1. "The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already—it had not been light all day—and candles were flaring in the windows of the shops and offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air."
In this example, the candles are personified as "flaring" like "ruddy smears." This gives the candles a sense of agency and makes them seem almost like living creatures.
2. "The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters."
In this example, the counting-house is personified as having an "eye" and being able to "keep" that eye on the clerk. This gives the counting-house a sense of sentience and makes it seem almost like a living creature.