Ring in the Holiday Season Seuss-style

Okay, okay. I know it's only the middle of November. Thanksgiving isn't for another week. I groan when Christmas displays go up in September, yet here I am preparing for Christmas a month and a half early. The truth is that while I complain about the overt commercialization of Christmas, I can't help but be caught up in it. I love everything about the holiday, from the Holy to the silly. And now that we've finally gotten our first real snowfall -- and I find myself getting strange looks when I express my delight -- and the Jim Carrey live-action version of this Seuss classic is hitting the big screens this week, I feel compelled to write about one of the finest Christmas stories ever told.

While How the Grinch Stole Christmas does not come right out and refer to the holiday's origins in a stable in Bethlehem, it comes as close as it can while still appealing to members of the reading population who are not inclined to believe in Christmas as such. The Grinch is a miserable old miser who lives in a cave on top of a mountain. A grotesque combination of Ebeneezer Scrooge, Gollum of The Hobbit fame and someone else who I have not yet identified, the Grinch is brilliant and lonely. And why is he lonely? Because he hates the Whos, the village of gentlefolk who live below in the valley. And what he hates most of all is Christmas, that noise-making celebration that caters to bratty children.

One year, he decides he's had enough. He is going to stop Christmas from coming. But how? "The he got an idea. An awful idea. The Grinch got a wonderful, awful idea." Employing his adorable and guileless dog Max, he outfits himself in a Santa Claus suit and hitches an antlered Max up to a sleigh. And down to the town he descends, as the Whos lie sleeping. Craftily he steals everything in every house, even that which is not Christmas-related. Near the end of his journey he is confronted by little Cindy Lou Who, who is awakened from her slumber by the Grinch's movement. "Why are you taking are Christmas tree? Why?" she demands with wide eyes. The Grinch is stumped for only a minute before he thinks up a fib to fool the child and sends her off to bed. One can almost see a bit of kindness in the Grinch here, but it soon disappears as he continues on his route, taking even the Christmas bells in the town square which herald Christmas morning.

After an arduous journey back up the mountain, the Grinch sits and waits eagerly for the Whos to awaken and begin to cry "Boo Hoo!" For several long moments...nothing. But soon he hears a sound quite unlike that which he was expecting. "All the Whos down in Whoville, the small and the tall, were singing, without any presents at all." "It came without wrappings!" puzzles the Grinch. "It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes, or bags!" And as the Grinch puzzles sourly over this strange new state of affairs, a change begins to occur. "Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. 'Perhaps Christmas,' he thought, 'doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas is a little bit more...'"

The spirit of Christmas had finally touched the Grinch. He now understood that Christmas was about love, and for the first time in his life, he was able to feel it. Now that he knew Whoville would be happy regardless, he returned everything to the grateful village and joined in his first Christmas feast. Like Ebeneezer Scrooge, he was forever changed, and "down in Whoville they say the old Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day."

As you enter into this hectic Christmas season, read this book with your children. Not only is it an outstanding and often hilarious piece of literature, it is a refreshing message to hear in an age obsessed with materialism. Enjoy the all the niceties of the season, but let Dr. Seuss remind you that True Christmas comes from the heart.

Dr. Seuss books:
Green Eggs and Ham
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Yertle the Turtle
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now!
Dr. Seuss's ABC
There's a Wocket in my Pocket!
The Lorax
Oh, the Places You'll Go!