Chapter 1: The Play Begins
It was Christmastime at the Magic Kingdom. Rabbit was directing a "Christmas Carol" play. It was going to be a musical too. The auditorium was full of many Disney characters from several different pieces of media. Rabbit was wearing a top hat and a bowtie to look nice.
"Roger are you, Scat Cat, and the Alley Cats ready for the music?" asked Rabbit.
"Yes, we are," said Roger.
Roger was at the piano and the cats were holding their jazz instruments. Shun Gun was at his drums made from pots. Hit Cat had his acoustic guitar. Peppo had his accordion. Billy Boss had his cello and Scat Cat had his trumpet.
"Owl and Gopher are you ready? You are the narrators. Scrooge McDuck and Mickey Mouse, places please," said Rabbit.
All actors got into their places and Rabbit took center stage. He gave a polite bow before speaking to his audience.
"Hello everyone. Thanks for coming. Before we begin the play, let me read you what Charles Dickens wrote about his story."
Rabbit cleared his throat and read: "I have endeavored in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humor with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.'"
The audience clapped and Rabbit gave another bow. The curtains drew and the audience saw the counting house of Scrooge and De Vil. Owl and Gopher were wearing top hats and matching black suits. The two sang the opening lines of the book.
De Vil was dead to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of her burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old De Vil was as dead as a doornail. This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful is going to come of this story we are going to relate. Scrooge was her sole executor, her sole administrator, her sole assign, her sole residuary legatee, her sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event.
"Once upon a time," said Gopher.
"It was Christmas Eve," said Owl. "De Vil had been dead seven years and Scrooge never painted out her name. The sign stood years afterward above the door. Inside, Scrooge was at his desk and his clerk Mickey Mouse was at his desk. Both were working. Soon, Scrooge heard someone come in. It was his nephew Donald and his great-nephews Huey, Dewy, and Louie."
"Hi Uncle Scrooge. We came to invite you to Christmas dinner," said Huey Dewy, and Louie.
"We are having a wonderful feast. Come have dinner with us and my wife Daisy," said Donald
"Christmas. Humbug! Every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled in his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart," said Scrooge.
"You don't mean that, do you, Uncle Scrooge?" asked Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
"I do. No, I am not coming to dinner. What's Christmas to you, finding yourselves a year older and not an hour richer."
"Christmas is an honorable and charitable time. And though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe Christmas has done me good and will do me good. I say God bless it," declared Donald.
"Keep Christmas in your way and let me keep it in mine," growled Scrooge.
"Uncle Scrooge, you don't keep it," pleaded Donald.
"Let me leave it alone then!"
"Okay. Let's go boys," said Donald.
"Merry Christmas," said Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
"Good afternoon," said Scrooge.
"Happy New Year, Uncle Scrooge," said Donald.
"Good afternoon!"
"Seeing that they were not going to get anywhere, the ducks wished Mickey Mouse a Merry Christmas," said Gopher.
"How is Piglet?" asked Donald.
"He is still sick, but he is getting stronger," said Mickey. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas and Happy New Year," said the ducks all at the same time.
"Scrooge's family left, and at that moment, two gentlemen, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, came into Scrooge's office. They were collecting for the poor," said Owl.
"Scrooge and De Vil's, I believe. Hoo-Hoo-Hoo. Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. De Vil?" asked Tigger.
"Ms. De Vil has been dead for seven years. She died seven years ago tonight," said Scrooge, emphasizing the title Ms.
"Oh, I am very sorry," said Pooh. "We know you must be thinking of her."
"We have no doubt her liberality is well represented by her surviving partner," said Tigger.
"It was. Both Scrooge and De Vil were both greedy and selfish," said Gopher.
"We are collecting for the poor. Many people need common comforts and necessities, like honey. What shall we put you down for?" asked Pooh.
"Nothing," said Scrooge.
"You wish to be anonymous?" asked Tigger.
"I wish to be left alone!" shouted Scrooge.
"But what about the poor?" asked Pooh.
"Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"
"Plenty," Tigger regretfully said.
"Send the poor and homeless there!"
"Many can't go there. Many would rather die," said Pooh.
"If they would rather die, they should do it. Decrease the surplus population."
"You don't mean that, do you Mr. Scrooge?" asked Tigger.
"With all my heart. Good afternoon!"
"Pooh and Tigger left, and Scrooge and Mickey kept working. It was cold in Scrooge's office and while Scrooge's fire was small, Mickey's was even smaller," said Owl.
"It was one coal," said Gopher.
"Mr. Scrooge. May I have some more coal? It is so cold," said Mickey.
"No. No more coal today," said Scrooge.
Mickey started singing:
It's so cold. I need coal.
Scrooge sang:
Coal is costly. Money, Mr. Mouse. Money.
Mickey:
It's cold. Please Mr. Scrooge.
Scrooge:
No! No! No! Get back to work or you will keep your Christmas by losing your situation. You on 15 bob a week and talking about a Merry Christmas. I will retire to Bedlam.
Mickey finished the song:
Yes, Mr. Scrooge.
Mickey sang the last part sadly and returned to his desk.
"While Scrooge was working, he heard a boy named Christopher Robin singing a Christmas carol. Scrooge jumped from his chair and went to the door," said Owl.
Christopher Robin sang:
God rest ye merry gentleman. May nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our Savior born on Christmas Day.
"Go away!" yelled Scrooge.
Christopher Robin exits the stage.
"At length, the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived. With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out, and put on his hat," said Gopher.
(Mickey wore a worn top hat, blue pants, an old white shirt, yellow shoes, and light coat that was colored red.)
"You'll want all day tomorrow, I suppose?" said Scrooge.
"If quite convenient, sir," said Mickey.
"It's not convenient," said Scrooge, "and it's not fair. If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you'd think yourself ill-used, I'll be bound? And yet, you don't think me ill-used, when I pay a day's wages for no work."
"It is only once a year, Mr. Scrooge."
"A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of December!" said Scrooge, buttoning his great coat to the chin. "But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next morning."
"Thank you, and Merry Christmas, Mr. Scrooge," said Mickey.
"Bah, humbug!" shouted Scrooge.
(Mickey exits the stage and Scrooge puts on his black top hat and grabs his cane. He wears a black suit.)
"Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers and beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker's book, went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner," said Owl.
"It should be noted that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on De Vil, since his last mention of his seven years' dead partner that afternoon. However, Scrooge saw De Vil's face in his knocker," said Gopher.
(Cruella De Vil had ghost make up on and fit her face through a hole in a door onstage.)
"Scrooge searched his rooms, then took his gruel, and settled down for the night. However, he heard chains," said Owl.