Bah, humbug is getting a major remodel this year on Bay Area stages.

A tale of two carols, one new and one old, is unfurling this holiday season. San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater is experimenting with a metatheatrical retelling of “A Christmas Carol,” while Walnut Creek’s Center Repertory Company is staging a farewell production of its festive take on the holiday favorite.

The giant ghost of Christmas Future is a spine-chilling skeleton puppet (designed by Amanda Villalobos) rattling after a terrified Scrooge in “Whynot Christmas Carol.” Craig Lucas (“Prelude to a Kiss”) deconstructs the Dickens 1843 chestnut as a backstage romp that’s just as much about actor squabbles and woke virtue signaling as it is about greed and capitalism. Unfortunately the world premiere play, directed by Pam MacKinnon, sparks only sporadically and always in the onstage interludes.

The meandering behind-the-scenes narrative never finds its drive. From the tyrannical director (Stacy Ross) gags and the lisping thespian (Catherine Castellanos) shtick to the odd cameo from ACT’s Young Conservatory carolers, this secondary plot feels like a love letter to the theater that’s only half-written.

Much of the ensemble seems adrift. We never learn enough about these new characters to care about their fate. The children, in particular, are woefully underdrawn.

However, the estimable Jomar Tagatac cuts so close to the bone as the haunted ghost of Jacob Marley, warning the miserly Scrooge (Dan Hiatt) of his impending damnation, that there’s almost no need for the rest of the play. Tagatac artfully conjures most of what we need to know about cruelty, greed and regret, which is fortunate because much of this audacious new play doesn’t resonate as it should. Some of it feels haphazard.

Meanwhile, Center Rep’s boisterous, traditional “Carol” is more like your grandmother’s gingerbread cookies. It may not be new and surprising but it is endearing and heartwarming, a sweet treat to ward off the cold.

My kiddo, a 14-year-old purist in matters of Yuletide rituals, vastly preferred the latter. Daphne likes her beloved traditions, from SF Ballet’s ever magnificent “Nutcracker” to our marshmallow-topped brownies and annual “Die Hard” rewatch to unfurl precisely as expected. No substitutions allowed.

Make no mistake, it certainly doesn’t take modern dress to make Dickens relevant. The economic brutalities of Victorian England feel as pressing as ever in our age of one percenters and paupers.

In Center Rep’s swan song production of “A Christmas Carol,” this echo is evoked in a moving opening tableau in which a starving boy is about to be arrested for stealing a loaf of bread on the streets of foggy London Town. Ebenezer’s good-hearted nephew Fred (Adam KuveNiemann) intervenes in the nick of time, reminding the angry mob of the Christmas spirit.

While the ensemble may be a little uneven in Scott B. Denison’s festive production, Cynthia Caywood and Richard L. James’ adaptation glories in Dickens’ gorgeous descriptions, the bustling street scenes conjure the magic of the holidays and the cutesy special effects delighted the children in the audience from start to finish.

At its heart, it’s a ghost story. Scrooge (Michael R. Wisely) is a business tycoon with no qualms about watching the poor perish until he’s haunted by three ghosts who remind him of his humanity.

His redemption arc may lack the emotional ferocity it demands but it’s hard to resist the charms of the show at large. An onstage quartet frames the parable with Christmas songs that evoke the kind of nostalgia that makes the holiday come alive.

The best gift of all may be that no matter what manner of Dickensian magic your family yearns for, you can find yourself a merry little “Carol.”

Contact Karen D’Souza at karenpdsouza@yahoo.com.