God Damn Us Every One: A Living Dead Dolls Christmas Carol

Apologies for the shocking title. It's extreme, but we know that's what LDD is too, and it felt like a fitting edgy pun on the famous quote. All in jest. It makes me laugh, at least.

When researching LDD Minis for my Lottie extravaganza, I was surprised to discover a set that was never documented on the LDD website--Minis based on the Four Ghosts from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol!

A Christmas Carol is a hugely influential work of literature, and it's also really good and deserves to be read. Dickens is a charming writer, and the book revitalized the cultural Christmas spirit and celebration in England after it was written, helping to codify some of the classic English festive traditions, including solidifying the phrase "Merry Christmas" as widespread vernacular! It also condemns economic inequality and wealthy apathy with messaging that has never ceased to be relevant, and its narration is very entertaining from the get-go. It also uses its own internal supernatural forces instead of established Christian ideas, meaning it comes across as a moral story without being a purely religious one, and thus feels pretty accessible. Even if you haven't read the Dickens book itself (you absolutely should), you've likely seen one of the hundreds of adaptations of the story in TV specials, films, parodies, or picture books. As a public-domain work tied to a juggernaut holiday in the culturally-overpowering Western sphere, it's one of the most widely-sourced stories as inspiration. 

This is the first of three public-domain fantasy books adapted by Living Dead Dolls, before Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and this LDD fantasy adaptation is the only one not to cast previous LDD characters in the roles of the book characters. These dolls also remain the only widely-released LDD Minis, and the only LDD Minis which aren't just color swaps of another design, to have no counterpart standard dolls. Bedtime Sadie had been exclusively a Mini for a short time, but then she joined the cast of LDD Series 7 as Sloth, the Deadly Sin. These guys are just Minis only. It's a shame, because full-size dolls of these could have been incredible.
But speaking of Bedtime Sadie, I had selected her Minis debut doll to play the Scrooge to the Four Ghosts, since Ebenezer Scrooge was not given a LDD adaptation.

I ordered this set way back in April, the month after finding the listing on eBay. I was impressed with Minis Lottie and wanted these for sure to spotlight in December. I was also intrigued because the photo showed the dolls with gold ribbon loops as if to hang them as Christmas ornaments. That was a brilliant feature for Mezco to have included, and made them even more valuable to me. 

This particular copy of the set came from the UK and there were no other listings for these Minis at the time, so I decided to prioritize them in favor of dolls I'd like to have sooner but felt more stable on the aftermarket--dolls I felt more confident "weren't going anywhere". I just didn't want to put it off and find this listing sold with zero way to get them when it was time to prep for December blog content. The set was released exclusive through Mezco Direct in the US, and through the Forbidden Planet retailer in the UK. 

And boy howdy siree am I glad I got these dolls in April. While the price was ridiculous then, it's gotten even moreso now, and I'd have taken a bigger hit and possibly struggled to complete my holiday roster had I waited on these. Having them before December also gave me a couple of freebies with which to start (and salvage!) the DEADvent calendar rollout before the other items arrived. My set came pre-unboxed but complete.

I had taken these dolls out to look over briefly in April, and Christmas Past and Present briefly cameo'd out of the package in the role of endangered children during my Angus Litilrott photoshoot in June, but the dolls have all been diligently waiting for most of the rest of the time and I did my review photos and workup in November while they were the only Christmas items I had secured. I didn't want to make too much work for myself during the DEADvent season itself, and especially wanted to feel productive after my big-ticket purchases essentially devoured my November budget and left me with less prep I could accomplish so early.

The box is rectangular and decorated like a gloomy silver wrapped gift, with the "tear in the paper" forming the clear plastic window. The "wrapping paper" design has the LDD sulfur symbol as a pattern.

The set is branded as "Xmas Carol Minis", which I don't love. Even as someone who celebrates Christmas secularly, I've never enjoyed the "Xmas/X-Mas" abbreviation for purely aesthetic reasons, and it feels off to misquote the name of the source material, which, despite being public domain, is absolutely A Christmas Carol. The age rating is the usual 15 and up. The box copyright very helpfully dates these dolls to 2009. To put that in context, the series I've collected dolls from in the same year was the second trick-or-treat group of Series 18. I can't believe I finally realized I should check my coffins to date these releases. Oddly, though, the Series 17 coffin I have was copyrighted at 2005...so either the coffin base the doll tray was put into was not original on my opened copy of Bloody Mary, the copyright was not updated correctly, or there was somehow a four-year gap between two series, which just sounds impossible. All the more reason to get a second Mary for complete doll packaging--I might be able to confirm the real copyright date of S17 if the coffin I got was not all original. Mary deserves a tidy-tissue coffin with chipboard plus the novelty mirrored error lid I bought her for. She's such a great scary doll.

On the back of the Minis packaging, the box is not busy, but has a notice that these are not toys (really debatable) and offers a contradictory, more generous age rating of 14 and up. I don't know why either are quite so strict, because if we're going case by case, these particularly Minis are fairly tame and accessible and none are tonally worse than an average child's Halloween environment. Alternatively, they are small and comparatively delicate, but not so much that a teen age is required.  Still, I can appreciate the consistency of the brand age rating being relatively upheld. Case-by-case ratings would get a little chaotic.

I've broken the classic "save 'til Christmas" warning on the back because these work much better as festive tone-setters to prepare for the holiday. One generally doesn't want to receive holiday decor on the day of, past the point where it could have been useful. ("Here's your present! Now put it away until next year.") I applied the same rationale with Nohell.

Part of me has always admired and respected that the back of LDD packaging is minimal on the advertising, commercial feel. There's never images on the back of other products and the text is pretty direct at just linking you back to the brand website if it's there. It aids the collector/artist feel of the brand and suits the more mature audience.

Inside the Xmas Carol box, the four dolls are all wired in and lined up in a row, and rightly arranged in order of appearance in the story. This copy had the dolls all undone, so they loosely looped into their original foot wires in a less-than-upright fashion. They would have initially all been secured by two twist ties--midsection (or maybe neck?) and ankles. I would have loved a tray with four compartments to keep them more snug and tidy without wires. I might try to contrive a neater storage in their box. 

The story begins:

Marley was, of course, dead to begin with. So, for that matter, was Sadie. It just hadn't stopped her like it had stopped her colleague.

The winter was cold, but Sadie felt warm. While she had carved the usual scar into her forehead for the sake of old times, she was finding the malice and darkness to be a humbug. These days, she was more buoyed by the example of Marley. 

Old Marley! Once the bitterest, most bloodthirsty and brutal woman who ever lived and died, Sadie had learned all her best devilry from her. But Marley had had an infectious change of  heart, full of joy and sugar-plums and good will toward dolls. After she had passed even from the realm of the living dead, Sadie had carried on her legacy. 

As she walked home, she couldn't help but feel like Marley was looking up upon her, as if the door-knocker had suddenly changed shape.

"Bah!" cried Sadie. "Humbug!" A knocker could no more shapeshift than she could. She was sure she had eaten too many rich puddings and gingerbread treats. Spiced cider was going to her head.

Sadie trudged up to her attic, which she was beginning to find too dismal and evil for her taste. After Christmas, perhaps, would it be made more comfortable. On the Eve this year, however, there was no time.

Marley's Ghost 

Sadie's stomach was unsettled further that night, and the face of Marley haunted her dreams. Suddenly, she woke with a start and saw the very woman beside her--now a horrid spirit in chains.

The first ghost to visit Ebenezer Scrooge is the ghost of his deceased former business partner, Jacob Marley. Dickens opens the book with the indelible sentence "Marley was dead to begin with" to set the stage early. When Marley's ghost visits, his jaw is tied shut by an undertaker's kerchief (and he later lets it go to drop his jaw slack and terrify Scrooge) and he is chained to various lockboxes reflecting his miserly and avaricious gains that have damned him in the afterlife. You can take it with you...and it won't do you any good! Marley essentially serves as the cautionary tale and dire example of what Scrooge could very soon be facing if he does not change his ways--worse, he even says Scrooge's own chains of sin have been forging onward in the seven years since Marley's death, meaning Scrooge will be damned to a greater torment in the afterlife than Marley's! Marley says he has come in a bid for Scrooge's salvation and warns Scrooge that three spirits will visit him soon as a necessary trial toward that end.

While I ultimately called this doll female, I wasn't always sure what the gender of LDD's rendition of Marley was meant to be. The painted lips suggest this Marley was flipped to a female spirit like the Ghost of Christmas Present was, but I don't see the Minis design as impossible for a male LDD either, and the stroked eyebrow designs are typically, though not exclusively, otherwise seen on LDD dudes. It's not common for there to be two boy dolls in a set of LDDs, especially not at this point in the brand, or for a set to have boys not be the minority (I'm counting Christmas Yet to Come as a boy doll), so this Marley was relatively likely to be female. The only LDD series with a male majority was Series 27, with three of five dolls being male, and that was at least a couple years out from this release.

The prototype of Marley had lighter lips, perhaps suggesting a more definite male portrayal before something changed, but at least, to my open mind, the final result was still ambiguous at the start. Then again, the eyebrows became less feminine in the final doll. I proceeded with neutral pronouns in the first draft of my writeup, but ultimately landed on the character being a woman. More on that a bit later.

Beyond the apparent gender switch, I would say that out of this set, LDD Mini Marley is probably the most accurate to the book as well as the classic pop-culture image of the character. Marley's depiction in adaptations is usually pretty unchanged from Dickens' text, save for A Muppet Christmas Carol where he is duplicated into two dead Marley brothers so we can have the delightful, perfect casting of Muppets Statler and Waldorf as a duo in the role. (Naturally, the second Marley is named Robert, who could thus be called Bob Marley!) I think the LDD Marley is the most immediately recognizable as a Christmas Carol icon when taken out of context.

Over her head, LDD Marley has the kerchief tying her jaw. This is a piece of folded stitched fabric in a strip which is glued under the chin and at the top of the head to keep it attached. The tails are glued together on top, too, though they're bent in a way that kind of looks like a bow. It's a very strange place to have glued it, but it falls in loops that seem intentional.

Because enough of Marley's hair had gotten pulled through the kerchief in front of her face, I pulled the piece off and broke the glue so the hair could be re-ordered. This means the piece doesn't stay very securely on her face anymore because the Minis have very little chin sticking out in front of their necks. The problem making the hair unfixable before was that the tie was also a little glued to the top. I also decided to break the bow glue because it just didn't feel like it was actually tied. Here's the thing fully off.

I later tied and trimmed the tails to look more proper.

The fit wasn't satisfying me, and I ultimately discarded the original wrap because it was too stiffened by factory glue to tie properly. I swapped it in for a tied loop of white elastic, glued under the chin and to the cheeks and tied in a simple knot on top. With the piece secured to the chin and jaw, the piece won't fall off or get lost when working with the doll, but it can still be pulled forward off the face to tidy the hair and keep it swept back behind the band in order. 

Marley's hair is short and could be considered a bob cut, but doesn't look jarringly modern. The hair is white with black stripes.

The skin and hair combo looks like G3 Frankie Stein's! 

A restyled Frankie with a haircut that increases the likeness between the two.

All of the hair is swept out of Marley's face, it has a leftward part, and she has no bangs. While the Xmas Carol Minis are not earlier LDD characters cast into the literary roles the way the later Alice and Oz sets were, you could easily convince me that Series 7 character Greed (true name: Miss McGreedy) was actually playing Marley here because they have such similar hair and similar sins and visuals.

This doll is on my list for another day. She's such a sharp design for her concept.

Greed herself seems very intentionally Marleyish in the way her Deadly Sin is portayed by her being chained to boxes of money and jewels, too. If Mezco had done the Christmas Carol characters with LDD-original "actors", Greed would be the only choice for Marley's Ghost. The Xmas Carol Minis released a good time after Series 7, so maybe LDD were intentionally invoking a similarity between the two characters despite the lack of the "LDD actor" concept of later "adaptation" series. To get completely speculative, the designers might have even seen how similar their Greed and Marley were and subsequently ran with it for their future literature ensembles by implementing the "casting" gimmick. 

Marley's face paint has wicked bushy eyebrows made of several separate strokes, and lashless, irisless yellow eyes with black pupils and dark rings around the eye. The lips are painted like dark lipstick and purple shading goes around the eyes, but also goes far enough down to look like blush to me. Some grey wrinkle lines around the mouth to the end of her nose serve to age her a bit.

I'm a little surprised Marley doesn't have an open-mouthed LDD Mini head to reflect the jaw dropping loose to scare Scrooge. Perhaps they decided the jaw tie was too iconic and that including it tied around Marley's face would thus make a loose slack jaw completely illogical. It might have been "one or the other" for logical reasons, and choosing the jaw tie won out over the gaping mouth since the tie is so famous. LDD Minis Eleanor could be a good gaping-jawed Marley if re-dressed and given a haircut...but good damn luck putting someone else in this costume. You'll see.

While it took me a while to conclude, I eventually decided this doll is probably female because my arguments for LDD Marley being male are very flimsy. None of the features are direct male stylistic signifiers and the features have been seen on female dolls before. To be sure, it's such a subtle character flip that LDD might not have done it at all. I completely respect that, though. If Marley here is a woman, she changes so little, and...well...hell yeah. Why should she be blatantly different just because she's flipped? With all context and evidence, I do believe creative intent was that Marley is female here. The lipstick look has never appeared for typical LDD dudes (Maitre des Morts and Carotte Morts are from a subversive theater scene), and wouldn't have appeared on an older male miser. Also, at the time this set would have released, LDD nearly always had only the one boy/non-femme entity to a collection, which is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come here. S15 with Judas and Death would have been the only exception at this time. While a reaper is in this set as well, unlike S15, it feels like the only boy in the group here rather than one of two. 

I wonder what her first name would be, then? "Jacob" doesn't have a popular femme counterpart, though "Jacoba/Jacobia" exists. Other sources suggest forms of "Jacqueline" based on "Jacques" being the French equivalent to "Jacob". Ms. McGreedy's first name is also unknown, so we can't do association and transplant hers onto Marley, either.

Marley's outfit features a grey fleece overcoat with a defined collar and white lace at the neck and sleeves, suggesting a frilly Victorian shirt underneath. The front of her coat has surprisingly intricate detailing with the rows of double-breasted decorative buttons.

The coat opens partially down the back with velcro, but this is functionally rendered moot by the chain harness Marley is wearing. The chains are snug around her shoulders and waist and are held together by a circular links on the lower front corners.

There doesn't appear to be a way to get these chains off without forcing that link apart or taking off Marley's head--and popping out LDD Minis heads is quite difficult due to their stiff vinyl and very wide neck-peg cylinders. And certainly, getting the chains back on with the doll's head attached would be an exercise in misery.

Unlike book Marley or LDD Greed, there are no boxes of riches chained to this doll, which feels like a slight missed opportunity, but also an understandable absence to keep these dolls from being too intricate and hard to produce, and to keep the design level more even among the four. I bet I could add my own given some silver jewelry links and a mini box with a handle that looked proper, but didn't feel the need to at the moment.

Under the coat, Marley has grey cotton long pants which are cut very high-waisted.

While I was unable to take LDD Minis Lottie's shoes completely off for some reason, these Minis' shoes came off pretty easily. Marley is wearing the Minis version of the Mary Janes, further suggesting this is a woman. Boy LDDs don't wear these, and the Minis line made versions of the boots and masculine dress shoes for the guys.

Success in removing these shoes inspired me to keep trying with Minis Lottie, and I was finally able to get her shoes off--they were just pretty snug on her and slightly stuck, but given that I had worried they were glued or had melted to her soles, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to pull them off (and it was a real pull) in good intact condition. The later Minis' shoes are a firmer plastic that slides off easily without stretching or clinging to the feet.

The Xmas Carol Minis' gold ornament loops are sewn to the back of the dolls' outfits, and are flat stiff scratchy metallic ribbons that aren't too nice to the touch, but are easy to open for sliding around a branch or peg for hanging.

While this is less invasive than a head attachment and allows them to play as dolls as long as the ribbon is kinda tucked behind them, the Minis cannot hang straight up-and-down with this attachment and tilt forward more like they're in a harness. They're not perpendicular to the ground, but this is more of a tilt than I can accept and it doesn't look good for tree display prospects.

Bad dangle angle.

I also don't enjoy the ribbons being sewn on the clothes. I have always been philosophically and deeply opposed to putting a perfectly good miniature toy on a built-in keychain or hanger that prevents it from looking like a full mini toy. As a child, I always cut off the keychains and hang loops of mini plush bag charms, and part of why I liked the main Minis so much is that their bag charm function was done with optional working nooses. Once I saw these lackluster ornament loops in person, I was committed to removing them and replacing them with a similar noose system to the other Minis--just done with festive golden cord tied into ornament loops at the end to honor the original intent, which was almost right for me.

I like Marley's Ghost. Her head tie is confusingly made and her outfit is basically held on by the chains, but the design is classic, iconic, and recognizable regardless of the evident gender shift. Her adaptation into a female character was done with a very light touch, which is honestly how more gender-shift adaptations ought to be done.

To take the story pictures with her, she's a Pepper's Ghost reflection on glass illuminated by blue.

She's just below frame.

This suits Victorian theater very well, and just sells the story better.

Back to the story.

"Repent!" cried old Marley. "See how I suffer! Behold how Satan has exacted his wrath upon me!"

"But Marley!" said Sadie, confused. She was not the least bit afraid of a ghost. "You had turned your life into such joy and generosity! How can Satan have any power over you?"

"You forget so easily, girl! I had sold my very soul to him. I was fool enough to believe a life of good may release me, or at the least be permitted under my contract. But the Prince of Darkness is very angry at those who reject his ways after making the Ultimate commitment. Sadie...have you not made the very same?"

Sadie gulped. She knew she had. The ghost of Marley continued.

"In all these years, I've departed, you have followed my damnable ways. The cheer and love you have spread greatly outnumbers that which doomed myself! To imagine the time yet you may spend on this..." Marley shivered, and her chains rattled. She grew firm.

"These chains were forged, each and every link, from our Master's wrath at my disloyalty. How much greater must yours already be?"

Sadie shook in her nightclothes.

"I am not afraid, Marley. I do not need you here", she lied. 

"I caution you not to make merry on Christmas, child. But I see I am not enough." The spirit of the great sinner rose in her chains.

"Beware! Three spirits will make visitations upon you. Until they do, mark this:

"You and I are damned just the same!"

Ghost of Christmas Past

It wasn't long at all until Sadie was blinded by the appearance of a new glowing figure. Shifting, layering, and flickering over itself, at times appearing to form surplus body parts,  at times like the triplicate image in a spinning prism, yet at the core like a young girl in candlelight, the ghost descended.

"Can't you stop that?" asked Sadie. "You're hurting my eyes, and it's very dark."

"Very well," the spirit giggled. "You may perceive me more corporeally, if you like."

"I think that would be easier on all of us." said Sadie.

"It always is, when it comes to me." said the Ghost.

Indeed.

The first of the three greater spirits haunting Scrooge is the Ghost of Christmas Past, who shows Scrooge his prior days documenting his former happiness and the incidents which embittered his heart and turned him so sour and lonely during such a time of joy and togetherness. Sort of a supernatural "This is Your Life" scenario. 

The Ghost of Christmas Past is the hardest to adapt visually, because Dickens described the spirit as a highly abstract fluid glowing humanoid figure whose shape, age, and apparent gender were constantly in flux. It was a child and an old man, had a light emitting from the top of its head, sometimes had extra arms, and was likened to both a flickering candle flame and the ethereal abstraction of a Biblical angel, and so different depictions have struggled to pin it down due to limitations in live-action or special effects in adequately portraying Dickens' text. Unfortunately, the difficulty of adapting Christmas Past seems to intimidate story adaptors rather than exciting them, and so the most common interpretations frame the ghost as feminine and more humanoid, often more like a Christmas angel and sometimes even approaching a fairy or fairy godmother in tone. It's possible Past is often feminized because Present is definitively masculine and Yet to Come is always featureless (cue "ah yes, the three genders" meme). A Muppet Christmas Carol does a good job of making Past eerie and vague, though it stays childlike without the element of age fluctuation, while the 2009 mo-cap animated film leans into the candle motif with its face being a floating flame on a candlestick body. Not all is lost in adaptations. I just want more of the weirdness from the book to be embraced.

Here, have my interpretation for fun. I drew this digitally a few years ago, but I think it holds up. I never completed a full set of Christmas Carol designs, but this was the most important to me, just to take on the challenge. I included the golden cap it carries like a candle-snuffer for the light on its head, and the outlines overlap and break logic and the colors are translucent deliberately to make it look incorporeal.

LDD's take has made this Ghost an eerie little girl to put a horror lens on it. I'm disappointed that there isn't much distinctively Dickens about the design. The iconography of light and candles are written in the book, but I'm not sure I'm getting it here. I think such a big difference would have been made if the hair was pale yellow-blonde instead of black. LDD doesn't use blonde hair as much as it should, and I don't mean that in a beauty-standard way at all. I just feel like I can name several characters who would click much better for me as visual designs and have more distinct character if they were blonde rather than the expected horror-black hair color. I really had to do the lifting in digital photo art to make this doll as abstract as the book character calls for.

Christmas Past's hair is black and center-parted and waist-length and still has a kink in it from however many years ago she was released from the wire ties of the box. It's kind of volumizing in a fun way, but I don't think it was meant to fall so wide. The prototype doll looked much thinner-haired, almost like she was rooted in only a circle at the top like Eleanor or The Lost, giving her much more of a creepy infantile look with more forehead. I kind of like that more than the fuller hair the produced doll demonstrates.

Her skin is stark white and her eyes and irises are outlined by an irritated red tone that also serves as airbrushing to shade her eye sockets.

Her irises are green with pale centers. While the pupils on this copy look even, the pale centers of the irises are not. Her lips are a darker red and she has no other face details. This is a case where the smiling design of the typical LDD Mini face sculpt may let the doll down, since I think the design overall seems better suited to a piercing neutral haunting expression with more potential for melancholy or judgment. This is a case where I think a full-size LDD rendition would have a significant tonal change due to the more neutral head sculpt, and I'd probably like that hypothetical rendition a good deal more than the Mini.

Like this, perhaps?

Maybe I'm wrong. This isn't doing tons for me either, and the wicked-toddler energy of the Minis face style might actually be activating this paint design more than I gave it credit for. I can't be sure whether this paint design would be that much better on a full-size standard LDD head. On an actual LDD rather than a subpar digital drawing approximation, it might look better.

Both Past and Marley have noticeable spot yellowing in their body coloring, which is not particularly surprising for old dolls, but is still disappointing. I'm still impressed that so few full-size LDDs of pale hue have shown the issue, though.

The dress is pale with the slightest tint of blue and has a tight high collar and a slim cut. The sleeves are tulle cut like long flowy sleeves, but the flow starts more at the shoulder, giving the impression that she has short sleeves which are extended and flowy, and that looks awkward. If the drape started at her wrists, I'd get it. Or else if the drape was rotated so the open side was facing inward rather than out.

Like so.

Around the waist, there's a ribbon tie in the front and two decorative string accents on the hips.

The dress velcros all the way down the back.

The hem of the dress has a jagged cut that feels more "Tinker Bell" than truly tattered...though a fairlyike vibe is appropriate. I was surprised she got shoes, with a white rendition that reads more like bedtime slippers on her. I think she could have made sense barefoot for more of that waifish horror-child look, and it would suit Scrooge being confronted with the poverty system he participates in. Then again, the showcase of poverty in the source material is performed by Christmas Present showing Scrooge the Cratchit family celebration and then unveiling the starving childlike avatars of Ignorance and Want in its robe--the latter are almost never featured in adaptations.

Christmas Past is a really sweet and eerie little doll, and the design does work for an ethereal spooky angel girl, but this does feel the least iconographic and standout of the dolls in this set, and the design feels the clumsiest and most harmed by the Minis sculpt and scale. Even so, I can't shake the feeling that any change to the design could be an improvement. A different haircut. A different hair color. A new eye design, all white, or eyes with black sclerae. Something. On a full-size doll, it's possible this would be my ideal rendition of this specific design:

Hmm...she looks a little like Simone from Series 13.

...but this isn't my ideal rendition for this character overall.

The spirit announced herself to be the Ghost of Christmas Past and took Sadie's hand, whisking her away to a strange but familiar vision. Like that, Sadie was observing herself on a Christmas of before, at massacre with a pile of dolls under a table.

"See how you destroyed all joy and innocence!"

"I murdered them all...I had loved it..."

"Indeed. But now, what are you? A pillar of the community?"

Sadie frowned. "I used to eliminate communities..."

The Ghost then took her to another vision: Marley telling Sadie of her change of heart.

Sadie shrunk inward to see the discussion. "Poor old Marley. She doesn't understand what she's bringing upon herself."

"Nor you, I fear."

Sadie began to cry. "Spirit, don't show me this. It's too painful."

"And?"

"And...I like it. I like pain! I miss torture and torturing!"

The Ghost nodded. "I must leave you now. Your next visitor approaches."

And suddenly, Sadie was back in her attic.

Ghost of Christmas Present

A great noise drew Sadie downstairs. A robed figure with red hair was standing atop a pile of sweets and treats for the holiday--cookies, oranges, and candy canes stuffing the living room to the ceiling. These were no surprise to her--she had procured them herself for the celebration. The strange visitor looked confused at the scene.

"Come on in and explain yourself, girl!" called the figure, tutting at the joyous spread. Sadie entered. She thought this presence looked rather vibrant.

"What is the meaning of all of these goods?" asked the visitor.

"I had been planning to throw a great party with them", muttered Sadie. Despite feeling strange about having them now, the foods still tempted her.

"Shame on you", said the visitor. And she whisked them away.

Sadie approached. 

 

"Why, you're not a ghost! You're flesh and blood. You're alive!"
"In some way, I am, though that is a very temporary misfortune. Understand that I am no normal living person. I am the Ghost of Christmas Present.  I am a spirit even as I have life, for I live in the present."

"Not if I have anything to say about it", grumbled Sadie. 

The Ghost seemed cheered at this.

Scrooge's second visitor shows him around the current Christmas Eve to show the celebration and togetherness, with special emphasis on the family of his employee Bob Cratchit, who are deeply poor and suffering and have a beloved disabled son, Tiny Tim, who is set to die before next Christmas if things continue they way they are. The family nonetheless cherish their time together and celebrate in a way that does perfect honor to the holiday spirit. Scrooge also witnesses his nephew Fred's celebration after he was rude to him, and sees himself mocked in Fred's party games, with these visions showing he has neglected to help a loving family suffering without any reason and become a joyful figure only in the mocking by others.

Christmas Present is the only one of the three ghosts after Marley with a consistent clear gender presentation, and here it's immediately obvious that LDD goes directly contrary to that. Christmas Present's famous concept is like a mix of Dionysus and Santa Claus (or more accurately, the older Father Christmas), being a jovial figure with a holly crown and a green robe open over its chest. While the Ghost is afforded otherworldly "it" pronouns frequently, it also gets masculine "he/him" sometimes, making him the most gendered of the trio. It's not enough to call the Ghost a man or male by modern gender conceptual frameworks, but he would accept the male perception and description.

Dickens also described the spirit's hair as dark brown, but for color contrast, some adaptations make it red to the point that this is often an assumed feature of the Ghost. The LDD take translates the classic character iconography of red hair, holly, and a green robe, making her recognizable through the change. Between her and Marley, Present is far more "[character] made femme" in terms of gender adaptation. Then again, the book character is iconically bearded and hairy, so the female flip would always have more contrast. You could feasibly have a female Christmas Present with shorter hair and an open robe, but I don't think the world is ready for that and people would question the intentions of such an adaptation.

There's also an irony in the way this LDD character only exists as a Mini, because the Ghost in the book starts as a giant before shrinking to human size. LDD has done an oversized "giant" doll, paired with a Mini and a standard all in the same design, with its rendition of Sadie as Carroll's Alice. She had the main mass-release doll and then a separate release in a convention-exclusive two-pack including a "DRINK ME" bottle and two different scale alternatives through a Mini copy and a unique 13-inch glass-eyed upscale of the mass release. I covet a set of all three Alice Sadies, but even the main release gets high prices. The Alice series doesn't concern me for packaging, so I'll look out for any potential deals of the collection's dolls loose. 

It's thematically proper, and keeps to the book, that LDD Christmas Present is the only ghost who looks like Christmas. Past and future can be more abstract.

Her costume is a hooded robe of soft green velvet with black trim on the hood, front, hem, and cuffs--it's explicitly white trim in the book, but this is a horror doll.  The hood fits quite well over her head and gives her a bit of a nature-witch look. The piece opens in front with velcro and she has no clothing underneath.

The LDD is one of the adaptations of the character with red hair, with hers being a dark auburn tone. Two locks of hair hang out from the front of her hood, but these are sections pulled from the back and are not the very front of her hair. Most of the hair is arranged flat behind her back inside the robe.

The hair feels fairly dry and puffy at the start and will need a wash and comb.

Fitting Christmas Present being vivacious and reflecting the present, the LDD Mini has lively pale flesh-colored skin, making her look the least dead. It's ironic, though, because the Ghost of Christmas Present is the only one who dies in the story, as he ages quickly and ultimately vanishes away during his meeting with Scrooge--of course, the present Christmas can only exist for one Christmas before being replaced by another present the next year.

The paint on this doll is very impressive and dramatic for the scale, with little holly-branch designs coming out of the eye makeup. 

For one-inch doll heads, the Minis faces are really nicely done.

Her eyes are white sclerae with red and green concentric iris rings that pop really well against the whites. Her pupils are black and her lips are bright red. Her eyebrows match her hair and are thin and have a harsh LDD arc. The only black paint on the face is the pupils. A larger doll in this design might have more detailed paint, but it looks successfully stylized and impressive as it is.

The Ghost of Christmas Present's skintone is perfectly matched across her body parts.

Her shoes are black. I'm sorry to not be able to show you any new LDD Minis shoe molds in this collection, because these are Mary Janes again. I think all three of the greater Christmas spirits would make sense as barefoot dolls, personally, but the first two have shoes.

After washing her hair, I sectioned out front locks and tied the back together just to keep the top of the hair tidy when dressing her, but I also cut a good amount of her hair out to thin the amount tied back so her coat wouldn't be puffed up in the back. The rear hair isn't as matted and flat as it was, so reducing the volume was helpful to me.

Christmas Present is an obvious change in character portrayal, but I think she does a good job of retaining the traditional character iconography as a female adaptation and she's got a fun mystical winter cheer to her with a sinister edge. And, if you'll permit me to be ridiculous because it's fun...her makeup is also a full served Christmas pudding on a platter and like the Grinch at the fireplace, she leaves not a crumb. 

Her hair is fiddly with her costume, but it's manageable. 

The Ghost of Christmas Present was whisking Sadie away, showing her scenes of great beauty and merriment, and joyous toys waiting to delight children.

"All those toys, not being destroyed and slaughtered..." mused Sadie wistfully.

"That can change", said the Ghost.

In her desperation to prove herself, Sadie stabbed the Ghost to death right there and then. She smiled as she collapsed, then faded into nothing. Sadie was left at another Christmas tree to ponder its fate.

Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

At length, a robed specter appeared. It was silent, its head shrouded in a darkened hood that hid its face.

"You're Death, right?" asked Sadie. "We've met."

The figure immediately slouched in apparent defeat and turned away from Sadie to pout.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" cried Sadie. "I didn't mean to spoil your intrigue by getting it right away."

The Spirit shrugged.

"It's just...I don't see the reason for you to be all Death if...I'm already dead?"

The Spirit appeared to chuckle and raised its hands in triumph. It seemed to have some other kind of vision to show her after all.

Here's the fourth ghost!

Scrooge's last visitor is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (often simplified in pop culture as "Ghost of Christmas Future"), and the entity is unsubtly grim: a faceless cloaked figure who wordlessly points Scrooge to scenes of tragedy and ignominy that will come to pass should his life continue as it has. Every request Scrooge makes for a vision of something nice is cruelly, literally answered by the Ghost with a devastating outcome that fits the letter of his words. The overwhelming motif of Yet To Come's visit is death--Tiny Tim will pass, and Scrooge will die unloved, unmourned, and robbed by the poor of London without a care, only delighting people who are glad he is dead and off their backs for debt and those who can take from his possessions. As such, the Ghost is a fairly classical depiction of Death itself, even if not in name. It's always been just about the Halloweeniest Christmas icon in the holiday canon if you don't count Jack Skellington--and Dickens' story came first by many decades. As such, any object depicting this Ghost is delightfully out of place in the Christmas decor it definitionally belongs in! I've always respected Krampus and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come as the original Christmas monsters.

Death had multiple full-size LDD renditions, with the Grim Reaper's first appearance being in Series 15. He was the center of the séance-themed collection, and his doll included the planchette in the human-size spirit board you assembled from the group.

S15 Death. Contender for next October, for sure!

The released doll had a gripping hand and scythe.

From there, takes on the same design appeared as a "Kiss of Death" novelty release with a smooch mark on his face and packaged in a kissing booth box.

This doll also had a variant with more aged yellow bones in a different design.

There was also a Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse design with a different look in the same general template. I really like this one, though I would want it in conversation with the S15 rendition.

This is the only LDD reaper with no lower jaw paint.

All of these reapers, including Christmas Yet to Come, use a basic head sculpt with creative paint rather than skull molds. LDD has never done skeletal body part molds...yet? (I'd love to see it.)

S15 Death was set to have a Minis release in a seventh series that was cancelled, so the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is the closest we have to that unreleased Mini. The doll is clearly yet another manifestation of the LDD reaper design, in keeping with the obvious connotations of the Ghost in the book. Dickens never described Yet To Come as a skeletal creature, as the hooded figure showed nothing in the darkness of its cloak and its pointing hand was never described as bone, but for an edgy take, an evil skeleton is an obvious choice.

This doll's gender is also unclear, but even though the character is originally genderless, I think the LDD is meant to be the token boy doll of this collection. 

Yet to Come is set apart from other LDD reapers primarily by his colors, including his robe being dark grey. The piece is two layers with white being the one underneath and holes torn in the top to expose the under-layer, working very much like Revenant's dress. 

This piece feels like a thin linen, however. Revenant's dress was hardier and more opaque.  I like the way the bottom flares out, but his hood is blatantly flying around his skull.

The fabric is lightweight and the hood is wide, so it doesn't obey gravity or frame his face like it ought. This would be much better:

The skull design is similar to other LDD reapers, but it has some cracks in the bone. The defining feature to me is the glowing pink eyes, which are so interesting and striking--much better than cliché red, or white like the prototype of this Mini evidently had. I suppose you could argue the eye color indicates this is another girl doll, but I don't think that's the case. I think LDD is generally intentional with the gender of their characters and they make it clear when character X is gender Y--or deliberately make it unclear when that is the desired effect. Pink eyes making this skeleton a woman is a bit of a stretch. I'd welcome that, sure, but I don't see it as design intent. And it's a bit absurd to infer femininity just from making a skeleton's eyes pink.

I like the grey shade contouring and the paint goes around the head to nice effect. The head has ears, but it can't be helped and a fix to the hood should hide them away.

The head cast is the white color while the black is all paint. This might be the most impressive Minis paint job in the brand, since this would already get my praise on a full-size doll. The white is not glow-in-the-dark.

While LDD never made skeletal body molds, and I kind of wish they'd done so at least once, I can understand the design ethos of keeping their bony guys dolls at the end of the day and using the classic doll sculpts to maintain that identity as warped toys. This solution to skull paint using black as negative space is also really inventive and it feels theatrical, like stage makeup, in a fun way. It's very charming.

The rest of the body is cast in black and has no paint. That works, given the size of the doll and the more shadowy abstract traditional portrayals of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. The robe opens all the way down the back with velcro.

When I tacked the corners of his hood to his shoulders, the doll completely clicked.

I really like this Mini now. He's so spooky!

I used him as my tester for new ornament hangers made as separate gold nooses, since I already had him in the workshop for the hood. I was lucky to already have the perfect sort of metallic gold gift cord to use for this purpose. 

I tied the ornament loop around a rolling pin handle to size it. My first noose had the knot tightened too much to easily loosen and remove the noose, but a second attempt was smoother, and the rest to follow were tested so they all worked with ease.

I can tie a noose around Christmas Past with her hood up, but because Yet To Come's is now tacked to his shoulders, that doesn't visually work...so fortunately, his noose can go through the gap in the back of his hood!

To be sure, the dangling posture on these nooses isn't hugely improved over the factory ribbons on their shoulderblades, but I like the look and semantics of these nooses more, as well as their optional nature. I also think the dangle angle is far more justified for bodies on nooses. It just looked purely awkward for ribbons attached to their backs.

Here's the four hanged now.

I already knew these dolls would not be allowed on the family Christmas tree which will be entirely wholesome, so I got a small desk-sized fake tree to decorate with since it would be a waste of perfectly good nooses not to put them on some coniferous branches.

There's something macabrely evocative about the idea of being "hanged on a Christmas tree". 

Christmas Yet to Come is a great little reaper doll...but at the same time, I can't help but think this doll could have been equally strong, and far more Dickens, if his head was cast black and had absolutely no paint to reflect the eerie dark emptiness of the hood in the book and make the character more haunting and Gothic. I had to try it. Because there was no getting a sacrificial Mini in time before Christmas, I made my Lottie that sacrifice. She's been an important doll to my collection, but I'm already interested in getting the second Minis mausoleum set that includes Series 3 in entirety, and that would replace Lottie soon--and with a copy whose neck attachment I didn't mess with.

Here's the dyed head in action, which I used for the intro photos to this doll. I honestly prefer this significantly.

This is much more simple and creepy to me than an edgy scary skull.

But speaking of necks breaking--in switching heads during the photoshoot for the story, the black neck peg broke from the Mini body so I had to replace it. I ultimately found that a wooden spool-shaped bead I had bought a pack of for miscellaneous building purposes was the best substitute peg, painted and glued flat to the top of the neck. 

The head stops before the lower flare of the spool and the piece is snug inside the neck hole. It's a tad taller than normal and this probably isn't a viable repair for any potential Mini, but this works well in this case.

I could have tried cutting off the lower flare of the spool to remove that extension on thr neck, but getting that cut just right would be harder than leaving it be. 

Heating will still be required to safely swap heads on the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, which is inconvenient, but I might like my alternate head enough to make switching back very infrequent.

I also noticed the black paint on the skull head had seemed to fade or get this dusty-looking pattern on it that wasn't surface texture or anything to wash away. When it was wet, the areas darkened and looked solid, but would dry and look fuzzy again. I did what I could by adding a matte varnish delicately on the affected areas, and that seemed to help restore the visual. Strange. I don't know if the paint was affected by the heating or squeezing of the head or something, but that doesn't seem likely.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come had taken Sadie to a gravesite. It was showered in golden candy coins, tribute gifts to the deceased. The stone was new and white. She felt strange. This was her own gravesite...wasn't it?

"Spirit...who was buried here?"

It made no reply. Sadie shivered as she realized she was able to perceive a face upon it within its shadowed hood.

Sadie's eyes began to adjust more to the dark, and she was able to read the brilliant stone. She was horrified. It was her grave after all, only her memorial had been replaced by admirers. The inscription read 

SADIE: 

BELOVED BY ALL

Sadie began to grow faint as the Spirit fully revealed the face of Death within its hood. She had to appreciate that it was a nice touch as she drifted away.

****

Sadie returned to consciousness within her own bed, but faced the real Christmas Day this time. No further spirits visited. She was dearly relieved to see her miserable attic and its instruments of brutal murder. She kissed the portraits of the ghouls she venerated, and tossed every last sweet out the window. Christmas was a day for torment, and she was to be at the helm. She had a great deal of kindnesses to render void. 

So those are the Christmas Carol Minis!

If this line was made in full size, it'd be reasonable to assume the designs would carry over, but later LDD lines made me wonder how a Christmas Carol line would work if it was done by casting earlier LDD characters in the roles, the way the Alice and Oz lines did. Here's what I came up with.

Bedtime Sadie as Ebenezer Scrooge...like I did with the Minis here.

I don't know if Bedtime Sadie really counts enough as her own character to do this, but she has a separate death date from the other series Sadies, and is the only LDD who's worn a sleeping cap. She's also plenty sinful.

Greed (Miss McGreedy) as Marley's Ghost.

Greed's doll is the personification of the Deadly Sin, and is depicted as chained to lock-boxes, piggy banks, and treasure chests in a manner that has to be inspired directly by Marley's description, and the Mini has essentially the same exact hair. It's a perfect match.

Rain as the Ghost of Christmas Past.

This Spirit is often associated with feminine and angelic tones, and Rain is a female angel made in memorial to the mother of one of the creators and the angel dolls she owned. A yellow and white candle-toned design of Rain would work well.

Jubilee as the Ghost of Christmas Present.

While Jubilee is the birthday doll, she's the most tied to celebration and gifts of the LDD original characters, and has red hair and enough green coloring to be able to slide into the role of the LDD Ghost of Christmas Present. No male Living Dead Dolls were a better fit for the role than Jubilee.

Death as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

However, no design changes from the canonical Mini would be required here, since it's quite similar to the original S15 Death doll. Alternatively, if you wanted the shadowed face, Umbral would be a candidate.

Umbral debuted after the Xmas Carol Minis, however, so the doll would not be a viable casting for the role at the time.

This was a fun set. I don't think they're my favorite Minis I've experienced because they're all a bit fiddly or became so with my goals for them (head swapping and neck peg trials for Yet to Come, hair struggles with Present), but they're really fun decorations and I like them as ornaments after tying nooses for them.  Marley's Ghost and Christmas Present feel like the nicest dolls in the set, with the most craft and artistry put in, though Christmas Yet to Come and Christmas Past are still very charming dolls, and Yet to Come and Marley are my favorites after some tweaks. (I'm basic; I like spooks!) Present is let down by her dry and fiddly hair. Yet to Come will keep both heads, but I prefer the blank black one for the closer likeness to Dickens' writing and creepier visual. I think it makes all the difference in landing the character specifically as the future Ghost and not as a generic Grim Reaper. 

I'm ultimately glad to have gone in on this little collection, and especially when I did. They're a really interesting novelty and I'll keep them around for future holidays.