Nobody loves the Grinch whose heart grew three sizes. Everybody loves the Grinch whose diabolical smile curls up so sinisterly.  No matter how many times I’ve seen it, I snicker at the Grinch slinking like a snake up the tree and stealing everything in the house including the last crumb from a mouse or the last log from the family fire. We all love the dissonant sounds of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and the low and harsh voice: “You’re as cuddly as a cactus/You’re as charming as an eel …”. Sure the Whos down in Whoville are cute, but no one’s buying Cindy Lou Who products; they’re buying mean Grinch pajamas, coffee cups with the “F” word, and even my sweet 70-year-old mother wants a wooden cut-out to put in her yard. 

The point? We love the villain in Christmas movies. 

Like most kids, I grew up watching Christmas movies. In 1992, I remember going to see “Home Alone 2” in the theater on Christmas day with my cousins. They hadn’t seen the first “Home Alone”. You haven’t seen it?! I loved, and still do, the absurd violence on the “Wet Bandits”. Those dastardly robbers aren’t the true villains, though, it’s the rich kid Kevin who caused the milk to spill all over the pizzas and talked back to his mother wishing he had a new family.  I remember a neighbor recorded all of the stop-motion animated films from the ’60s,  “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ” still being one of my ultimate favorites, but it’s always the bumbling abominable snowman that makes me smile, not the whiny, red-nosed reindeer. 

What got me thinking about the meaning behind Christmas movies was when I became a parent. Now, I could relive my childhood movies with my daughter. Last year Anna and I made a 30+ list of movies we had to watch during the Christmas season. We got through them all, mindlessly. This year I vowed to watch them with a closer eye, analyzing what truly makes a Christmas movie. I am an English teacher, after all. This was after a small debate with my husband, also an English teacher, on whether “Die Hard” was truly a Christmas movie. After watching and taking notes diligently of a rewatch of “Home Alone” and “Christmas with the Kranks”, as well as a new viewing of Eddie Murphy’s “Candy Cane Lane” – there really wasn’t much there. I could see the tropes. 

A journey or family reunion. Check.

Moral transformation. Check. 

Chase sequence. Check. 

Community disbelief. Check.

Neighborhood rivals. Check. 

Yes, “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie after all. (It checks most of those boxes.)

But, what I did come to find unique in my 30th viewing of Home Alone, along with some new ones like Heather Graham’s “Best. Christmas. Ever!” – and hey, it’s only December 22, so there’s still a lot more viewing out there – it’s the villain we’re after. Every Christmas movie has a  character who has a moral transformation, which speaks to the Christian ethos of the American viewer. We want to be saved because – although not as vile as the Grinch – we are all imperfect. We have all been brats to our mothers, like Kevin McCalister. We have all felt that tinge of envy at our friends who had a more perfect Chrstmas newsletter, like Heather Graham’s character. We have all felt the inadequacies that Eddie Murphy’s character feels. And yet, villains they may be, they are the stars of the show. They still get their Christmas gift. They still get saved. And it’s because of their belief in Santa or love or family, or whatever the spin may be – it is the belief that saves them no matter the level of their transgressions. 

Now, depending on the genre of the Christmas movie the cheese level has probably been blasting the whole movie. But when the protagonist clearly makes that moral transformation the cheesiness becomes a melting goo so thick, only your tolerance and experience watching Christmas movies can save you. Cue the sappy music. Cue the miracle. Cue the “real” Santa sighting. It all comes down to this moment – and you either go with it, or you really do become the Grinch we all love to hate.

-Meghan Donnelly, Houston, TX