Before mince pies, goodwill, and pretending you like your relatives, Christmas was… a bit bleak.
In this festive episode of Nowt But History, we find out how Charles Dickens didn’t just write A Christmas Carol — he more or less rebranded Christmas entirely.
From brutal Victorian poverty and Dickens’ own miserable childhood, to ghosts, guilt, and one of the tightest men ever put on paper, we explore how a struggling writer accidentally turned Christmas into something warmer, kinder, and a lot less depressing.
Expect Victorian misery, festive cheer, questionable life choices, and the real reason we all feel morally judged by December.
Because Christmas didn’t always feel like this— someone had to fix it.
1 hr