stave 1

• on a freezing and foggy christmas eve, ebenezer scrooge works in his counting-house with his clerk, bob cratchit
• scrooge's nephew fred arrives to invite scrooge to spend christmas day with him but scrooge refuses the offer, claiming that christmas is a 'humbug'
• after fred leaves, 2 men arrive to ask for charity donations for the poor but scrooge refuses to donate, saying that the poor should be in prisons or workhouses if they can't support themselves, and the men leave
• scrooge reluctantly gave bob christmas day off work but tells him to come in earlier the following day to make up for it
• that night, when scrooge is alone, he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, jacob marley, who has been dead for seven years
• marley's ghost is bound by heavy chains and explains that he wears the chains as a punishment for a lifetime of greed and selfishness and he is doomed to wander the world without peace
• marley's ghost tells scrooge that he faces the same punishment if he doesn't change his own selfish ways
• marley's ghost tells scrooge that he will be visited by three spirits that night and they are his only change of escaping marley's fate