There are few Christmas stories that have touched as many hearts as Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, A Christmas Carol. By the end of a grueling Christmas Eve journey through time, the audience accompanies Scrooge to learn how to keep the spirit of Christmas in our hearts all year long. Now, there’s a way to keep A Christmas Carol in our hearts all Advent long, with A Christmas Carol: An Audio Advent Calendar.
This creative interpretation of A Christmas Carol, produced by The Merry Beggars, breaks up the classic Christmas tale into 25 installments, to be enjoyed during each of the 25 days leading up to Christmas. Since 2022, the 12-minute episodes of A Christmas Carol: An Audio Advent Calendar have exploded in popularity, reaching #1 on the Apple Fiction podcast chart, in 2024.
Founder of The Merry Beggars and Executive Producer of the project Peter Atkinson explained in a press release that the audio Advent calendar is a throwback to his childhood, when he would read an abridged version of A Christmas Carol in little booklets from his own Advent calendar:
“Inspired by that experience, we made the bold and ambitious decision in 2021 to transform the beloved story into a series of 25 brief audio plays, with each episode falling under 12 minutes in length,” Atkinson said. “Three years later, I’m humbled to see this project become a new Advent tradition for families and to know that The Merry Beggars is playing some small role in helping to build homes full of adventure, joy, and faith.”
Taking a different approach to Dickens’ story, The Merry Beggars present A Christmas Carol from the perspective of the author himself. The style is a nod to Dickens’ first reading of the book, just a week after it was published in 1843. Each episode features professional voice actors and intricate sound design that immerses listeners in the story, from the blowing winds of London, to the rattling chains of Jacob Marley’s ghost.
Since it was first released, in 2022, A Christmas Carol: An Audio Advent Calendar has drawn tens of thousands of listeners, reaching #3 on the charts in its first year. Now it’s not only #1 on Apple Fiction podcasts, but it’s nearly in the top 100 of all Apple podcasts, which is no small feat for a seasonal series.
Its popularity has led the Merry Beggars to offer a free companion packet that features coloring pages for kids, themed for the story.
Reflecting on the success that The Merry Beggars – a Christian entertainment apostolate dedicated to producing uplifting and exceptionally-produced audio content for families – have found in their efforts, Atkinson explained the important place their mission has in entertainment:
“I founded The Merry Beggars with one mission: to heal our culture. It became clear to me while acting in New York City that Hollywood was never going to produce stories that aligned with my Catholic faith. So we created our own.” Atkinson continued, “It is our privilege to serve hundreds of thousands of families by producing beautiful, adventurous, and truly exceptional entertainment.”
A Christmas Carol: An Audio Advent Calendar can be freely downloaded from the production’s official website, or found on any major platform that streams podcasts. Click here to start listening to the daily episodes today.
And today we celebrate...