222. A Christmas Carol

222. A Christmas Carol

From The Allusionist by Helen Zaltzman

December 7, 2025 · 2h 48m

About this episode

Helen Zaltzman reads the novelisation of The Muppet Christmas Carol, exploring its historical and cultural significance.

Today, we read the novelisation of The Muppet Christmas Carol, also known as the 1843 festive lit hit A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Read by me, Helen Zaltzman; music, sound effects and additional vocals are by Martin Austwick of palebirdmusic.com. Content warning: 200-year-old attitudes towards disability. Also warning for GHOSTS. Scroll way down your podfeed or go to theallusionist.org/dickens-christmas to listen to the episode called How The Dickens Stole Christmas, which is about just why this book has such a big influence on festivities even nearly two centuries later. And it features podcasting luminaries Greg Jenner, Katie Mingle and Avery Trufelman. There are also several other festive episodes of the show, including ones about why Santa St Nick Father Christmas Kringle Klaas has so many names, Christmas song lyrics where the letters sent to Santa go, and a portmanteau word that kicked off a lot of War On Christmas. They're all gathered at theallusionist.org/festivelusionist. Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get to list your creative works in this year's Allusioverse Gift Guide, plus you…

People in this episode

Host: Helen Zaltzman

Topics covered

  • Christmas literature
  • Charles Dickens
  • Muppet adaptations
  • festive traditions
  • ghost stories
  • disability representation

Keywords

  • A Christmas Carol
  • Charles Dickens
  • Muppet Christmas Carol
  • festive traditions
  • ghosts
  • disability
  • Christmas songs
  • Allusioverse

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: A Christmas Carol, The Muppet Christmas Carol

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