The tale begins on a 'cold, bleak, biting' Christmas Eve exactly seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner Jacob Marley. Scrooge is established within the first chapter as 'a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!' who has no place in his life for kindness, compassion, charity or benevolence. He hates Christmas, calling it 'humbug,' refuses his nephew Fred's dinner invitation, and rudely turns away two gentlemen who seek a donation fro