Column: Holidays aren’t the same absent a Scrooge movie

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MJR Southgate Movies are featuring this year an assortment of familiar holiday films (including “White Christmas” and “It’s a Wonderful Life”). The features are an annual MJR tradition. But as in past years, the movies don’t include any versions of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens.

But the Carol movies, centered on the conversion of elderly miser Ebenezer Scrooge, are certain to make it to television and are easy to attain on DVD. Question: Which version is the best? It’s a matter of taste and to a lesser extent the age of the viewer (as the Carol movies date from 1935 to 2009).

One caveat looms over the Carol movies. All stray from the original tale written by Charles Dickens in 1843. Most consistent with the written tale is the 2009