I'm a massive Dickens fan, and I agree 'The Chimes' is not one of his best. It's one I dig out for New Year, along with Leon Garfield's 'Mr Corbet's Ghost'.

I could never really get into "The Cricket on the Hearth", but I do like "The Man who Haunted Himself" as another story for Christmas time.

"A Christmas Carol" remains by far the best, and I'm sure his estate has profited more from that than many of his other works. Pity he never lived to see any of the movie adaptations. I wonder what he'd have thought of them.