Fred

• "A Merry Christmas uncle! god save you!" cried a cheerful voice.

  This is Fred's first line in the Novella in Stave one, breaking the tone established so far by dickens through the description of scrooge of misery, suffering, solitude and miserliness, and establishing himself as a foil to scrooge and a firm holder of the "christmas" spirit.
• "a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable pleasant time"


  Fred surmises the beneficial aspects of the Christmas spirit here.
• "Therefore uncle, although it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe it has done me good, and will do me good, and I say god bless it!"


  Fred, in contrast to Scrooge, cares less for monetary values of "gold or silver" and instead cares more for the "good" it can do in spirit and character, emphasising the importance and true value of the Christmas spirit and its attributes in contrast to money and material wealth.
• "Come then" returned the nephew gaily "what right have you to be dismal? what reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough."


  As a foil to Scrooge, Dickens uses Fred to undermine Scrooge's attitudes and his logic here, emphasising the flaws in Scrooge's attitudes and ideologies, and setting them up to be broken down and attacked throughout the rest of the novella due to their flaws and the harm to society they cause.