the poulterer's shop
The poulterer's shop stands as one of the most vivid commercial landmarks in A Christmas Carol, a place where the material plenty of the season is displayed with almost theatrical exuberance. It appears twice in the narrative, each time marking a crucial phase in Scrooge's moral trajectory: first as a vision of Christmas abundance shown by the Ghost of Christmas Present, and later as the actual destination of Scrooge's first charitable deed after his transformation.
Location and Description
The shop is situated in a street adjacent to Scrooge's own neighborhood, specifically "the next street but one, at the corner," as Scrooge describes it when he inquires about its wares on Christmas morning. During the Ghost of Christmas Present's tour, the poulterers' shops are depicted as "still half open" even on Christmas Day, their displays radiating a kind of edible glory. The description emphasizes the sheer scale and opulence of the merchandise: great round pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, ruddy Spanish onions, and the centerpiece of the display—a prize turkey of extraordinary size, described by a boy as "the one as big as me." This turkey is not merely a food item but a symbol of conspicuous generosity, its magnitude making it almost impossible to carry by hand, requiring a cab for transport.
Role in the Christmas Market Scene
During the journey with the Ghost of Christmas Present, the poulterer's shop is part of a larger panorama of Christmas commerce that includes grocers' shops with their "blended scents of tea and coffee" and fruiterers' stalls with their "blooming pyramids" of pears and apples. The poulterer's shop, however, occupies a special place in this landscape because it sells the centerpiece of the Christmas dinner—the goose or turkey that defines the feast. The Cratchit family's own Christmas dinner revolves around a goose procured from the baker's, not a poulterer's, underscoring their modest means; the poulterer's shop, with its prize turkey, represents an aspiration beyond their reach.
Scrooge's Redemptive Purchase
On Christmas morning, after his transformation, Scrooge's first concrete act of generosity is directed toward the poulterer's shop. He calls down to a boy in the street and asks whether the shop has sold "the prize Turkey that was hanging up there—Not the little prize Turkey: the big one." Learning that it is still available, Scrooge sends the boy to buy it, promising a shilling for the errand and half a crown if he returns within five minutes. The boy is "off like a shot." Scrooge then arranges for the turkey to be delivered to Bob Cratchit's home in Camden Town, whispering to himself with delight that "He shan't know who sends it. It's twice the size of Tiny Tim." The purchase is accompanied by a series of chuckles—as he pays for the turkey, as he pays for the cab, as he recompenses the boy—that culminate in Scrooge sitting down breathless and chuckling until he cries.
Thematic Significance
The poulterer's shop functions as a threshold between Scrooge's old life of miserliness and his new life of generosity. The turkey he buys is the antithesis of the meager goose the Cratchits can afford; it is an extravagant, almost absurdly large gift that signals Scrooge's complete reversal of character. The shop itself, with its public display of abundance, represents the communal, shared prosperity of Christmas that Scrooge had previously rejected. By engaging with it—not as a spectator but as a purchaser and giver—he re-enters the human economy of gift and gratitude that he had spent a lifetime avoiding. The poulterer's shop, in this sense, is not merely a place of commerce but the stage for the first performance of Scrooge's redeemed identity.
