Christmas Past, Present and Possible

A 7:44 film by Chan Abraham – Christmas 2025

In six frantic weeks of 1843, Charles Dickens wrote a story that would change Christmas forever.

He did not write a children’s tale.

He wrote a scream of rage against a superpower that had grown rich on empire while leaving millions of its own people in misery.

Today we are richer than Dickens could have dreamed, yet the shadows on our streets look disturbingly familiar: food banks, child poverty, rough sleeping.

My new short film Christmas Past, Present, and Possible (7 minutes 44 seconds) holds Dickens’ mirror up to modern Britain and asks three questions we can no longer avoid:

• How much has really changed since Scrooge walked London’s slums?

• Who among us truly enjoys a “Merry Christmas” in 2025?

• Is a better Christmas – a better Britain – still possible?

The answer lies in the Victorians who refused despair.Inspired by Wilberforce’s victory over slavery, they built schools, hospitals, decent housing and the foundations of social security.They turned Dickens’ nightmare future into reality.

Now it’s our turn.

Watch the film.

Then ask yourself: What part will I play in writing Britain’s next chapter?

Because, as Marley’s ghost warned,“Mankind was my business.”

It still is.

Watch the film here: https://youtu.be/c4xhWYfyLQo?si=QCrF2lk6dUCIV3oW