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What are your favorite movie or TV versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol? My favorites are the 1951 movie starring Alistair Sim and the TV version with George C. Scott as the miserly, Christmas hating Scrooge.
But every year, I read the beautiful story of redemption in the actual words Dickens wrote. Dickens loved Christmas and A Christmas Carol was just one of five short Christmas stories included in my copy of the Oxford Illustrated Dickens Christmas Books.
One of the things about reading the original version is the wonderful detail you get that’s impossible to duplicate in the movies or on TV.
One of those details is a clue in Dickens’ writing as to the ingredients (“hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons”) of the Christmas punch enjoyed by the Cratchit family at their Christmas feast.
As Scrooge, accompanied by the Spirit of Christmas Present, observed, Bob Cratchit took some of the “…hot stuff from the jug…” and toasted, “ ‘Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!’ Which all the family re-echoed. ‘God bless us every one!’ said Tiny Tim, the last of all.”
I’ve owned my own businesses for a long time, including insurance, book distributing, publishing, and copywriting and there’s one thing that strikes me during every reading of A Christmas Carol. Maybe you agree. Isn’t Scrooge’s predicament similar to a business owner or marketer, not with spirits but with his or her own thoughts contemplating the good and the bad of their business past, present, and future?
It’s often difficult to study the inevitable mistakes you’ve made. An honest accounting of your business situation takes courage. And contemplating the consequences of the past and circumstance of the present as you plan your future can be a real source of trepidation.
This is probably why A Christmas Carol stands as Charles Dickens’ most famous and beloved story. It is who we are, warts and all. And in the end, there’s hope that we can do better.
So, in the spirit of redemption and a better tomorrow, I offer you the recipe for Bob Cratchit’s hot gin Christmas punch. I’m hoping this will take some of the edge off as you plan your web content for next year.
Take a sip as you think about getting more from your website, the hub of all of your content marketing. Drink to more attention on social media. And gain the courage to finally decide to publish that weekly blog. (I'd be happy to help you with any of these, by the way.)
I came across this recipe the other day from a terrific article in Slate, the online magazine. The author found it from a book written by Dickens’ great-grandson called Drinking With Dickens.
Here it is and I'm assuming that you can sub out the Hendrick's gin for the bar brand of your choice…
Bob Cratchit’s Hot Gin Punch
Adapted from the book, Drinking With Dickens
Yield: 6 servings
Time: About 30 minutes
2 cups Hendrick’s gin
2 cups sweet Madeira wine
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar, or more to taste
Peel and juice of 1 lemon, or more to taste
Peel and juice of 1 orange
1 pineapple, peeled, cored, and sliced
3 whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Put all the ingredients in a medium pot over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes; taste and adjust the balance of flavors with more brown sugar or more lemon juice if desired. Pour the mixture into a jug or teapot and serve warm.
I will be making my own batch in the next couple of days as our family enjoys Christmas and the New Year. Whatever way you celebrate the holiday season, let us know how your “hot stuff from the jug” turned out.
And from the last few words of a Christmas Carol, describing the new Scrooge, “…and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”
Until next time,
Nick
Nick Burns is an SEO web writer specializing in persuasive copywriting and content marketing. He provides clients a winning content strategy plus the special web writing to make it work. You can contact Nick here.
