Differences In Dickens's A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol is a short story, not very long at all as I read it today and found some interesting differences between the book by Dickens and the movie incantations. Most of the movies I have seen pretty much have the same screenplay, it seems, with some small differences in most and some have a scene or two the others don't.

The first and most important difference is that all of the movies make it quite plain that Ebenezer's father send him to boarding school away from him is because his wife, Ebenezer's mother died in childbirth. That means that Whenever is the younger of the two, Fan being his older sister for him to be the child born when his mother dies. However, the book states right out that Fan is his younger sister so he could not have caused his mother's passing during his birth. Obviously all of the screenwriters decided this made more sense, especially since the book does not offer any reason for his father to hate him so. Perhaps it was a blunder on Dicken's part, maybe he
I believe this scene is only in one of the movies.

Returning to Christmas day, in the book, the poulterer is sent to Catch it's house in a cab, there is no mention of Mrs. Dember as in the Alistair Sim Version and there is no asking Fred's wife to forgive an old man for his ethic, etc, etc.

So it seems that as in all movie adaptations, screen writers make changes, add scenes, to make it their own. A Christmas Carol is no exception and maybe that is why I enjoy so many of the movie versions, they all bring a similar story to the screen, for about 90-95% of the time, but there is those small differences, scenes added, scenes neglected, names given, situations expanded upon, all making for a fine story no matter which version one is