Who wrote A Christmas Carol, how many ghosts are there, what are the best quotes from the book and how many movie versions are there?

A CHRISTMAS Carol is a classic movie to watch this holiday season.

But who wrote the book, and how many film versions are there? Here is what you need to know...

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Who wrote A Christmas Carol?

A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost - Story of Christmas, is a novella by Charles Dickens.

Published in 1843, it tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserable old man who's visited by a series of ghosts.

They teach him valuable life lessons, and ultimately make him a better man.

The film has become a cult classic, with the word 'Scrooge' becoming synonymous with a person who hates Christmas.

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How many ghosts are there in A Christmas Carol?

There are four ghosts in A Christmas Carol.

Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, right at the start of the film.

While the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future also visit Scrooge during the night - and whisk him away to see how things were, are and could be for himself and others.

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How many film versions of A Christmas Carol have there been?

Amazingly, there have been 24 film versions of A Christmas Carol.

The first was released way back in 1901, just 31 years after Dickens died.

It's a silent film by Robert W Paul, where actors wear what appears to be enormous sheets to play the part of the ghost.

The most recent was in 2012, while memorable versions include The Muppets, released in 1992, and the 2009 film starring Jim Carrey as the voice of Scrooge.

What are the best quotes from A Christmas Carol?

Almost everyone has seen a version of A Christmas Carol, so it's no surprise that some of the quotes have slipped their way into the modern vocabulary.

Here are some of our favourite quotes...

"Bah, humbug!"

"Old Marley was as dead as a doornail."

"No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused."

"There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour."

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"You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"

"For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself."

And, of course, we can't forget the moral of the story...

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!"