Essay Questions

What are some of the complaints Effie has about Christmas that causes her to wish there would be never be another one and what do they suggest?

This story commences with an opening line in which an eight-year-old girl says openly expresses the wish that there would never be another Christmas she has to suffer through. Her mother suggests she sounds as bad a Scrooge by saying such a thing. It is not long before the reader discovers what it is about Christmas that is so discouraging and depressing to Effie. While she always gets “heaps of goodies” in her stocking, the result is already always the same: that that are jettisoned right away because she dislikes them soon grow old and becoming too boring to play with. Then there’s the enormous Christmas feast the family enjoys every year which never fails to leave her sickened from overeating. The list goes on: Santa Claus is stupid, Christmas trees all look the same, children are loud, toys always break and the season is filled with shiny things of no use. This catalogue of what makes Christmas so tiresome very efficiently paints Effie as someone in immediate need of a lesson from a Christmas spirit similar to those who helped redeemed Scrooge.

Where does Effie’s dream take place and what are some notable distinctions about it?

The very night that Effie learns about the story of Scrooge she takes it upon herself to read the book and is overcome with emotions she cannot really explain. That night she has a very vivid dream in which she is guided by a Christmas spirit. When Effie asks where she is, the spirit answers that it is “Christmas world” which is place where everyone works together directing their actions toward just one single purpose which making sure children are not disappointed. Bells are constantly ringing, Christmas trees are almost invisible behind the toys hanging upon them and workers are sewing, packing money into purses, tracking money accounts to determine who is deserving of gifts and what kind of gift they deserve: peace or remorse, disappointment or hope. And, finally, the greatest surprise of all: four different sleighs each transporting a different Santa Claus rather than just one single St. Nick.

What is the twist in the middle that makes this story inspired by A Christmas Carol stand out as significantly different from the Dickens tale?

Dickens brings his story of Scrooge to an end with the promise by Scrooge that he will keep Christmas in his heart every day the year. The narrator then informs the reader that Scrooge has been true to his word, leaving out the details of how this change was enacted. The story of Effie being visited by a Christmas spirit to teach her a lesson that results in redemptive change of course is only half the story here. The second half is what happens when Effie awakes from her dream with an intense desire to put into action all the lessons of charity, benevolence, and empathy toward others that the dream has engendered.