Subtitle A Christmas Carol -

: Telling ghost stories by the hearth was a staple of mid-winter celebrations in 19th-century England. Dickens utilized this "melodramatic" popularity to ensure his message reached a wide, middle-class audience.

: By calling it a "carol," Dickens expressed hope that the moral lessons within—charity, empathy, and social responsibility—would be repeated every year until they were "known by heart" by the public. The Tradition: "A Ghost Story of Christmas" subtitle A Christmas Carol

: To maintain this musical metaphor, Dickens divided the book into five "staves" instead of chapters. In music, a stave (or staff) is the set of lines upon which notes are written. : Telling ghost stories by the hearth was