How The Grinch Stole Christmas Idea #1

My ward Christmas party for 2011 was "How The Grinch Stole Christmas." I was torn about doing this because the Grinch isn't focused necessarily on the Savior. But then I remembered President Uchtdorf's talk from the 2010 First Presidency Christmas Devotional, and wouldn't you know it - it was all about the Grinch! So we based our party on his talk. You can find his talk here.

Our menu consisted of all "Who Food."
-Green Grinch Salad
-"Roast Beast" (pot roasts)
-"Who Hash" (party potatoes)
-Green Grinch Beans
-Mint Brownies, Green Christmas Cookies, "Who Pudding" (chocolate pudding)

Our decorations were simple. In watching the more recently made "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" movie with Jim Carrey, we noticed how greatly lights were used. So we decorated with lights all over the walls and stage. The tables were decorated with bright green table cloths, accented with red. Each had a small wrapped present on the table for the centerpiece, which was used in our play later on that evening.

For our play, we cast my 9 year old daughter as Cindy Lou Who. Her hair was quite easily done. We put a plastic cup on her head, brushed her hair up around it, and tied it off with a hair elastic. I curled the ends. I also left a little bit of hair down at the bottom so I could braid it up in little loops.





One of the youth in our ward was the Grinch. I was worried about scaring little kids with a big elaborate costume and lots of makeup, so instead I found a Grinch snow hat at Walmart and a green Grinch shirt, and he just wore some tan pants and I think it looked fine. :)



I told our cast members to wear anything bright, flashy, and Christmas-y. One thing about Who's - while they are wacky, they always look neat and tidy. I downloaded the minus track for the Grinch soundtrack on iTunes here.

Here is an image of the boxes we put together for Cindy Lou's scene in the store and she's uncovered under a bunch of presents.



And here is an up-close video clip of that scene. It was kind of heavy so she struggled to hold it up!



The play was really easy to put together. One night I sat down and watched the Jim Carrey version of the Grinch and just typed out the entire movie. I edited it (I decided we didn't need the whole Grinch/Cindy Lou relationship) but left a few other parts in there briefly so we could include more people with speaking parts for the play. You can download a free copy of the script here. Grinch Script

We had two rehearsals and one run-through before the party. I ran the music from the front, and we had some stage crew helping out as well. Props were lots of presents, a backdrop of a fireplace, a log, some canned food, a little play kitchen, a cup, a little Christmas tree, and a big bag. When the Grinch "stole" Christmas, we had the Who Choir sing "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch" while the Grinch ran around to each table and grabbed the centerpiece present and put it in his bag.

Here are the links to the play:

Part 1

Part 2