Scrooge realizes that abandoning his family at Christmas time is not acceptable, especially since family is among life's excitements. At the same time, Dewey realizes he's been wallowing in his bitterness and ignoring his family when all they wanted is to spend Christmas with him, the same thing young Donald was doing. Of the lengthier tales, it was only ‘Madness In A Coruña’ that captivated me with a traditional ‘gather round the fireplace’ ghostly tale of a forty-something divorced academic travelling to see an old university acquaintance in Spain and indulging in good food, wine and hopefully music. This brought to mind the work of M.R. James and was a notable highlight. Meanwhile ‘A Christmas Carole’ is a predictable story of a curmudgeonly landlady finally discovering some Christmas cheer.

Eight Maids A-Milking- The maids represent the eight Beatitudes, which can be found in the passage of the Bible that talks about the Sermon on the Mount. Condensed, they are: Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are they who mourn, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the clean of heart, blessed are the peacemakers, and blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice's sake. As to be expected, the story is predictable and although the premise is a reasonably clever one there isn't really an original idea in sight. There are a lot of easily telegraphed scenes here. Some draggy pacing here and there too. All Girls Want Bad Boys: The young Bentina Beakley doesn't care much for the cheerful Christmas Present's flirting, but she finds Christmas Future's dark cloak and grim appearance pretty appealing. Present Beakley still seems to feel the same way, as she gives Christmas Future a flirty look.Trapped in the Past: This is what Christmas Past wants to do to Scrooge - and what happens to him when Scrooge steals his time-traveling umbrella. Be Careful What You Wish For: Downplayed Trope. Scrooge finally gets his break from his family and responsibilities thanks to Past, but immediately becomes bored by it and decides to go home. Scrooge has a minor one when he realizes just how desperate the ghost of Christmas Past became after Scrooge stranded him in the past. I like how this movie was also a mystery, we are able to dig deep into the time he was killed and what his life was like then. Throughout, the only thing I was questioning myself like why did his killer kill him? I could say it was pretty horrible for the poor guy to not know this for all these years! You would be thinking in the ghost world, what are the answers? I wish we could see people who have left us and that we would be able to help them figure out their past!

The "True Love" one hears in the song is not a smitten boy or girlfriend but Jesus Christ, because truly Love was born on Christmas Day. The partridge in the pear tree also represents Him because that bird is willing to sacrifice its life if necessary to protect its young by feigning injury to draw away predators. The House on Savage Lane’ is satisfying gruesome with a twist that is practically guaranteed to creep up out of nowhere and catch the reader unawares, but in the same vein, ‘Jocelyn’s Story’ is a twisted tale of a beautiful lady and her aspirations for Betty Grable’s vital statistics that doesn’t quite have the surprising punch of the former story. Don't dwell on the past. Sometimes you have to let it go to appreciate what you have in the present.

A second level of observances during these 12 days are commemorations of people from the earliest decades of the spread of the Christian faith after the death and resurrection of Christ and Pentecost, such as St. Stephen (one of the first of the 7 deacons) who became the first martyr in Christianity (December27); and the “seventy” as they are known, these being the 70 apostles that the 12 apostles trained and sent off to travel and preach (January 4). The third level of commemorations of these 12 days are for those who in later centuries lived and honored Christ in marvelous ways and became saints of the church, such as St Melanie of Rome from the 5th century (December 31), St Basil the Great from the 4thcentury era (January 1), and St Sylvester, Bishop of Rome also from the 4th century(Jan 2). If I'm supposed to be scared by misty skeletons in tricornes, I expect atmospheric writing to set me up for it, especially if the PoV character is slow-witted about grasping the situation. If I'm to follow a character dead for centuries who doesn't realize it, that shouldn't be the only interesting element. And so forth, "meh" for most of the collection. That includes a few unpleasant Roald Dahlesque- Ellery Queen Magazineish entries, especially " The House on Savage Lane" whose twist, unworthy of O. Henry, is obvious as soon as it becomes statable. And I could've done with the felinophile sentimentality of "Snowy" unsullied by its own ironic twist at the end.