The omniscient narrator informs us that Jacob Marley is dead. He died seven years ago on Christmas Eve, and Scrooge himself saw his business partner buried.

It is now Christmas Eve once more, and the streets of London are wrapped in an icy fog. People and carriages passing on the street outside the window are obscured like wraiths or ghosts, and sound is muffled. Scrooge is working at his counting house while keeping a gimlet eye on his clerk, Bob Cratchit. Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, breezes into the office, wishing Scrooge a merry Christmas. Scrooge dismisses him contemptuously with the pronouncement that Christmas has never done anybody any good or put money in anybody’s pocket. Fred protests that many things have done him good that haven’t made him wealthier, and Christmas is one of them. Fred invites Scrooge to Christmas dinner, but Scrooge refuses and dismisses him.

Next, two gentlemen enter the office, taking up contributions to provide food and warmth for the poor. Scrooge refuses to contribute, claiming that prisons and workhouses are sufficient to provide for the needs of the “idle.” The gentlemen argue that those institutions are degrading and inadequate and that many people would rather die than use them.