Every A Christmas Carol adaptation, in one list
All 35 of them, spanning 1938 to 2023: editions of the book, films, television, musicals, animation, filmed theatre, a play script, audio dramas, novels and a video game. Grouped by how you would take each one in, oldest to newest inside each group. Every entry has its own guide.
What counts as a version here: anything that uses Dickens’s story, his characters, or the writing of the book itself. Films that simply happen at Christmas are not on the list.
Read
The Penguin Classics edition, ed. Michael Slater2003
The Carol, with Dickens’s other Christmas writings.
The Annotated Christmas Carol, ed. Michael Patrick Hearn2004
The story with notes in the margin, the 1843 pictures, and the version Dickens read aloud on tour.
A Christmas Carol, illustrated by P. J. Lynch2006
Every word of the story, with P. J. Lynch’s paintings.
The Oxford World’s Classics edition, ed. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst2008
All five of Dickens’s Christmas Books in one volume, with notes.
A Christmas Carol: The Graphic Novel, Original Text (Classical Comics, 2008)2008
The story as a full-colour comic, in Dickens’s own words.
The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford2008
How a debt-ridden Dickens wrote the book, paid to publish it, and changed Christmas.
A Christmas Carol: The Original Manuscript Edition2016
Dickens’s handwritten manuscript, crossings-out and all.
Jack Thorne’s stage version (Old Vic, 2017)2017
The play the Old Vic has staged every Christmas since 2017, as a script.
Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva2017
A novel about Dickens with writer’s block, a deadline and a stranger on his night walks.
The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand2017
A girl who refused to change now works as the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Marley by Jon Clinch2019
A novel of Jacob Marley’s life, before he was dead to begin with.
Watch
A Christmas Carol (MGM, 1938)1938
MGM’s version, with Reginald Owen as Scrooge, in barely over an hour.
Scrooge (1951), with Alastair Sim1951
Alastair Sim’s Scrooge, in black and white. In the US it is called A Christmas Carol.
Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol1962
Mr Magoo plays Scrooge in a Broadway musical, with songs by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill.
Scrooge (1970), the musical with Albert Finney1970
Albert Finney sings Scrooge, with Alec Guinness as Marley.
Mickey’s Christmas Carol1983
Scrooge McDuck as Scrooge, Mickey as Bob Cratchit, Goofy as Marley.
A Christmas Carol (1984), with George C. Scott1984
George C. Scott’s Scrooge, filmed in Shrewsbury for television.
Scrooged (1988), with Bill Murray1988
A TV executive staging A Christmas Carol live gets the visits himself.
Blackadder’s Christmas Carol1988
A kind Victorian shopkeeper gets a visit, and learns to be nasty.
The Muppet Christmas Carol1992
Michael Caine plays Scrooge straight, opposite the Muppets, with Gonzo as Charles Dickens.
A Christmas Carol (1999), with Patrick Stewart1999
Patrick Stewart takes his stage Scrooge to film, for TNT.
A Christmas Carol: The Musical (NBC, 2004), with Kelsey Grammer2004
Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens’s stage musical, filmed with Kelsey Grammer as Scrooge.
Disney’s A Christmas Carol (2009), with Jim Carrey2009
Robert Zemeckis’s motion-capture version, with Jim Carrey as Scrooge and all three ghosts.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past2009
A womanising photographer is visited by three ghosts the night before a wedding.
Doctor Who: “A Christmas Carol”2010
The Doctor travels into a miser’s past to change the man he grows up to be.
The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017 film)2017
Dan Stevens as Dickens, in debt and writing the book against the clock.
A Christmas Carol (BBC One / FX, 2019), with Guy Pearce2019
Steven Knight’s version for adults, with Guy Pearce as Scrooge.
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (2020), with Jefferson Mays2020
One actor plays every part, more than fifty of them.
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (Netflix, 2022)2022
An animated musical with Luke Evans as Scrooge and songs by Leslie Bricusse.
Spirited (2022), with Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds2022
A musical told from the ghosts’ side, about a man everyone calls beyond redemption.
Listen
Patrick Stewart’s reading (Simon & Schuster Audio)2006
Patrick Stewart performs the version he took on stage as a one-man show.
Focus on the Family Radio Theatre’s A Christmas Carol2008
A 90-minute full-cast radio drama, with sound effects and an original score.
The Tim Curry recording (Audible, 2009)2009
Tim Curry reads the story, every word, alone.
The Audible full-cast drama, with Derek Jacobi as Dickens2016
A full cast, with Derek Jacobi as the narrator and Miriam Margolyes as Christmas Present.
Play
Also out there, and not the pick
These come up whenever this story does. None of them is on the list above, and here is the reason for each.
Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol (2026), with Johnny Depp
Ti West’s film for Paramount, with Johnny Depp as Scrooge, Ian McKellen as Marley and Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit. It sits down here for one reason: it opens in US cinemas on 13 November 2026, so nobody can watch it yet. Once it can be seen, it moves up the page.
If you want the book itself
Which edition should you read? puts the Penguin, Oxford, Annotated, Manuscript and illustrated editions side by side.