In Stave 3 of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," Bob Cratchit's family is presented as an extremely poor, but mostly joyous family. The spirit of Christmas present has taken Dickens to watch the family's evening festivities. Dickens uses great detail to describe the family's living situation, their home, clothes and food. Details describe the family's thread-bare clothes in particular but also the sparse furnishings of their home and slight indulgences that even their Christmas dinner holds. However, Dickens also goes to great lengths in Stave 3 to describe the family's demeanor as one filled with love, affection and joy that the family is together on Christmas. The only low point for the evening occurs when the family mentions the mean-spirit of Scrooge. This is short lived however and the family returns to being happy and sharing laughter in front of the fire. Dickens makes it clear that this joy and laughter remains with the family despite their poor living circumstances, the harshness of Scrooge as a boss and the poor health of Tiny Tim, the Cratchit's son.
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