Our family has a long tradition of loving the Dr. Seuss story about the Grinch – starting with the original book, on to the animated television special from back in the 60s (I mean- of course!!), up to the full-length live-action over-the-top movie from 2000 with Jim Carrey in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. We continuously quote all year long some of our favorite lines from all of these Grinchy options. One year my husband memorized the whole book and recited it to a large gathering of friends and family!
About 10 years ago my grown children and I decided to make it a bigger part of our family holiday traditions and we came up with “Grinch Night! It is added to our holiday calendars as early as possible so that we can fit it in amongst all the other Christmas traditions and activities - “I can’t cancel that again”!! I guess we are trend-setters because we started all this WAY before stores were full of green merchandise for all your Who-Ville needs.
So, what do we do, you wonder? We begin with a meal while one of the movies is running in the background. We of COURSE have Roast Beast, and then a host of green foods to consume- green mashed potatoes, green beans or broccoli, some type of green drink (this varies based on who is in charge of it) and on to greenish cookies, or maybe brownies frosted with green frosting for dessert.
We may or may not now sport our matching Grinchy shirts. Ok, we do. We clearly must sing “He’s a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” at least once or twice during December. Yes, we have most of that memorized too.
We aren’t completely sure why the Grinch’s story has become so important to us. We love the humor in it, and the irony. As a family we honor what the holidays represent to the world, and the transformation of the Grinch into someone who can love is right in line with the goodness that this time of year can bring to others. And, maybe, just maybe, with the story of the Grinch… “perhaps….it means a little bit more”.
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