Christmas is a very busy time for us, Mr. Cratchit. People preparing feasts, giving parties, spending the mortgage money on frivolities. One might say that December is the foreclosure season. Harvest time for the money-lenders.

Scrooge describes celebration entirely through its financial consequences. Feasts and parties become opportunities for creditors, and Christmas is recast as a profitable season of lost homes. The cold calculation exposes what his account excludes: other people’s pleasure matters only as a possible source of income for lenders.

Context reviewed 28 September 2026