December eleventh, Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol" (1843). Unitarian Charles Dickens impacted the way Christmas is celebrated today more than any other individual. "A Christmas Carol" has been credited with popularizing everything from turkey dinners and family gift exchanges to holiday bonuses. Less obvious but still immensely influential is book’s story of one man’s redemption, which Dickens pointedly shows being accomplished apart from the work of God or Church. So while it is a ghost story and Scrooge is helped by supernatural beings, the help itself is not supernatural at all.