Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol 150 years ago. Its publication marked a period of great change in the way Christmas was celebrated, and many of our festive customs today owe their origins to the Victorians of that period.

Christmas Day became the focus for the merry-making, exchanging of presents and consuming of turkeys, plum puddings and rich cakes which had hitherto been spread over twelve days. The Christmas tree from Germany became fashionable. Above all, Christmas became a special time for children. It may well be to Dickens that we owe the images of skaters on frozen ponds and stage coaches stuck in snowdrifts that appeared on the Christmas cards which later became so popular. Our false memories of a white Christmas were his true memories of the hard winters of his youth. In his writings, Dickens both reflected and helped create the concoction of sugar plums, hot chestnuts, seething bowls of punch, dancing feet and happy faces that represents – a Dickensian Christmas.

SCROOGE.
BOB CRATCHIT AND TINY TIM.
MR AND MRS FEZZIWIG.
THE PRIZE TURKEY.
MR SCROOGE'S NEPHEW.
The order of the stamps is correct at the time of going to press but may be subject to alteration.