cold and mean and grasping, and his stunning holiday conversion?

It’s a great story, certainly one of the greatest morality plays ever written. It’s as fresh and powerful today as it was when it was first published in December 1843.

I have read “A Christmas Carol” several times. I have seen it performed on stage by professional actors and by students at North Ridge Middle School. I’ve seen most of the movie and TV versions. Now that we have the DVD, we watch the 1984 version, starring George C. Scott, every Christmas.

Last week, on National Public Radio, I heard a rebroadcast of the wonderful radio play in which comedian Jonathan Winters did the voices of Scrooge, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. He was brilliant, as usual. I haven’t seen Disney’s new high-tech version of “A Christmas Carol,” with Jim Carrey, but it’s on my to-do list.

In 1843, Dickens was famous for having written “The Pickwick Papers,” but his previous novel, “Martin Chuzzlewit,” was a flop. He wrote “A Christmas Carol” in six weeks, but his publisher didn’t like it and suggested that it be offered to a literary magazine.

But Dickens believed in his creation and had it published at his own expense. It was an immediate commercial and critical success, and it’s never been out of print since. One of his reviewers, William Makepeace Thackeray, called it “a national benefit and to every man or woman who reads it, a personal kindness. The last two people I heard speak of it were women; neither knew the other, or the author, and both said, by way of criticism, ‘God bless him!’”

I found the introduction to the radio presentation especially interesting. It noted that during the Industrial Revolution in England, Christmas was rather somber and dull. Dickens’ story harkened back to an earlier time. By stirring the embers of nostalgia, he helped restore merriment, joy, fun and games to the holiday.

Dickens, of course, was far more than a great writer. He was a social critic, with deep sympathy for the poor who often were victims of capitalism, as personified by the greedy, sneering, mean-spirited Scrooge.

In a dream, Scrooge revisits tender scenes from boyhood that begin to stir his heart. Then he sees what effect his miserliness has had on the family of his underpaid, browbeaten clerk, Bob Cratchit. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come reveals to Scrooge his own death; his most prized possessions are stolen by servants, and he himself lies forgotten in a snow-covered grave.

But everything changes when Scrooge awakens and finds that he’s not dead, after all. He realizes that by changing his ways, he can begin life anew, and be a blessing to all those around him.

He buys the biggest turkey in town and has it delivered anonymously to the Cratchits; he makes amends with the nephew he had shunned; he gives to the poor; and treats everyone he meets with warmth and generosity. He gives Cratchit a raise, and pays to save the life of Cratchit’s feeble, crippled son, “Tiny Tim.”

Through Scrooge, we see that by opening our clenched hands and unlocking our shackled hearts, we are born again. Through generosity and compassion for the poor, our souls are saved. Good will is restored. The spirit of Christmas lives … each day, every day.

Danville native Kevin Cullen is a former Commercial-News reporter. Reach him at irishhiker@aol.com.