Christmas Eve, 1948: Returned to his bed, as the clock strikes two, Scrooge is ready to meet the second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present. He finds that his own adjoining room is glowing, and the sound bids him enter. Christmas Present is there—ruddy, genial, cheery, and full of life—at the center of all of it. Christmas Present invites Ebenezer to see the joy of Christmas all around him, beginning with nephew Fred and his lovely Judy, just home from Christmas shopping and then on their way back out to share gifts with friends. (Again, Fred and Judy seem to represent to Ebenezer the young love and joy he once had with Marilyn.) Scrooge and the Spirit of Christmas Present next observe Christmas at the humble Cratchit home. While less well-off than Fred and Judy, the Cratchits observe Christmas with equal vigor, making the most of what they have with love ever at the core. Scrooge observes the children burst into the living room to hang their stockings, including little Tiny Tim, who finds joy and delight in the world in spite of his feebleness. Ebenezer asks the Spirit if Tiny Tim will live. “That,” she says as she fades away with the morning, “Is a question not for Christmas Present, but for Christmas Future.”

Isabelle Bloodgood | Bob Williams Photography

Stave 1: Christmas Past, 1922