The Muppet Christmas Carol narrators throughout the film. Ebenezer Scrooge (Michael Caine), a surly money-lender, does not share the merriment of Christmas. Scrooge rejects his nephew Fred's invitation to Christmas dinner, dismisses two gentlemen collecting money for charity, and tosses a wreath at a carol singing Bean Bunny. His loyal employee Bob Cratchit (played by Kermit the Frog) and the other bookkeepers request to have Christmas Day off since there will be no business for Scrooge on the day, to which he reluctantly agrees. Scrooge leaves for home while the bookkeepers celebrate Christmas. In his house, Scrooge encounters the ghosts of his late business
Ebenezer Scrooge and the elder Martin Chuzzlewit character, although the miser is "a more fantastic image" than the Chuzzlewit patriarch; Ackroyd observes that Chuzzlewit's transformation to a charitable figure is a parallel to that of the miser. Douglas-Fairhurst sees that the minor character Gabriel Grub from "The Pickwick Papers" was also an influence when creating Scrooge. The story of "A Christmas Carol" starts on Christmas Eve 1843 with Scrooge at his money-lending business. He hates Christmas as a "humbug" and subjects his clerk, Bob Cratchit, to grueling hours and low pay of only 15 shillings on a normal week (giving him Christmas