“You’re the, the, the, THE GRINCH!”

Christmas is hands down the best time of the year with all the holiday cheer, from putting up Christmas trees, jammin’ out to Christmas music, eating sugar cookies and of course watching all the Christmas movie classics.

The first movie to cozy up on the couch and watch is “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” This is a cartoon classic. I mean who could ever forget Charlie Brown or his singing and dancing dog Snoopy? This Christmas Charlie Brown sets out to find the true meaning of Christmas. Charlie Brown may have gotten the smallest Christmas tree with no pine needles on it for the big Christmas play but in the end Charlie Brown finds out the true meaning of Christmas; it’s not all about the presents or the glitz and decoration. “And the angel said unto them, “Fear not! For, behold, I bring you tidings o great joy, which shall be to all my people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord.” To Charlie Brown that quote is the meaning of Christmas, so just like Charlie Brown we all should watch this movie and find out what Christmas means to us.

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” with Jim Carrey is one of the best holiday movies ever. They took the cartoon version and amped it up with real life Who’s and a big fat green Christmas hating mean Grinch. Little sweet Cindy Lou Who goes up the forbidden Mount Crumpit to invite the Grinch to the Whobilation, which is the biggest Christmas event in Whoville. The Grinch after lots of thought and twisting of the fingers decides to go down. He meets his old childhood bully Mayor Augustus May Who, who gives him a razor as a joke and proposes to the Grinch’s one love Martha May Whovier. The Grinch loses it and burns down the Who’s giant Christmas tree and breaks Cindy Lou Who’s heart. Realizing as he goes back to his lonely home that the Who’s will still have Christmas he comes up with an evil plan. He decides to become none other than Santa Claus and take all the presents and even the feast from the Who’s. He builds a sleigh and makes a nice red suit, and then as soon as Santa hits the last house he descends down the mountain with an evil twinkle in his eye. The Grinch stops at nothing he takes every tree, stocking, present, crumb and even the roast beef. The last house he stops at is Cindy Lou Who’s he lies to the sweet girl saying he’s going to fix her tree, before she goes back to sleep she says, “Don’t forget the Grinch. I know he’s mean and hairy and smelly. His hands might be cold and clammy, but I think he’s actually kinda… sweet.” As the Who’s begin to wake up all the Grinch can hear are their sad songs and tears. When he is about to drop all the stolen goods off Mount Crumpit he hears Cindy’s sweet voice. Something good comes over the Grinch as he tries to pull the sleigh up from falling and as he pulls it up and saves Cindy Lou Who, he finally hears his heart beat. The Grinch and Cindy bring everything back to the Who’s and the Grinch has taken on a new identity; a hero. This movie puts a comical twist on the original and is a must see around the Christmas time.

“The Year Without a Santa Claus” is another great Christmas cartoon classic. The movie starts out with Santa deciding that he’s not going to do Christmas because he thinks that the children don’t believe in him anymore. So two elves Jingle and Jangle are ordered by Mrs. Claus to go down and see if the children believe. They get stuck in Southtown and Jingle and Jangle tell the mayor that they are elves, that their “dog” Vixon is a reindeer and that Santa won’t come if the children don’t believe. The mayor says he will only believe them if they can get it to snow in Southtown (which is in the warm South). Jingle and Jangle take a trip up to see the Snow Miser to see if he will make it snow in Southtown. But his stepbrother Heat Miser will not allow it, until Mrs. Claus talks to Mother Nature who makes her sons help out the Claus’. With snow in Southtown comes the belief back into Santa. This movie will open your inner child and even make you have a little faith in the spirit of Santa.

Christmas time is full of all the joys we had as children and going back and watching the Christmas movies that we used to watch when we were young will make the Christmas season even better, because it will bring back all the old memories of our favorite characters from Charlie Brown, to the Grinch, and even Santa and will make us kids once again.