As Christmas draws ever nearer one particular work written by one particular author always seems to be on our minds, despite being published 173 years ago. A Christmas Carol has been adapted for radio, stage, and screen countless times and this year will doubtless see new versions (as well as a lot of repeats of previous ones). While many of us are aware that our modern Christmas traditions are heavily influenced by those of our Victorian forebears, what is less well known is that these celebrations were in decline at the time Charles Dickens began his literary career.