Query "Christmas carol" at Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) and you will see something like 56 movie versions. They range from Rich Little's classic to the latest Barbie DVD. Add in all of the variations on the Christmas Carol story line, like Veggie Tales "An Easter Carol" and "The Gospel According to Scrooge" and it seems like there are an astronomical number of retellings of Charles Dickens' story. I AM SICK OF THEM ALL!
Don't ask me why because I don't really know. That story just grates on me like chalk on a blackboard. It replays over and over and over during the holiday season and it drives me mad.
I also hate any movie or television show theme that is driven by deception or confusion cause by purposeful or accidental miscommunication. I don't know what that has to do with A Christmas Carol, but I thought I'd throw it out there. That pretty much means that I don't watch old reruns of "Three's Company" or particularly enjoy "Romeo and Juliet".
I do get a bit depressed during the holidays. My parents are both gone, so I feel slightly resentful of friends with large extended families, especially those with family members nearby. As a Christian with a global worldview, I try to minimize my children's materialistic tendencies while maintaining a sense of joy and excitement. We have never perpetuated the Santa myth - a fact that my two older kids seem to appreciate.
I love Christmas. The way it is celebrated in the U.S. stirs so much turmoil in my spirit. I love the story of Jesus coming as a baby, born to Mary in a stable. I never get tired of God's redemptive love and his plan for reconciling the world. Retell it a million ways and it still brings tears to my eyes.
The world doesn't need another "A Christmas Carol". The world doesn't need redemption through humanism or some altruistic capitalist spirit. It is not the true story of Christmas, no matter how many different ways it is portrayed.
