Many people think of “It’s a Wonderful Life” as the most archetypal Christ­mas film. For me, however, the best holiday film is “A Christmas Carol,” and not just any version, but the 1951 one starring Alastair Sim.

Sim was in many famous British films from this period, and was quite an actor. His interaction as Scrooge with a boy outside, below his window, on Christmas morning is something that I could watch year after year. In fact, I do. To the inconvenience of my family, I have developed a tradition of watching a DVD of this film at teatime every Boxing Day – the holiday cel­e­brated the day after Christmas day in the United Kingdom and other Com­mon­wealth nations – while having tea, fruitcake, and Stilton on crackers.

The strong blue cheese Stilton is definitely one of my favorites. A hardship associated with my stem cell transplant was that, when my immune system was particularly low, I was not allowed to eat such things as blue cheeses that contain high levels of bacteria. Salad bars at restaurants were also ruled out-of-bounds, but I didn’t find that quite so hard to take.

I had my transplant as an in-patient, and another rule of the transplant unit was that we were not allowed to drink tea. They apparently had some theory that microbes could live on the tea leaves. I tried to argue that the water is thoroughly boiled when making tea correctly, killing off all potential microbes. I also mentioned the scientific fact that “Doctor Who” once had his life saved by a cup of tea, but all to no avail. Not being allowed tea and Stilton was rather hard to take!

Fortunately, my transplant was in January, so these prohibitions did not affect my Boxing Day traditions that year. In fact, the only problem that Christmas was that I was pretty tired and fairly lacking in hair, both of which were a result of the pre-transplant chemo that was used to aid in stem cell harvesting. The harvesting was in early December, around six weeks before the transplant, which puts it pretty much 10 years ago from when I am writing this column.

Next January 19 will be the tenth anniversary of my transplant. I have already written a couple columns on various anniversaries, so I won’t go on about this one too much. However, I will just mention that things have turned out far, far better than I imagined 10 years ago. At the time, I expected to only have around three more years, during which I would presumably feel pretty ill for a lot of the time. You just never know. Also, you should never underestimate the effects of the new treatment options that are being developed all the time!

This year, I may have to go to work on Boxing Day, to get ready for a spacecraft maneuver a couple days later. (Time and orbits wait for no man.) So, to be on the safe side, I went with my younger son to see a stage version of “A Christmas Carol” earlier in December. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was very enjoyable. Some parts were familiar from the film and other parts different, for instance resetting the action from London to Baltimore. There were some other lines that were not from the film but had the ring of authentic Dickens, and so were presumably from the book. (I am ashamed to say that I started reading it once but didn’t get much beyond the first page.)

Cancer somehow worked its way into the show. After the play was over, the theater company made an announcement that they were raising funds for a charity that helps families with seriously ill children (an actress described them as “the real Tiny Tims”), including those with cancer.

This announcement reminded me of how much worse it is for children who have cancer than it is for us adults. Even though I thought that being diagnosed with multiple myeloma at age 51 was “too young,” I had had a good long time of being healthy up until that point. Being diagnosed when you’re just getting started in life must be very hard.

Also, no matter how confusing treatment options sometimes are, adults have at least a reasonable chance of understanding what they are going through, and why the treatment side effects are worth it in the long run. This has to be very difficult for a young child to take in. It must also be a real trial for their parents, who have to make such difficult decisions on their behalf in very difficult and frightening circumstances. It makes me feel like I really do have it easy.

I would like to wish all families in such circumstances, and everyone else reading, a happy holiday season and a healthy new year!