When people think about the origins of the modern Christmas, one name dominates: Charles Dickens.
Yet decades before A Christmas Carol warmed Victorian hearts, another writer had already begun restoring Christmas to the cultural imagination. That writer was Washington Irving.
Rather than rivals, Irving and Dickens should be seen as complementary figures — one rekindled the idea of Christmas, the other set it alight.
Washington Irving: The Revivalist
Washington Irving’s Old Christmas (1819–1820) arrived at a time when Christmas was quietly fading in Britain. Industrialisation had disrupted rural traditions, and earlier religious opposition had stripped the season of much of its joy.
Irving’s contribution was subtle but powerful.
He presented Christmas as:
A season of hospitality and open houses
A bridge between rich and poor
A celebration rooted in continuity and memory
A time of warmth rather than doctrine
Importantly, Irving looked backwards. His Christmas was nostalgic, idealised, and deliberately old-fashioned, a reminder of what Christmas used to be, or what people wished it had been.
His England was filled with roaring fires, long tables, seasonal food, and communal goodwill. Readers responded not because it was realistic, but because it was comforting.
Charles Dickens: The Reformer
Charles Dickens took Irving’s revived Christmas and gave it urgency.
When A Christmas Carol was published in 1843, Britain was grappling with poverty, child labour, and social inequality. Dickens transformed Christmas into a moral force.
His Christmas:
Demanded compassion and generosity
Challenged greed and indifference
Centred on family, children, and redemption
Insisted that kindness was a social duty
Unlike Irving’s gentle nostalgia, Dickens’ Christmas looked forward. It asked readers not just to enjoy Christmas, but to change because of it.
Style and Tone: Comfort vs Conscience
Washington Irving Charles Dickens
Gentle and reflective Emotional and urgent
Nostalgic Reformist
Observational Moralistic
Irving invites readers into a warm room and asks them to remember.
Dickens opens the door and asks them to do something.
Shared Themes That Endure
Despite their differences, both writers agreed on the essentials:
Christmas should bring people together
Shared meals matter
Generosity defines the season
Social barriers should soften at Christmas
Together, they helped move Christmas away from strict religious observance and towards the family-centred, community-focused celebration we recognise today.
Who Had the Greater Influence?
The honest answer is: we needed both.
Without Irving, Christmas might have continued to fade as an old rural custom.
Without Dickens, Christmas might have remained a pleasant nostalgia rather than a moral force.
Irving reminded people why Christmas mattered.
Dickens showed them how to live it.
Why This Still Matters Today
Modern debates about Christmas — commercialisation, tradition, kindness, excess, echo the concerns both men addressed in the 19th century.
When we:
Long for a “traditional” Christmas
Worry about losing the spirit of the season
Emphasise generosity over spending
We are still standing at the crossroads between Irving’s memory and Dickens’ message.
A Shared Literary Legacy
Christmas as we celebrate it today, warm, generous, family-focused, and morally charged, is a literary creation as much as a religious or cultural one.
Washington Irving gave Christmas its heart.
Charles Dickens gave it its conscience.
Together, they didn’t just describe Christmas — they saved it.
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