How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Who wrote the original book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!?
When did the animated television special of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! air?
What inspired Dr. Seuss to create the character of the Grinch?
Who directed the 1966 televised special of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!?
Which actor starred as the Grinch in the 2000 live-action film adaptation?
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, beloved American Christmas story that originally appeared as a children’s book by American author Dr. Seuss in 1957. It was adapted into a wildly popular animated television special that aired on CBS on December 18, 1966. The story was later made into two feature-length films and a musical.
Summary
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! follows the antics of the Grinch, a green (originally white in the two-tone book illustrations but now shown as green thanks to the popularity of the television special) curmudgeonly misanthropic creature with a heart “two sizes too small” who lives on a mountain above the town of Whoville. Bristling at the town’s Christmas celebrations, the Grinch concocts a plan to impersonate Santa Claus and steal the Whos’ presents, decorations, and holiday food. But after completing his heist, he is moved that the townsfolk gather in the square to celebrate Christmas morning with carols, despite having lost their material Christmas possessions. As the Grinch witnesses this singing, his heart magically grows three sizes, and he hurries to return his sleigh full of stolen goods. He then joins the town for its Christmas celebration and is given the honor of carving the “roast beast.”
Book
The story was published by Random House in 1957. It tells the tale of the Grinch in the whimsical verse for which Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) became famous. He reportedly wrote the book in just a few weeks, except for the ending, which was tougher to crack as Geisel struggled to avoid a didactic conclusion. Geisel later repeatedly suggested that the character of the Grinch was inspired by himself. In fact, the Grinch is 53 years old (“Why, for fifty-three years I’ve put up with it now!”), the same age as Geisel when he wrote the book. The book is often interpreted as a criticism of the commercialization of Christmas.
On television
- In North America close to 10 million copies of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! have been sold, as reported in 2023.
- The 1966 CBS TV special had nearly 38 million viewers.
- A sequel titled How the Grinch Lost Christmas! was published in 2023 by Dr. Seuss Enterprises and Random House Children’s Books, authored by Alastair Heim.
Celebrated American animator Chuck Jones directed the televised special, which aired on CBS in 1966. Jones and Geisel had worked together on military training cartoons during World War II, and although Geisel was wary of allowing his work to be adapted into film, Jones persuaded Geisel to authorize the production of the Grinch television special.
The nearly half-hour broadcast contained all of the book’s text with a few additions. Some songs, including hymns and carols in “Seussian Latin,” were added to augment the 12 minutes it took for narrator Boris Karloff to read the whole of the book. Jones also chose to expand the character of Max, the Grinch’s dog, whom the Grinch attempts to outfit as a reindeer to pull his sled down the mountain.
According to Jones, the special took between 11 and 14 months to produce and required 15,000 drawings and the same number of cels (clear celluloid sheets on which objects are drawn or painted), 1,200 character layout drawings, 250 background layout drawings, and 60 musicians working full steam in the studio. The TV special was originally sponsored by the Foundation for Commercial Banks, which Jones viewed as an unlikely partnership given the story’s critique of commercialism.
The song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” sung by American actor and bass singer Thurl Ravenscroft, with lyrics by Geisel and music by Albert Hague, is often misattributed to Karloff. This is because no singers were originally credited in the first airing of the special. Geisel recognized this slight, called Ravenscroft to apologize, and personally contacted press across the country to set the record straight and give Ravenscroft his due credit for the iconic song. (Ravenscroft is also famous for voicing Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger for more than five decades.)
Film adaptations
The 2000 live-action film of the same name, directed by Ron Howard, starred Jim Carrey in the title role and was the first Dr. Seuss book to be adapted into a full-length feature film. It grossed more than $349 million worldwide and became the third highest-grossing Christmas film to date, behind Home Alone (1990) and its 1992 sequel—all of which were eventually surpassed by the Grinch’s 2018 film adaptation.
The 2018 animated film The Grinch was produced by Universal Pictures and featured the voices of Benedict Cumberbatch, Rashida Jones, Kenan Thompson, and Angela Lansbury, as well as Pharrell Williams as the narrator. This version grossed close to $541 million worldwide and became the highest-grossing Christmas film of all time.
Stage musical
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! was first adapted for the stage in 1994 by American playwright Timothy Mason for the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Productions of the musical, which is narrated by Max the dog, have been mounted around the United States throughout the years, with Broadway productions in 2006–07 and 2007–08 starring Patrick Page. Shows are still staged in various theaters.