Apropos for a December read... But the story was in subtle ways different from what I remembered.
For one thing, I hadn't read the story for many years, and then I watched the Muppet Christmas Carol many times in between (definitely the BEST adaptation of the story and my all time favorite). The major difference between contemporary adaptations of the story and the original was the latter's emphasis on a broad definition of family. Usually at the end of an adaptation, Scrooge goes to Cratchitt's house, or through the town being nice to people, giving away money, smiling, patting little kids on the head, etc. to demonstrate how he is a changed man, and more importantly, a charitable man. The idea that Scrooge now donates cash, his time, and attention to the poor is the biggest 'lesson' at the end of most adaptations.
In the original story, Scrooge doesn't go on a yuletide philanthropy spree (though we are told he does look out for his 'fellow man' in the coda). In Dickens's story, he sends the turkey to the Cratchitt's and sets out in the street where he meets the men he turned away the day before and makes a donation. But he heads out in the street to spend the day with his nephew, not to find random people to be nice to. The story reads "He was at home [in his nephew's house] in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier...Wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness!" and invokes through its repetition the earlier (long) description (while with Christmas Present) of the celebrations that take place in that house.
In most adaptations, the sequence in which the nephew's party is shown emphasizes the word game where the guests disparage Scrooge as a cranky old man, but in the story, the word game is just a small part of the description of the celebration and the impression is that family time (even if it is with distant family relations and friends instead of a nuclear family) is critical to a festive spirit. Adaptations tend to focus only on the nuclear family of the Cratchitts and because Scrooge does not have a nuclear family (and presumably never will), his charitable acts have to turn to strangers and the people of the town, not to his extended family. I think that says something very interesting about the cult of the family that has grown in our culture in the intervening years.