An old man sits in his house alone on a cold Christmas eve in London when he hears a voice not from a living breathing creature, but the hollow spirit of his late business partner Jacob Marley.

Beginning with this strange but soon-to-be illuminating encounter, the old man Ebenezer Scrooge’s night would only become stranger and happier as it passes until the next morning he wakes up a different person.

Written by the famous British author Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol” is the story of the old miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is met by three spirits known famously to the world as the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. Each ghost shows Scrooge a world that could be his, a world filled with joy, love and happiness, that he denies himself due to his parsimony.

The story begins with Scrooge’s encounter with his old business partner, Jacob, who warns Scrooge of being met by three spirits later in the night.

The first spirit, the ghost of Christmas past, reminds him of the past Christmases that Scrooge spent as a child, both the sadness he had felt and unconditional love.

The second spirit, the ghost of Christmas present, takes Scrooge to places of warmth and holiday spirit in the present. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas future shows him what a wonderful Christmas he could have if he changed. Scrooge wakes up the next morning as a changed man.

These spirits may have been Dickens’ imagination, but they live in us all and they remind us of the important things in life — the people we choose to spend the little time we have — through the Christmas Spirit.

As we celebrate this year’s Christmas wherever we are in place and life, the ghosts of Christmas remind us of who we were, who we are and who we can become and most importantly, the element that defines us is the love we give to people and receive in return.

As Susan Wolf famously said, the meaning of life comes not only from loving, but loving something worthy of love.

For Scrooge, it required four spirits and many years of misery to understand what he truly loved and the people who loved him. We have Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” which evokes our memories of the ghosts of “A Christmas Carol” to remind us of those who love us and those we rightly love. “A Christmas Carol” is being performed at the Overture Center by the Children’s Theater of Madison from Dec. 7 to Dec. 22.