Karroll's Christmas

Plot

Allen Karroll works for a greeting card company despite being a cynical writer who despises Christmas. He has a long-running feud with his neighbor Zeb Rosecog, a former CEO of the same company who is grumpy and antisocial. On Christmas Eve, Karroll gets into an altercation with Rosecog, is thrown off a bus, and crashes into a child. When the child calls him grumpy, Karroll is offended and later refuses to help the boy after he is blamed for hitting Santa with a snowball.

Karroll’s day worsens when he gives a terrible presentation to the company’s sole major client, putting his job at risk and driving away his girlfriend, which ruins her hidden plan to propose to him that evening. After she leaves, the ghost of Jacob Marley—a relative of Bob Marley—appears, having mistakenly come to Karroll’s home because he had the wrong address for Rosecog. Marley warns that three ghosts will visit him: Christmas Present, Past, and Future.

The first ghost, Christmas Present, ignores the mix-up and uses a magical remote control that can transport them through time and space. She shows Karroll how Rosecog negatively affects others, including a lawsuit against a family for poorly shoveled sidewalks. Karroll recognizes the little boy from earlier as part of that family, who was severely punished because Karroll did not speak up for him. Curious about the remote, Karroll touches it, sending himself and the ghosts to a past Christmas when he first met Carrie, making him realize that not every Christmas is awful. They then jump to the following day, where Rosecog’s daughter describes her father as a deeply miserable person.