<Tr> <Th> Country </Th> <Td> United States </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Language </Th> <Td> English </Td> </Tr> <P> A Christmas Carol is a 1938 American film adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella of the same name, starring Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who learns the error of his ways on Christmas Eve after visitations by three spirits . </P> <P> On Christmas Eve in 19th - century London, Fred is sliding on ice on a sidewalk . He meets Peter and Tim Cratchit, sons of his uncle Ebenezer's clerk, Bob Cratchit . When Fred reveals who he is, the boys take off in terror . Fred soon arrives at the counting - house of his miserly maternal uncle, Ebenezer Scrooge . After declining an invitation from his nephew to dine with him on Christmas, Scrooge dismisses two gentlemen's collecting money for charity . That night, Scrooge reluctantly allows his employee Bob Cratchit to have Christmas off with pay but orders him back all the earlier the day after . Later on, Bob accidentally knocks off Scrooge's hat with a snowball . Scrooge removes Bob from his position, withholding a week's pay to compensate for his ruined hat as well as demanding a shilling to make up the difference . Bob spends the last of his wages on food for his family's Christmas dinner . In his house, Scrooge is confronted by the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns Scrooge to repent his wicked ways or he will be condemned in the afterlife as Marley was . He tells Scrooge he will be haunted by three time - traveling spirits . </P>

When was the first movie a christmas carol made