In this video, Professor Jon Mee gives an alternative Christmas speech that says "Bah, Humbug!" to the enduring link between Dickens and the festive period, made famous by A Christmas Carol.

“Did Dickens invent Christmas? Well all I can really say to that is Bah! Humbug! He invented that phrase that everyone knows and everybody knows it is associated with Ebenezer Scrooge, a character that people know even if have never read a word of Dickens. Did he invent turkey, stuffing, mistletoe, holly, red berries, all the things that the ghost of Christmas present brings into A Christmas Carol? No, he didn’t invent those, they were already a part of Christmas festivities. What perhaps he did invent was the idea of Christmas as a special point of light in a dark, violent, often unpredictable world of getting and spending.”

Professor Jon Mee