Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for December 25, 2017

What a bunch of Scrooges the publishers or whoever didn’t like Dickens’ masterpiece then

“A Visit From Santa” (Twas The Night Before Christmas") defined the popular concept of Santa Claus, and a 1930’s Coca Cola ad gave us the image of Santa we know and love today. MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

In today’s panel, “Ebenezer Scrooge” is portrayed by Alistair Sim, from the 1951 version of “A Christmas Carol”. My favorite of all time! :D Believe it or not, that particular movie version was first released on Halloween, 1951!

Santa got retconned too, eh..

The Coca Cola company created the modern Santa, with its 30 years of ads.

The big money in Dickens’ time was in serializing. It took him awhile to break into that.

Since Dickens didn’t make any money off the story when it was first published, and the story is now “out of copyright”, the comment is not only correct regarding its popularity, but it is also correct that it is just as profitable today for Dickens, or rather his estate, as it was when first published.

I advise everyone to check out the movie “The Man Who Invented Christmas,” to learn the back story of how Dickens came to write “A Christmas Carol.”