(Neil Gaiman as “Charles Dickens”. Image property of New York Public Library)

There is a great line in Father of the Bride II, where Steve Martin, the “father” of the title, exclaims, “What are we, the Schmaltz family?”

I always chuckle a little self-deprecatingly at that line because the Anderson family, at least the part that Mary, Tori and I comprise, is unequivocally the Schmaltz family. And one of our favorite Schmaltz holiday activities is to partake of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, most often in the form of A Muppet Christmas Carol. That version plucks our emotional cords with consummate skill.

My first day of Christmas Vacation 2014 found me home alone, wrapping presents and readying the house for company. I had come across a link of Neil Gaiman performing A Christmas Carol the previous evening and decided it would be a lovely way to spend the morning. At a little over an hour, Neil’s channeling of Charles Dickens was a wonderful accompaniment to the wrapping of gifts.

Charles Dickens had taken his novella and adapted it for the purpose of a public reading. Last year Neil Gaiman performed that version of A Christmas Carol at the New York Public Library and he made it come alive like only Neil can.

I had the pleasure of seeing A Christmas Carol performed by the Kansas City Repertory Theatre in late November and it was wonderfully done. I have not read the novella since I was in the third grade and was asked by my teacher, along with my best friend and my cousin, to create our own play version for the annual school Christmas performance, and I was particularly struck by the part of the story, present in Neil’s performance as well, where Marley states, “Business? Mankind was my business!“. He then proceeds to talk about how he ignored the business of meeting the needs of his fellow man.

It is a profound statement that is not as prevalent in modern adaptations of Dickens’ work, although the idea repeats throughout. In this season, especially, we are reminded of the needs of those who don’t have the same advantages we have. Those needs may be financial, but they often are also needs for emotional, mental and spiritual support…things that are at times harder to give than money. But give we must, it is our contract with our fellow human beings, to be there for them in whatever way we can. This is something I was reminded of most strongly today.

Scrooge’s conversion always elicits tears, it is not uncommon for me to become choked up with the emotion of the idea that Scrooge kept Christmas better than anyone after he was given a chance at redemption.

Neil’s performance of A Christmas Carol wrests from Dickens’ work all the humor and emotion that is present, and it is well worth your time commitment. If you want to get straight to his performance, it starts about the 11-minute mark.

Just call me Mr. Schmaltz.