KEEPING CHRISTMAS ALLISON PITTMAN
“ Once upon a time — of all the good days in the year , on Christmas Eve — old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house .”
It might be a cozy scene , dark and foggy , with Scrooge in the front room and his clerk , the mild Bob Cratchit , toiling away in the smaller room beyond . But coziness requires a fire , bits of conversation , maybe a cup of tea . Instead we have fog rolling in through the keyholes and fingers so stiffened with cold they can barely function . Scrooge keeps the door to Cratchit ’ s alcove open , not so they can exchange cheerful quips of conversation but so he can keep an eye on his clerk , lest the poor man try to warm his office with an additional shovelful of coal .
And it ’ s Christmas Eve .
We all know Christmas Eve as that night of unbearable anticipation . The night children nestle with sugary dreams . It ’ s when courageous reindeer burst through the fog , red noses blazing . Brave nutcracker soldiers come to life . Grinchy plans go awry .
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