A Christmas Carol is my all-time favorite Christmas story. I love the book. I love the movies - all of them - from the 1938 version with Reginald Owen, to the 1999 TNT version with Patrick Stewart, to the 2009 animated version with Jim Carey. I even love the 1992 Muppet Christmas Carol.
I watch these movies any and every time they are on. It's a story of regret, redemption, and grace that never gets old to me. When Scrooge realizes that it's not too late to change and that he still has the power to affect the world around him for good, I cry. Every time. (Much to the amusement of my kids!)
Naturally then, Bob Welch's 52 Little Lessons from A Christmas Carol seemed like a "must read" to me. I was not disappointed. It's a small book, but I enjoyed it all the way through.
The title tells you exactly what you're getting with this book. Coming in just under 175 pages, it is basically 52 short essays on various lessons to be learned through the story A Christmas Carol. Welch basically walks us through the story and pulls out things that we can take away from it - things like "Everyone has value," "Showing trumps telling," and " Grace changes everything" - using the characters from the story to illustrate his points.
Each (mostly) stand-alone essay is only a couple of pages long and the book can easily be read in small doses. I carried it with me when I was waiting for appointments, waiting to pick my kid up from school, and while others in the house were watching TV.
There really was a decent amount of thought-provoking material in the book - more than I thought there would be. And every time I thought I found my favorite lesson, I would read another to take its place. It is not an in-depth treatment of any one point, but it's not supposed to be. Overall this is a really good book that I definitely recommend.
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