“A Christmas Carol” in Wyoming

A thatched roof house in England. (Vannoy photo)

Several things bring Christmas to mind. Christmas Trees, the Nutcracker ballet, The Bible Christmas Story, and Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol.”

Dickens was born in on Feb. 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. He was an English writer and social critic. His 1843 novella A Christmas Carol has never been out of print and continues to inspire many adaptations.

A Christmas Carol is the enduring story of the miserly Scrooge and the visits of the spirits to help him change his ways. There have been numerous stage, radio and movie adaptations of the Christmas Carol story, ranging from actors reading the lines, to live action movies, series episodes, several animated versions, and even “A Muppet Christmas Carol.”

Several Christmas Carol plays have been performed in the Sheridan area and Wyoming over the years.

In the Sheridan Daily Enterprise on February 1, 1911: The program the Electric is running makes you feel rather foolish and guilty as you come away to think you allowed yourself to be so carried away by the memories of your childhood “Little Snowdrop” from the Grimm Fairy Tales, especially takes you back to those golden days. You forget all about the everyday world and are transported once again to the wonderful land of mystery. Then anyone who does not feel kindlier for having seen “A Christmas Carol,” by Dickens, is hard–hearted indeed This delightful little classic has all the freshness of a happy Christmas morning. People who like Electric plays of the better sort will find plenty here to meet their approval

An ad for the play from The Daily Enterprise, January 31, 1911

The Thermopolis Record December 14, 1922, takes a look at the Christmas Carol story. Due to the fact that Christmas falls in mid-winter, Christmas being celebrated in the depth of winter, when “lang’s the neet frae e’en to morn,” the festival us naturally associated with tales of haunted halls and ‘things’ that are supernatural.

Thus Dickens in Christmas Carol gave us the Spirits of the Past, the Present and the Future, but Christmas in mind, clothed each of them in a fascinating mantle of kindness, and sent them out on a message of mercy that made itself felt over all the earth.

Over many a stony Scrooge have they cast their mellowing alludes, teaching them to say: “I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. I will live In the Past, the Present, and the Future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.” Scrooge, concluded Dickens, “had no further intercourse with Spirits, but it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that he truly said of us, and all of us. And so, as Tiny Tim observed. ‘God bless us. everyone.'”

Sheridan school students also gave their rendition of the play, as in this report from the Sheridan Post, December 13, 1919 Dickens Christmas Carol The play given by the 41 students of Linden 8th grade at the auditorium last evening under Miss Maurine Tschirgi. Dickens Christmas Carol has always been popular with old and young, and the choice of the play for last evening was a very happy one.

The stage scenery was very beautiful, while subdued red and purple lights shed their soft radiance over the scenes. The play was opened with the scene at Old Scrooge’s office, where the manager sat terrifying all with his thundering against the custom of the popular salutation, “Merry Christmas” Francis Williams gave an almost perfect impersonation of the hardened spirit, who finally relented and yielded to the finer sensibilities. The ghost scene, with Agnes Stager as the weird phantom was among the best in the play. So the play progressed to the Christmas dinner at the Cratchit home, with the part of the irrepressible Tiny Tim admirably played by Jim Holdman.

This marks the point, where the spirit bade him awaken, and profit by the lessons he had taught. The last scene of the play was the resurrection of the finer spirits in Old Scrooge, and the birth of a braver, more appreciative man, in which the reverence for Christmas played no small part.

The Linden P. T. A. and faculty of the school extend their appreciation for the patronage received, and call attention to the bake sale which will be given today at the Oscar Collier store on Main street.

Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, “bah, humbug” and Tiny Tim are a part of our culture, and the story of an old miser’s redemption retains its popularity at Christmas even today. It is as fresh as when it was first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843.