This is a strange deep cut and I couldn't tell you how I found it. In a weird way, it's kind of beautiful in what it wants to accomplish. Christmas is such an easily misanthropic holiday, which its overabundance of joy and merriness. It's like, we get it! Go shove your candy cane up you-know-where.
Your ass, we mean.
This song, in 3/4 time (the most jolly of all time signatures), is saying, “Hey, Jack! What's with the blue Christmas here? Time to put away your pity party and have yourself a merry little Christmas.”
Also, it ends with “I Saw Three Ships.” I mean, c'mon, Debbie Downer!
b) How the Grinch Stole Christmas animated
It's nothing new to place the antagonist of the story in the foreground, making him/her the main character and following their every move. Sometimes we just want to understand evil. And sometimes it's just damn entertaining to watch (Yeah, Mr. White! Yeah, meth!).
But I'd like to think it was pretty bold for Dr. Seuss to write a book, let alone a book about Christmas, from the perspective of a holiday curmudgeon...
Okay, maybe the Grinch is just Scrooge covered in green fur, but who cares?
What I love about the original Grinch cartoon is its faithfulness to the source material, something that the live-action movie lacked (for good reasons, like time). Granted, a couple of songs were added, but “You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” has become a classic in its own right.
But what makes the Grinch's story so engrossing? Why is it considered one of the greatest Christmas specials of all-time? It could be the redemption of a truly evil creature who hates fun and good cheer. It could also be the creepy grin the Grinch gets when he gets a good idea (but hopefully not). It could be the fact that I will forever call roast beef “roast beast.”
There are a lot of things that the Grinch cartoon has going for it: a rhyming Karloff as our narrator/Grinch, a dog with an antler tied to its head, A DOG WITH AN ANTLER TIED TO ITS HEAD!
I'm sold, and you should be too.
c) Christmas break
Having graduated college this year (thank you! Thank you so much! I know...), the concept of Christmas Break is already becoming so foreign to me. You mean to tell me that there are people out there who get upwards of three weeks off from their main purpose in life?! To do what? Play Xbox?
What have they been doing all this time to deserve a break? Studying? Homework? Three jobs to sustain living in a decent apartment without getting the water shut off?
Lazy, all of them.
It really sucks coming to the realization that I no longer get a Christmas Break. All that time to shop last-minute, brush up on Guitar Hero, and never have a person to kiss when the New Year arrived. Man, those were the days! Now I have to work through the holidays?! Who invented this BS?!
Christmas Break was exactly like Summer Break—it seems to be over before it started, but now you're $200 more broke and you have a couple new sweaters that don't fit right. When people ask you what you did, usually you make something up, like “Yeah, we went to the Grand Canyon; my uncle has a cabin at the base. We saw like a bunch of bears and stuff. And I met Heidi Klum. And I guest-starred on How I Met Your Mother, but they might have to cut my scene, so you'll never see it.”
Yep, same here.
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