Daily Recco, December 25: The tale of stolen Christmas
With the feasts and the exchange of gifts, Christmas festivities might seem to be drawing to a close this year. However, the festival is not over till you know the story of a time when Christmas was stolen. And it was stolen by the Grinch. We are talking about the Christmas fantasy film — How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), based on the book of the same name by Dr Seuss published in 1957.
As you enjoy Christmas today, so did all the Whos of Whoville. Nobody in Whoville liked the Grinch (played by Jim Carrey) because of his mean-spiritedness. However, the six-year-old Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) stays true to the spirit of Christmas and instead of indulging in exchanging gifts (the materialistic part), she focusses on personal relationships and establishes one with the Grinch. This is when she discovers his tragic past and why he hates Christmas.
The reason is revealed to be Bully Augustus MayWho, who is now the mayor of Whoville. Cindy invites Grinch to be a part of Christmas festivities and to be the "Holiday Cheermeister". MayWho again spoils Christmas for Grinch (as he did during his childhood) and a fed-up Grinch decides to destroy the Christmas spirit by stealing all of Whos’ presents, decorations and food when they are sleeping. He disguises himself as Santa Claus and his dog Max as a reindeer and steals the Christmas. How Cindy Lou makes him and the rest of the Whos realise that Christmas is beyond gifts, decorations and feasts, and is about spending time with one another with love and in harmony forms the rest of the story.
Parallels are very similar between the Grinch and Ebenezer Scrooge of A Christmas Carol. Both are mean, self-absorbed and don’t care about the people around them. And both are brought to the realms of goodness by children —Cindy Lou in Grinch’s case and Tiny Tim in the case of Scrooge. One point, however, where Grinch scores a shade over Scrooge is as a victim of bullying, whereas Scrooge himself is a big bully.
20 years since it was released, How the Grinch Stole Christmas still has the same level of mass appeal it had two decades ago, or as the story did over six decades ago when it was first published. As a critic described it back then, the Grinch with his “goofy gaiety” is “easily the best Christmas-cad”.
As you settle down after a very festive Christmas, it is time to contemplate the most important lesson that Jesus left us with: empathy and love for the fellow humans. So get comfortable on the couch with that eggnog, and enjoy Grinch and his antics. How the Grinch Stole Christmas is streaming on Netflix.