The Ghost of Christmas Past has the most varied portrayal in A Christmas Carol. This is because the apparition is very difficult to portray based on Dickens’ original description. A few portrayals may be close to the his story. Below are some of the live-action and animated interpretations over many years.
It was a strange figure — like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a child’s proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like those upper members, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest white, and round its waist was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. – Stave 2: The First of Three Spirits
1901 1935 – Sir Seymour Hicks version 1938 – Reginal Owen version 1949 – Taylor Holmes/Vincent Price version 1951 – Alistair Sim version 1954 – Frederick March version 1956 – The Stingiest Man in Town 1962 – Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol 1964 – Carol for Another Christmas 1969 Australian animated 1970 Musical – Albert Finney version 1971 1977 – BBC Michael Hordern version 1978 – The Stingiest Man in Town, animated 1979 – An American Christmas Carol 1979 – Skinflint 1983 – Mickey’s Christmas Carol 1984 – George C. Scott version 1988 – Scrooged 1992 – The Muppet’s Christmas Carol 1995 – Ebby 1999 – Patrick Stewart version 2000 – A Diva’s Christmas Carol 2004 – A Christmas Carol: The Musical 2009 – Disney’s A Christmas Carol 2019