Where and when does this drama take place?

Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843; it was released in December of that year. Since Dickens seems to have written the novel in a way that felt contemporary to his readers, we can assume that the year in which its action takes place is 1843, with the exception of Stave Two, when the Spirit of Christmas Past takes Scrooge back in time as far as his childhood, probably not long after the turn of the century. The city where Scrooge lives is London, for in chapter 1 Dickens writes, "Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the City of London." Other references that point to London as the setting are Cornhill, which is a ward and street in the financial district of London, and Camden Town, an inner city district where the Cratchits live--and where Charles Dickens himself lived for about five years as a child.

Although Scrooge lives in London, the Spirit of Christmas Past takes him to a place in the country where Scrooge attended boarding school as a boy. The region of England is not specified. Mr. Fezziwig, whose place of business is the next stop for Scrooge with this spirit, lives and works in a city, but Dickens does not indicate whether it is London or another city. Likewise the locations of Belle breaking her engagement with Scrooge and the peep at Belle's later life are not specified. The later spirits who visit Scrooge seem to confine their travels to the city of London.

Thus Dickens set the action of his novel in his own time and his own city in A Christmas Carol.