write the story "Marley's Warning"
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Answer:
As I mentioned before, Dickens’ story is largely credited with crafting our contemporary idea of a “traditional” Christmas celebration and the overall aesthetic associated with it. That is to say, A Christmas Carol quite literally transformed some of celebratory practices detailed in the novella into holiday staples, including many of the seasonal dishes we enjoy, as well as the prevalence of family gatherings, dancing, games, generosity, and the festive Christmas spirit.
Dickens managed this by leveraging a setting and tone that infectiously captured and more broadly popularized a revival of the Christmas holiday that was growing in Victorian English culture at the time. The setting, of course, is Victorian London, but Dickens’ brings us a London ringing with seasonal spirit:
For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious snowball—better-natured missile far than many a wordy jest—laughing heartily if it went right and not less heartily if it went wrong. The poulterers’ shops were still half open, and the fruiterers’ were radiant in their glory. There were great, round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence.
Apoplectic opulence. How’s that for a narrative helping of Christmas cheer?
The setting is further enhanced because it changes with Scrooge. Early in the tale, the streets are described as “Foggier yet, and colder. Piercing, searching, biting cold.” The bleakness even follows the bleak character: “Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern.” The setting is as forbidding as the protagonist. But by the end, both Scrooge and his surroundings have done a tonal 180 thanks to his night of forcible self-reflection:
“Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!”
Dickens was particularly skilled at setting distinctive scenes like this, but he’s far from the only author whose settings have a distinctive “flavor.” Recall how easy it is to picture the sights, smells and sounds at Hogwarts, for example, or in Rivendell, the West Egg, the Hundred-Acre Wood, or Sleepy Hollow.
While some readers prefer minimal descriptions, there’s no doubt that authors who spend the time spinning tonal elements that are peculiar to their narratives—with more grandiosity like Dickens or more sparingly like Milne—are often fondly remembered for it. As an added benefit, elements like these also tend to do some of the legwork for those looking for easily-adaptable stories for screen and stage