The Ghost of Christmas Present is referring to the approximately 1800 Christmases that have come and gone since the birth of Christ, leading up to the point where Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" in the mid-1800's. Interestingly, it is the period of Victorian England that produced many of the cultural hallmarks of today's American Christmas celebration, including the Christmas tree, of course, which was borrowed from Germany. Ironic that the same time period in England that produced so many of the secular and commercial aspects of our Christmas traditions also produced a writer, Dickens, who was able to articulate through his fictional work what the true meaning of Christmas was and should remain.
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