“Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot... but the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, Did NOT!” Those are the opening words of the Dr Seuss book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It’s different from most Christmas stories because it focuses on someone who hates Christmas and tries to destroy it. For the purposes of this Devotional we will be focusing on the cartoon TV special from 1966 rather than the Jim Carrey movie from 2000 but both are great adaptions of the story. If you haven’t seen it in a while here’s a quick plot summary.
The Grinch hates Christmas, though we’re not sure why and so he decides to steal Christmas, presents, trees, decorations, food and everything else. He believes that if he takes everything that the people who live in Whoville, the Who’s, use to celebrate Christmas he can stop Christmas from coming. So he crafts a fake Santa suit and goes through with his plan and takes everything to the top of MT Crumpet to dump it. But then he hears the Who’s singing and realizes they are celebrating Christmas even though he stole everything. The Grinch then realizes that maybe he missed the meaning of Christmas and brings everything back to celebrate Christmas with all of Whoville.
As with the last two Christmas specials there are many lessons we can learn from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, such as Christmas not being about gifts or decorations but people. But the one we are focusing on this year is actually about the character of the Grinch. We don’t know why he hates Christmas, the story theorizes that it’s because his heart is too small, the movie with Jim Carrey leans into the story of the Grinch hating Christmas because it represented pain from earlier in his life. And that’s what we are looking at this Advent season.
Not everyone loves Christmas maybe because they have had bad experiences in the past or because their Christmas experience doesn’t feel like anyone else’s. If that is your experience if Christmas is a painful time of year for you, then that’s okay. Don’t feel like you have to enjoy and look forward to Christmas like many other people. If you do love Christmas, like myself, then remember that for some people Christmas is a sad time of year and it’s okay for them to be sad.
The Good news of Christmas is that not matter who you are, Jesus is born and he came for you. Everyone is hurting and experiences sadness at some point in their lives and the Bible tells us that Jesus came for the sad and the hurting for those who were sick and needed a doctor. Jesus loves us all the time especially when we are hurting.
Activity: Watch the Grinch either the 2000 movie or the 1966 cartoon and discuss the following questions.
· Why do you think the Grinch doesn’t like Christmas?
· What do you think the true meaning of Christmas is?
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