Hey, thanks for reminding me! It's a tradition here as well.
First saw it back around the Christmas of 1994, I think - I couldn't afford to eat properly (no, seriously - baked beans, bread, and scraps from the chippy), let alone buy Christmas presents, and I was very seriously depressed (probably clinically). But I decided to put 50p towards the children's matinee at the local cinema playing it.
Well, suffice to say, I empathised entirely with Scrooge, so his journey was mine, and I cried with Michael Caine (only much more realistically!). Things are very tough again this year, but never like that.
But it's such a great film that as soon as it came out on video I bought it, and have watched it every Christmas time every year. Great stuff.