From Ebenezer Scrooge being scared by the face of Jacob Marley, and Tiny Tim at home with the Cratchit family, they are classic scenes known to many.
But this extraordinary footage from the first video recording of the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol dates back more than a century to 1901.
The only version of ‘Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost’, held by the British Film Institute, is incomplete but tells enough of the story to make it recognisable.
Ebenezer Scrooge is brought to tears by the image of his headstone near the end of the film
Scrooge looks on helplessly as Tiny Tim enjoy Christmas dinner with his family in the movie
Scrooge is shown images from his childhood by the ghost of Marley in the 1901 short film
The film, which was originally five minutes, had impressive effects for the time, including superimposing Marley’s face over the door knocker.
It did the same with scenes from his youth over a black curtain in Scrooge’s bedroom, helped by director Walter Booth who was a well-known magician.
Another scene showed the reformed Scrooge discovering his tombstone, but this is the last scene from the recovered footage – with the original final scene lost.
The film was made by London-based movie pioneer Robert W. Paul, and was believed until recently to be the earliest adaptation of Dickens’s work on film.
However this record was broken in 2011 when a GA Smith film called The Death of Poor Joe, derived from Bleak House in 1900 or 1901, was found.
Scrooge pulls on his bed clothes on Christmas Eve in the film ‘Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost’
The ghost of Jacob Marley visits Scrooge during the night in version of A Christmas Carol
The face of Jacob Marley appearing on Scrooge’s door was seen as very advanced for the time
Scrooge and Bob Cratchit in Scrooge’s office at the start of ‘Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost’
The film generally sticks to the book, although Scrooge is visited by Jacob Marley instead of the ghosts of Christmas past, present and on Christmas Eve.
In the classic version of the tale the visits cause Scrooge to change his ways, allowing him to enjoy his Christmas Day with family and friends.
And, although the end scene has been lost, documentation shows that the 1901 version of the film stayed true to the book in this sense.
Since its initial airing on the big screen, A Christmas Carol has been remade more than 20 times as both a film and a TV show.
Among the most famous adaptations are The Muppets Christmas Carol in 1992, featuring Michael Caine, and Scrooge in 1970, starring Alec Guinness.