A Christmas Story for the Old South

 

Much to the annoyance of multiculturists, Christmas is still America’s most celebrated holiday, and in the weeks preceding this festive time, traditional Christmas stories will appear on television screens. We can expect to see numerous versions of Charles Dickens renowned tale, A Christmas Carol, O.Henry’s The Gift of the Magi,and Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts like myself look forward to adaptations of Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.

As much as I enjoy these holiday offerings, my Christmas season would not be complete without a reading of William Gilmore Simms’ novel The Golden Christmas. Simm’s sensitive portrayals of his old South and its people make for enjoyable reading. Unfortunately, because Simms portrays aspects of the antebellum South in a favorable light, we shouldn’t expect to see television or movie depictions of The Golden Christmas any time soon, the entertainment industry’s principles have been radically compromised by political trends in the decades since Gone With the Wind was filling movie theaters. But the absence of filmed adaptations of Simms’ stories is of no concern, because reading the originals always yields more to the imagination than any re-scripted cinematic version can.

In A Christmas Carol , Charles Dickens offers a socially sanctioned version of a Christmas story. – A wealthy entrepreneur feels such remorse over how he attained his comfortable financial status, that he seeks to assuage his guilt through the altruistic act of assisting a needy family. However, William Gilmore Simms was not presenting a morality play with The Golden Christmas. As a Charlestonian who personally witnessed events he writes about, Simms uses his skills and humor as an author to capture the flavor of his beloved city, exactly as it was in the 1850s. – He recorded that special historic moment in time before it was lost forever.

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