The words “Christmas” and “joy” are quite often linked together; however this is not the case of two of the worst villains the world has seen. Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch both start off as two scowling, cold hearted haters of Christmas, with not even the slightest amount of joy towards Christmas. The two come from somewhat similar backgrounds, for each attempts at some sort of stealing to take away from the festive day. The Grinch steals gifts, while Scrooge simply steals the happiness of others. Although both are first depicted as insanely cruel, each character ends up finding the true joy in Christmas. Each went through his own struggles; however, there can only be one true Christmas villain, one who had real reasoning for his harsh actions, yet ended up overcoming his holiday grudges in the absolute best way.
The Grinch is Dr. Seuss’s made up, green, grumpy monster. He is bothered by the happiness of others, but really who can blame him? I know if I were made of green fur I would also despise the others in my community for having no understanding or sympathy. This would obviously lead to some built up anger, along with the fact that he is supposed to live surrounded by singing Whos in Whoville. I am all about Christmas carols and fun songs, but there is really only so much “Welcome Christmas” one can take. Scrooge on the other hand, does not have as much reasoning to be so upset with the world and everyone else’s cheer. Sure, he may have an obnoxious name like Ebenezer, but that is nowhere near having to deal with being green. He is just a selfish, miserable man, living in the real world with no appreciation of fun or joy. The Grinch easily wins in this battle.
In the act of actually taking away the festivities of the holiday spirit, only one of the two got somewhat close to succeeding. Scrooge’s way of ruining the holiday was by giving cruel hours and making others work on Christmas. The Grinch on the other hand actually stole a national holiday. Scrooge’s petty attempt to ruin the Christmas cheer was harsh and all, but at least it did not take away the holiday. Who else other than the Grinch would actually be able to steal a holiday? Not Scrooge, so this one also goes to the Grinch.
Both villains go through extreme changes towards the end of his story. Scrooge was visited by three ghosts in his sleep who told him that if he did not immediately change his ways, he would suffer a similar fate to the disastrous future he sees in the ghost visits. Scrooge is then enlightened and his journey to redemption begins. The Grinch was not visited by ghosts, but instead my little miss Cindy Lou Who. He then realizes how wrong his actions were and decides to kindly give back Christmas. I would say it takes a lot more to be affected by one single person’s actions, as the Grinch did. Scrooge went through a pretty traumatizing series of events, and I know I would be quite terrified if ghosts visited me. Anyone would change if a ghost told them to, so this makes Scrooge’s transformation less remarkable, meaning this one goes to the Grinch as well.
In the end, both learned lessons and did good deeds in attempt to makeup for their heartless actions (which can be taken quite literally for the Grinch, as he had an extremely small heart before he learned his lesson).The Grinch returns Christmas to Whoville and even eats dinner with the Hoos, all because his heart grew. It grew so much it almost exploded, for it tripled in size. If that is not seen as learning a lesson I am not really sure what is. Scrooge ends up greeting others with kindness and enthusiasm and even creates a positive future for Tiny Tim. His transformation is certainly seen as incredible and heartwarming, but he had no excuse to be so heartless before. Scrooge may have redeemed himself with Tiny Tim, but he did not nearly undergo cardiac arrest, so the Grinch comes out as a winner here too, and as the clear overall champion in terms of Christmas villains.
