Squarebear, I have thought again about the answer. The author is very panickerty about the answers he wants and I was thinking could this be just Christmas Spirits. What do you think?
I personally would go for Vic's answer as they are the dates of Christmas in the past, the present and the future. They are characters in the Dickens' novel "A Christmas Carol".
The only thing the quiz setter may be picky about is maybe "The ghosts of Christmas past, present and future" rather than spirits but your guess is as good as mine there.
Hi squarebear, I e-mailed the author to see whether he wanted spirits or ghosts or whether either was acceptable in answering the dingbat. He mentioned ghosts first and indicated that he wouldn't mark spirits wrong. So I guess its ghosts.