paragraph_text: After the NFL held two Divisional Playoff games on Christmas Day 1971, the league avoided any more games on Christmas Day until 1989. Since then, the NFL has held occasional games on Christmas Day in some years, as part of week 16 or 17 of the regular season. Two games were played each Christmas Day from 2004 to 2006 and then from 2016 to 2017.

paragraph_text: This version casts the famous Dickens characters as anthropomorphic animals; Ebenezer Scrooge and his relatives are skunks, Bob Cratchit and his family are rabbits, the ghost of Jacob Marley is a cricket, the Ghost of Christmas Past is a stork, the Ghost of Christmas Present is a kangaroo and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is a walrus. This version differs from the original novel in many ways; for example, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come actually speaks, while most other versions have him mute. Tiny Tim doesn't die in the possible future revealed to Scrooge, but instead becomes as miserly as he is and Jacob Marley is said to be dead 2 years, unlike the original novel in which he was dead for 7 years. We also see Scrooge's childhood home.

paragraph_text: The Muppet Christmas Carol is a 1992 American musical fantasy comedy - drama film and an adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novel A Christmas Carol. It is the fourth in a series of live - action musical films featuring The Muppets, with Michael Caine starring as Ebenezer Scrooge. Although it is a comedic film with contemporary songs, The Muppet Christmas Carol otherwise follows Dickens's original story closely. The film was produced and directed by Brian Henson for Jim Henson Productions and released by Walt Disney Pictures.

paragraph_text: ``While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks ''is a Christmas carol describing the Annunciation to the Shepherds, with words attributed to Irish hymnist, lyricist and England's Poet Laureate Nahum Tate.

paragraph_text: Christmas Rathri () is a 1961 Indian Malayalam-language film, directed and produced by P. Subramaniam and was filmed at Merryland Studio. The film stars T. K. Balachandran, Thikkurissi Sukumaran Nair, Soman and Adoor Pankajam in the lead roles. The film had musical score by Br. Lakshmanan. The plot revolves around Advocate George (played by Thikkurissi) and Annie (played by Miss Kumari). While "Christmas" is in the title, the film has very little to do with the holiday, except that the climax of the film occurs on Christmas Eve.

paragraph_text: Christmas Extraordinaire is Mannheim Steamroller's sixth Christmas album overall and the group's fourth Christmas studio album. The album was originally released in 2001. The song "O Tannenbaum" features a lead vocal by Johnny Mathis.

paragraph_text: The First Congregational Church of Rockford, Illinois, ``although of genuine Puritan stock '', was' preparing for a grand Christmas jubilee ', a news correspondent reported in 1864. By 1860, fourteen states including several from New England had adopted Christmas as a legal holiday. In 1875, Louis Prang introduced the Christmas card to Americans. He has been called the`` father of the American Christmas card''. On June 28, 1870, Christmas was formally declared a United States federal holiday.

paragraph_text: KMXA-FM "Mix 99.9" is an Adult Contemporary radio station in Minot, North Dakota owned by iHeartMedia, Inc.. During the Christmas season "Mix 99.9" plays continuous Christmas music. The station begins playing the Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving and runs until Christmas Day.

paragraph_text: Let The Season In was recorded during the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's 2013 Christmas shows in the LDS Conference Center, with special guests operatic soprano Deborah Voigt and actor John Rhys-Davies. An album and concert DVD were released on October 14, 2014, along with a companion book titled "God Bless Us, Every One!: The Story Behind A Christmas Carol". The recorded concert will be broadcast on PBS premiering December 19, 2014.

paragraph_text: Father Christmas is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas. Although now known as a Christmas gift - bringer, and normally considered to be synonymous with American culture's Santa Claus which is now known worldwide, he was originally part of an unrelated and much older English folkloric tradition. The recognisably modern figure of the English Father Christmas developed in the late Victorian period, but Christmas had been personified for centuries before then.

paragraph_text: The Christmas season immediately follows Advent. The traditional Twelve Days of Christmas begin with Christmas Eve on the evening of December 24 and continue until the feast of Epiphany. The actual Christmas season continues until the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, which in the present form of the Roman Rite is celebrated on the Sunday after January 6, or the following Monday if that Sunday is Epiphany.

paragraph_text: ``O Holy Night ''(French:`` Minuit Chretiens!'' or ``Cantique de Noël '') is a well - known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem`` Minuit, chrétiens'' (Midnight, Christians) written by a wine merchant and poet, Placide Cappeau (1808 -- 1877). In both the French original and the two familiar English versions of the carol, as well as many other languages, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus and on humanity's redemption.

paragraph_text: Jingle All the Way is a 1996 American Christmas family comedy film directed by Brian Levant. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad as two rival fathers, workaholic Howard Langston (Schwarzenegger) and stressed out postal worker Myron Larabee (Sinbad), both desperately trying to purchase a Turbo-Man action figure for their respective sons on a last-minute shopping spree on Christmas Eve.

paragraph_text: ``I'll Be Home for Christmas ''is a Christmas song written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent and recorded in 1943 by Bing Crosby, who scored a top ten hit with the song. Originally written to honor soldiers overseas who longed to be home at Christmastime,`` I'll Be Home for Christmas'' has since gone on to become a Christmas standard.

paragraph_text: The Man Who Invented Christmas is a 2017 biographical drama film directed by Bharat Nalluri and written by Susan Coyne based on the book of the same name by Les Standiford. It stars Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, and Jonathan Pryce. The plot follows Charles Dickens (Stevens) at the time when he wrote A Christmas Carol, and how Dickens's fictional character Ebenezer Scrooge (Plummer) was influenced by his real - life father, John Dickens (Pryce).

paragraph_text: Bob Cratchit is a fictional character in the Charles Dickens novel A Christmas Carol. The abused, underpaid clerk of Ebenezer Scrooge (and possibly Jacob Marley, when he was still alive), Cratchit has come to symbolize poor working conditions, especially long working hours.

paragraph_text: In A Christmas Carol, Marley is the first character mentioned in the first line of the story. Jacob Marley is said to have died seven years earlier on Christmas Eve (as the setting is Christmas Eve 1843, this would have made the date of his passing December 24, 1836).

paragraph_text: Ebbie or Miracle at Christmas: Ebbie's Story is a 1995 TV movie directed by George Kaczender, written by Ed Redlich, and starring Susan Lucci in the title role. It is a gender-reversed retelling of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, with a hard-hearted female character in place of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge.

paragraph_text: Flappie is the name of a Dutch Christmas song written by comedian Youp van 't Hek in 1978. The song became popular in The Netherlands, and it has been played as part of the rotation of Christmas music every year since. Unlike most Christmas music, however, this song has a dark edge running through the song.

paragraph_text: "Zion's Daughter" is a 1982 Christmas single by German band Boney M., the second single to be released off their "Christmas Album", released in November 1981. It was a re-worked up-tempo version of Georg Friedrich Händel's "See, the conqu'ring hero comes!" (a song from his oratorio "Judas Maccabaeus") with English lyrics by Fred Jay. The tune of the German advent carol is well known in England as part of Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs performed every year at the BBC's Last Night of the Proms concert.

Question: Who plays the author of A Christmas Carol in The Man who Invented Christmas?
Answer: Dan Stevens