How The Grinch Stole Christmas has always been one of my absolute favorite Christmas movies. Every holiday season, my mom and I would make it a tradition to sit down one night after Thanksgiving was over and watch the movie while quoting our favorite parts. To be more specific, we wouldn’t watch the old animated version of the movie or the flaming garbage can that is the new animated version – we always watched the live-action version where Jim Carrey plays a hilarious, ridiculous, super-quotable Grinch while every character in Whoville makes a real impact on the quality of the film. However, after re-watching it this past Thanksgiving break in preparation for the Christmas season, a few questions arose for me that I never considered as a small child:
1. How do they live inside a snowflake?
Everyone knows that the Whos live inside a snowflake, but my question is what snowflake? Is it a snowflake from a small wintertime flurry in PA, destined to melt almost immediately upon arrival to the ground? Is the snowflake high on a frosty mountain, safe from the summertime? This leads me to my next question…
2. How old are the Whos?
What’s their history? What’s their lifespan? Assuming that the snowflake they live on is situated on a mountain high in the Rockies or Himalayas and will retain its form for an immeasurable amount of time, how long has that snowflake been there? How far back does their history go? In the film, the mayor tells the father of Cindy Lou Who that this year marks the Whos’ 1,000th Whobilation (the annual celebration of Christmas spirit and cheer), so we know they have at least that much time in their books. Speaking of the mayor…
3. Is the mayor related to another main character?
Stay with me here, because I’m going to ruin the mayor for you (although truth be told, he was never a very likeable character in the first place.) When the Grinch is being celebrated as the Holiday Cheermeister, the mayor, Mayor May Who, proposes to his longtime courtship, Martha. What’s her last name, you ask? Martha MAY WHO. Why do they have the same last name?? I think we all know. The mayor proposes to what seems to be his cousin, or an even more closely related relative – confirmed, by me.
4. Who (pardon the pun) is their Santa? What are the limits of Santa’s Christmas capabilities?
This one actually has some easily explainable reasoning, but I digress. We all know the Whos love Christmas and that the Grinch waits until Santa has visited every Who house to go back in as a fake Santa, but who is Santa here? Does Santa shrink himself down to Who-level proportions and enter the small snowflake they inhabit each year? Is there a special Who-size Santa just for the Whos? Speaking of the parallels between regular Christmas and Who-Christmas…
5. What’s the reason for their season?
We all know the saying “Don’t forget the reason for the season”, often referring to the fact that Christmas is celebrated as the day Jesus was born. Do the Whos have their own Who-Jesus? Is the commercialism of the season their religion, and the Grinch is the only one #woke enough to reject the capitalistic greed of his counterparts? When they learn their lesson (that Christmas is about more than presents), what values do they return their view of the holiday to? Is this blasphemy to even ask? Maybe. Am I absolutely over-analyzing all of this? If that’s a veiled criticism of me, I won’t hear it and I won’t respond to it.