A Grinching Good Time!
My youngest son has a Grinch-inspired holiday party coming up this week, and in discussing this, I’ve realized how many Grinch dramatizations we’ve actually seen. If you’re looking to add another Grinch-drama to your holiday mix, check out these 5 incarnations of the classic green-haired creature (and beware—there are tons more grinchy-dramas out there!).
“Grinching” in action
1) The book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, by Dr. Seuss, published in 1957. Always a classic, and still a best seller (A fabulously talented director gave me this book years ago!).
2) The 1966 television special, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which pulls at my nostalgic heartstrings the moment the music and animation fill the screen. I love how my youngest can watch this over and over, even though most of his classmates think it is boring! Did you know Dr. Seuss wrote the lyrics himself to “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch?” Makes sense because who else could write lyrics like, “You're a three-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce!”?
3) The 2000 film How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This live-action film shows us the depth of the Grinch in silly-Jim-Carrey fashion. The film had some criticism at the time because it steered from the “How” to the “Why” in the title, but if you’re going to turn a short book into a feature-length movie, this is hardly a criticism to me, and the film has stood the test of almost 2 decades.
4) The Grinch, the 2018 animated film. This movie resonated with my children in large part because The Grinch was nice to Max, and considers his feelings. This is an important change from the 1966 film original that proves meaningful to kind-hearted children who have always felt bad for poor Max with those heavy antlers and impossibly large sleigh to pull!
5) Grinching Mom: The beloved 2019 monologue written by 6-year-old Luke B. regarding the invention of “grinching” (i.e. stealing then hiding during the Christmas season). Check out the monologue here and below:
Whatever grinchiness you encounter this year, hopefully the original theme of the book will hold true: using your heart, not your bank account, during the Christmas season, and all year round.