FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

Scrooge had long stilled his conscience with the thought that the suffering of poor families and children was not his problem.  He dutifully paid taxes to support the institutions that handled such matters, resolving not to concern himself any further with it.  But the opportunity to view the broad trajectory of his life and see for himself where it would end up leads him to see things differently.  He realizes that he has not lived as he ought to have done - that though his coffers are full, his life has been deeply impoverished.

His wish to be left alone granted, he has crafted a life that is, humanly speaking, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and in terms of the time he managed to spend truly living, pathetically short.  To really live, it is not enough to rely on bureaucracies to care for others - one must roll up one's sleeves, extend one's own hand, and open one's own heart.  When Scrooge awakes Christmas morning and realizes that the ghosts did their work in a single night, he is overjoyed, and sets about putting his resources to work enriching the lives of others.  Generosity makes possible a happiness he had never known.

In his day, William Thackeray was perhaps Dickens' greatest literary rival and had reason to rue the enormous success of "A Christmas Carol."  Yet, he said, "Who can listen to objections regarding a book such as this?  It seems to me a national benefit, and to every man or woman who reads it a personal kindness."  The key word here is personal.  Dickens performs a kindness by reminding us that true generosity must be personal.  Social welfare programs notwithstanding, we can only truly act generously when we do it ourselves, freely and with goodwill. 

So long as Scrooge pays his taxes to support the debtors' prisons and workhouses, he is merely transferring wealth under threat of punishment.  He is not giving freely, and he is operating with a very blunt instrument that prevents him from tailoring his gifts to the distinctive needs of individuals and families.  Once he begins to give of his own free will, however, he derives real joy from it, and he targets much of his largesse to people he knows well, such as the Cratchit family.  Moved by the plight of Tiny Tim, he is philanthropically inspired and activated in a way he has never known. 

In other words, it is the spirit that matters - in the case of "A Christmas Carol," the spirit of Christmas.

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