INTRODUCTION
A Christmas Carol was written in six weeks in one of Dickens' typical bursts of feverish energy. He wrote to a friend that he 'wept and laughed and wept again and excited himself in the most extraordinary manner in the composition'. (...) Published but a few days before Christmas [1843] it was hailed on every side with enthusiastic greeting. The first edition of 6,000 copies was sold the first day (...) and reviews and a deluge of personal letters told him how it had been received: (...) "Who can listen - wondered Thackeray - to objections regarding such a book as this? It seems to me a national benefit, and to every man or woman who reads it a personal kindness".

Dickens and A Christmas Carol are now so bound up with our idea of "the Victorian Christmas" that it comes as a surprise to realize that when he published his tale in 1843, the Victorian age was only 6 years old: the great popularization of the festival of Christmas was only just getting under way and would not reach its climax for another 30 years. The first Christmas card appeared in the same year as A Christmas Carol; the cracker had been invented three years before and the Christmas tree, imported by Prince Albert at the beginning of the decade as a reminder of the traditions of home, was still a novelty.

(Source: production's programme)