The books is way better than the movies. I read it every year and watch as many Christmas Carols as I can.

The Disney Scrooge is actually the story of Scrooge, and the very rich Andrew Carnegie. There were tons of comics showing how he was kindhearted, and willing to give so long as it didn't break the bank for him. They were a big thing in parts of europe and south america, but the USA read Marvel and DC more. So, a lot of stuff is lost to the common American because they didn't read the books.

The book Scrooge lost his family in a fire, his father boozed himself into prison for several years, spent most of his growing up at a boarding school with his only real human connection being visits from his sister. His sister then died Christmas day while giving birth to Fred. Her husband ends up dying and losing his sanity afterwards. Fred is old english for Friend. So Scrooge had a Friend, but didn't believe it.

He did have a fiance, but he grew up fighting for money so hard he lost her in his attempts to make life better. After all this, Ebeneezer became a workaholic and just hated Christmas for all it had done to him.

He was middle class because he had no landed inheritance. The house he lived in was from his business partner. Any land he leased he bought. This meant he was not as 'noble' as the landed upper class, but had wealth. The Feudal system, which the majority of England still followed during this time and even today to an extent, meant that the owner of the landed leased it to be used for farming or factories to make more money. The people living on that land were subjects to the desire of the owner, and needed to be treated with a certain kindness or he could lose status or even power. Middle Class with no real desire for parties or showing off their authority, or even caring about maintaining the status between the landed class was just absurd. The USA has plenty of land, so the entire subject is difficult to understand in and of itself.

Dickens was writing to the lower class who could read, and the upper class who viewed these new middle class people as tyrants. He still gave Scrooge humanity, because he was a good storyteller.

A part most movies miss is the time when Scrooge sees people who are more miserable than him having good cheer for christmas. They could be kind even when they were thieves, or homeless. He had a home, if a bit of difficulty keeping it maintained. Perhaps the most poignant is when Bob Cratchet who now remembers Christmas as the time he lost his son, tries to keep everyone cheery and happy. I think the only time I've seen that done right was in the Muppets version. Kermit cracking gets me every time.

So he was newly middle class, had no nobility about him, and had some very good reasons to hate the holiday. He made sure his books were still balanced, but was more forgiving and kind when he could be. He made sure no one thought of Christmas as a bad time, not because he loved it, but because he knew exactly how it felt.

It really is a classic and the people who say its about getting one on the rich have no clue what they are talking about.