2/ It was published 19th December 1843 (and sold out by Christmas Eve 😯!). Supposedly, Dickens spent about 6 weeks writing it, and shoved it into shops right at the time when people were ramping up the gooey-joyful-let’s-eat-too-much-cheese Christmas feeling.

3/ He is totally cashing in on that feeling. It is, if you will, his baseline expectation for reader response. If you’re actually like Scrooge, the last thing you’re going to do is buy an untried book, fresh off the press, at the time of year that’s most expensive (think fuel!).

4/ What if, then, when we interpret that ACC is aimed at the Scrooge’s of the world, we’re actually wrong. What if - to start with - it was kind of aimed at the nearly-Freds? Those who are already cheerful, but could give a bit more (to their bookseller…? 👀🤑)

5/ What if, by aiming it at the nearly-Freds, who are conscientious to be worried about potential Scroogification, at a time where they’re already feeling festive, Dickens ups the standard Christmas-baseline so that the Scrooge’s are further apart.

6/ (bloomin’ autocorrect shoving apostrophes in no 5!). What if the short-term goal is not to convert the Scrooges, but to uber cheer the Freds (while making some quick dosh for the family), and empower them to drive change, hoping that Scrooges fall in line eventually?

7/ As such, what if we’ve slightly misinterpreted some of the key aims of the text, and focused on the wrong target readers. No-one like Scrooge is reading this text. Everyone like Bob and Fred are - or want to. It’s a text that is founded on a baseline of cheer.

8/ Maybe, just maybe, by reading it near Christmas time, we read it a bit more how it was intended to be read. Christmas is part of the context, yes, but in ACC Dickens taps into his readers’ existing emotions to deepen them, rather than building from scratch.

9/ I’m not saying this is enough justification to structure your curriculum around Christmas, but it’s worth acknowledging that this isn’t an ‘anytime you fancy’ text. It’s made for and by Christmas, and has - arguably - strengthened the British Christmas in turn. End. 🎄

@mrsbrewtandcake We moved it to Summer term and found it helped students deal with it much better as a constructed text rather than a piece of Christmas fluff.

@ralphmward Interesting! That’s the difference between reading it as a reader and reading it for analysis, I guess.

@mrsbrewtandcake I’ll be reading it next month for pleasure, for that specific reason - the whole being set at Christmas thing.

@mrsbrewtandcake We start it in September. The kids keep asking why we're not doing this at Xmas. Slowly, given we're STILL DOING IT, they're realising how long studying it properly takes 😂

@mrsbrewtandcake I'm not an English Teacher, but when I did my A levels we read A Room With A View in the summer term, and that was absolutely the right time! There are summer books and winter books and surely they were made to be read at those times? I'm reading ACC from advent!

@georginaguy17 No need to apologise. I slipped! 🫢

@mrsbrewtandcake Love this thread and yes I believe you can't ignore the content of the time but also how that context is STILL aimed at the nearly-Freds now hoping to convert the Scrooges of the world making it a timeless classic.

@mrsbrewtandcake Taught it in the summer term and reconciling snow and plum pudding with 25 degrees was a bit of a challenge. Agree with the Fred point and Christmas fluff of society just needs to be a bit kinder .

@mrsbrewtandcake It’s 19th century, it’s short, it’s easier than Jekyll and Hyde seems to be the standard rationale.

@mrsbrewtandcake I have always viewed ACC as being partially aimed at the rich, business orientated Victorian’s who were leaning more towards Scrooge rather than Fezziwig. Fred I see as being aimed at the wider readership as he explicitly represents how we should all support others more.