ShmoopTube

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How the Grinch Stole Christmas, a la Shmoop. Can't stand Christmas?

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Does singing make you sick?

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Do you find the happiness of others utterly obnoxious?

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I hear you. I've been there, done that. But honestly I've come around. Sitting around

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a roast beast, laughing and singing, well, there are worse things.

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Let me back it up a sec.

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I used to live all alone in my cave.

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Well, okay, not completely alone. I had Max. I would spend my days sitting there, looking

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down Mount Crumpit at those idiots in Whoville, holding hands, and, smiling, and eating their Who-pudding.

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More like what-pudding. Who knows what they put in that stuff.

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But Christmas! Oh, Christmas was the worst. On Christmas, those Whos would let it all

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hang out.

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Their Merriment Meter would go from an 8 to about a 10 and a half. Unbearable.

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So one year, I decided to nip this thing in the bud.

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I devised a plan.

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He'll be back. I came to the conclusion that I needed to

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take matters into my own hands.

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Rather than let the Whos keep up their infernal racket, I would snatch the song and laughter

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right out of their hearts. And it just so happens that I love to play

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dress-up.

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So does Max.

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And so, dressed as Santy Claus, and with Max doing his best Rudolph, we hitched up a sleigh and

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headed into town. I slipped down every single one of their chimneys,

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helping myself to the decorations on the tree, the presents underneath the tree

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and why not, how about the tree itself as well?

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I even raided their Christmas Who-Cookies. I was pretty determined to go whole hog on

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this thing. I did have to dodge the curious inquiries

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of one Cindy-Lou Who,

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but her half-asleep probing was no match for my clever deflections.

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So once I get everything loaded into my sleigh, I take it all up the side of Mount Crumpit

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and get ready to ditch the whole thing over the side of a cliff.

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when I hear something, unexpected.

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Singing.

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You have got to be kidding me. But no, indeed, those unstoppable Whos are

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still belting their little lungs out.

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With all their food and presents missing, they still found something to be happy about.

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And that's when it happened.

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I can't explain it, but, my heart suddenly grew three sizes.

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Which, for one thing, meant I was going to have to buy it an entirely new wardrobe.

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But, on the upside I finally realized the error of my ways.

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Christmas wasn't about stuff. It was about loving one another, and being together, and sharing.

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That word used to make me shudder something awful.

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Once I let a little love in my heart, I immediately shot back into Whoville, and returned

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all of their whats-its and whos-its.

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And those buggers weren't even mad! They let me join them, and even let me carve their

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roast beast!

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So, if you're a Grinch like I used to be, I implore you,

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give happiness a chance. It doesn't hurt that badly.

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