Grinch

Christmas marks a wonderful holiday season enriched by zealous celebration and lots of carols, legends, myths and many associated characters. The Yuletide season, with all its fabled characters, evokes the imagination of many, resulting in accession of these mirthful characters through many new accounts in form of poems, carols and stories. There are many stories written with the scene of Christmas and many of them deal with pure imaginative stories. Interestingly, many of these books became popular making the mythical character a favourite amongst children. Grinch is also one such fictional character created by Dr. Seuss's inventive mind. The story of Grinch was depicted with the help of rhymed verses and was published in 1957 in the form a book by Random House, aimed primarily at children. The story is a satire, aimed at those people who exploit the holiday. It is, according to the critics, a critical review of the commercialization of Christmas.

Christmas Grinch

Origin
Grinch originated as a fictional character in the book "How Grinch Stole Christmas". Grinch was the main protagonist in this book which was published in 1957 and became an instant hit with children making the character also instantly famous.

Appearance
Like any other fictional character, Grinch also has a strange appearance. In the original book, Grinch is depicted in black, white and some shades of red. But, when he was adapted into animation, he got a new look with green body and cream coloured eyes.

Grinch lives in a cave near the town of Whoville, the prime location where the story takes place. His only companion is his dog, Max. Grin hates the Christmas holiday because his heart is "two sizes too small". He plans to steal the Christmas gifts and decorations and disguises himself as Santa. Grinch is endowed with many superhuman powers and he can easily lift a sleigh fully loaded with gifts. The cave in which he lives was carved out by him with bare hands and that too when he was just a child. The young Grinch lifted a Christmas tree and threw it across the room! He can perform huge leaps which are impossible by human beings and amazingly, he can survive in the cold weather with little or no protection. He consumes glasses and pottery with great delight and it causes no harm to his body.

Impact
Ever since the story was released, Grinch became popular and today, the word Grinch represents a person with ant-holiday spirit. It is also synonymous with bad qualities like greed and denotes a coarse person. This holiday hating character has now become an icon of the winter holidays. Various Grinch collectibles are available in the form of plush dolls, Christmas ornaments, Halloween costumes and various clothing items.

In Films
In 1977, Dr. Seuss wrote Grinch tales under the title 'Halloween Is Grinch Night', a Halloween special programme which was aired on ABC. Again in 1982, he came up with another part "The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat". This was produced by Dr. Seuss and both the tele-movies received Emmy Awards. The character Grinch was also adapted into an animation movie called 'Grinch' under the direction of Chuck Jones which was aired in 1966. A comedy film "How Grinch Stole Christmas" was released in 2000.

Grinch stands for everything anti-Christmas but his message is not to boycott Christmas or any holidays for that matter; the main message is to not commercialise Christmas rather see it for what it is - a celebration of purity, joy and sharing.