Tiny Tim

“	I see a vacant seat, in the poor chimney corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.	”
— The Ghost of Christmas Present, harshly aiding the path of Scrooge's redemption

Timothy "Tiny Tim" Cratchit is a character in the classic story A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. He is the youngest son of Bob Cratchit, and he uses a crutch to get around. It is claimed that the character is based on the invalid son of a friend of Dickens who owned a cotton mill in Ardwick, Manchester.

When Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by The Ghost of Christmas Present, he is shown just how ill Tim really is, and that Tim will die unless he receives treatment. When Scrooge is visited by The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and shown the future, all he sees of Tim is his crutch, as Tim has died. This, and several other visions, lead Scrooge to reform his ways. In Tim, Scrooge appears to see the lonely boy he himself once was, with a strike against them (Tim's illness, Ebenezer's father blaming him for the death of his mother) that was not their fault. At the end of the story, Dickens makes it explicit that Tim did not die, and Scrooge became a "second father" to him. According to some other versions of the story, Tim Cratchit eventually gained health by Scrooge's money, and later became a successful businessman, and when Ebenezer Scrooge died, he became the only member of the Cratchit family to attend his funeral.

Dickens did not reveal in the book what Tiny Tim's illness was, but renal tubular acidosis (a type of kidney failure causing the blood to become acidic) has been proposed as one possibility, as has rickets (caused by a lack of Vitamin D).

Tiny Tim cries "God Bless Us, Everyone!" at the end of the story.

Portrayals

Picture	Performer	Feature	Year	Notes
	Glyn Dearman	Scrooge	1951
	Glenn Walken	Kraft Television Theatre: "A Christmas Carol"	1952
	Gerald McBoing-Boing (voiced by Joan Gerber)	Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol	1962	Gerald, who usually only speaks in sound effects, has a rare speaking role here. According to a comic book adaptation of the special, he is actually lip-syncing to his dialogue.
	Richard Beaumont	Scrooge	1970
	Alexander Williams (uncredited)	A Christmas Carol	1971	This role is portrayed by the son of director Richard Williams.
	Tweety Bird (voiced by Mel Blanc)	Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol	1978
	Morty Fieldmouse (voiced by Dick Billingsly)	Mickey's Christmas Carol	1983	Morty (one of Mickey Mouse's two nephews) portrays Tiny Tim while his brother, Ferdie, portrays the other Cratchit son (presumably Peter). This is notably one of the few times Morty and Ferdie ever appeared in animation.
	Anthony Walters	A Christmas Carol	1984
	Astro (voiced by Don Messick)	The Jetsons: "A Jetson Christmas Carol"	1985	The Jetsons' pet dog becomes deathly ill after accidentally swallowing a sprocket.
	Mona Marshall	The Real Ghostbusters: "Xmas Marks the Spot"	1986	Tim briefly appears early on in a scene where he accompanies his dad to buy their Christmas dinner.
	Robin the Frog (puppeteered by Jerry Nelson)	The Muppet Christmas Carol	1992
	unknown	Children's Classics: A Christmas Carol	1994
	Bamm-Bamm Rubble (voiced by Don Messick)	A Flintstones Christmas Carol	1994
	Jarrad Kritzstein	A Christmas Carol	1997
	Lucky	101 Dalmatians: "A Christmas Cruella"	1997	In Cruella De Vil's Christmas Carol-inspired dream, Lucky's left front leg is crippled by an infection caused by getting a pine needle stuck in his paw.
	Timmy (voiced by Taylor Epperson)	An All Dogs Christmas Carol	1998
	Ben Tibber	A Christmas Carol	1999
	Ed (voiced by Matt Hill)	A Very Cartoon Cartoon Fridays Holiday Special	2000	The largest of the Eds portrays Tiny Tim in a segment parodying the closing scene of A Christmas Carol.
		Christmas Carol: The Movie	2001
	Junior Asparagus (voiced by Lisa Vischer)	The Star of Christmas	2002	Junior plays the role of Edmund Gilbert. He doesn't get the illness until the later non-Christmas movie An Easter Carol.
	Theresa Gallagher	A Christmas Carol	2006	Portrayed, like the rest of Bob Cratchit's family, by a white rabbit.
	Gary Oldman	A Christmas Carol	2009
	Little Timmy	Angry Birds Christmas Comic	2011	Here, despite this comic is not being a version of A Christmas Carol, Little Timmy is a pig who is a reference to Tiny Tim because of his name and him wearing two sticks.
	Marc Silk	Danger Mouse: "The Snowman Cometh"	2015	Depicted as a dog.
	Featherweight	My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: "A Hearth's Warming Tail"	2016	Featherweight plays a Tiny Tim-like character.
	Lenny Rush (Episodes 2 & 3)	A Christmas Carol (FX Mini-Series)	2019
	Oliver Jenkins Ruper Turnbull	Scrooge: A Christmas Carol	2022