Growing up, there were two things my brothers and I always did every Christmas. First, we’d always listen to my dad read The Night Before Christmas while changing the words each time, much to our consternation. Second, we made it a point to catch the 1966 animated special How the Grinch Stole Christmas! on television. Several filmmakers have tried adapting Dr. Seuss’ classic story since, but none of them ever came close to the perfection that the 1966 crew achieved.

Talent Galore

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is as close to perfect as I can ever imagine a Christmas special being. Not only does it have great source material to build from, but it’s got some amazing talent behind the scenes.

The narration is read by Boris Karloff, a man who played dozens of classic horror film roles but is best known for his work as the Frankenstein monster in the first few Universal films. Karloff also does the voice of the Grinch, and he does remarkably well at switching between the tone of a kindly grandfather and the sort of sinister creature who might actually be able to steal Christmas.

The animation is directed by Chuck Jones, who gave the Looney Tunes shorts their best years. And the Grinch’s theme is so great that it’s considered a classic Christmas song even though it’s all about how awful a person the Grinch is. That theme was sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, the guy with one of the coolest names ever and whose singing career was unfortunately overshadowed by the fact that he played Tony the Tiger for years.

Stealing with a Smile

A 26-minute animated special that sticks close to the original 1,300-word story naturally requires a lot of filler, but it never gets dull thanks to the work of Chuck Jones and the rest of the storyboard crew. We get a lot of slapstick humor with the Grinch’s dog Max and a very detailed look at how exactly the Grinch goes about stealing Christmas. The animation catches how much glee the Grinch takes in ruining Christmas. It’s not enough to just steal a toy train set – he has to set up the tracks and have the train ride into one of his sacks, all with an delightfully evil smile on his face.

Chuck Jones brings Dr. Seuss’ wild ideas to life, to the point where you can look at the wacky gadgets of the Whos and figure out how they’re supposed to work. It also portrays the Grinch’s evil as larger-than-life through details such as his insanely cracked teeth and a wicked grin that seems to fold up the rest of his face.

A Moral with Heart

It’s hard to stick the landing with a Christmas special, because there’s only so many times that you can regurgitate “It’s about love, not things” before it becomes painfully cliché. Despite having a very simple moral, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! hits home with its message due in large part to the music and animation.

Dr. Seuss’ story doesn’t hit readers over the head with the idea, and neither does the special. Maybe Christmas can’t be bought in the store, maybe it means a little bit more. The moral i summed up in one line, not repeated, and then the rest of the production drives it home by showing rather than telling.

Basically, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is the best Christmas-related thing there is. Even when I’m not feeling like getting into the holiday, I love watching the special.

An Enduring Legacy

The special is such a classic that it’s been parodied and paid homage to many, many times over the years. There have been two full-length movie adaptations of it, but I maintain that they spend too much of the extended runtime filling in unnecessary details. We get some backstory about the Grinch. We get an explanation of the Whos and Whoville, and why Christmas is so important to them. There is a certain magic in the simplicity of the original tale. I don’t need to know anything about the Whos besides the fact that they love Christmas. I don’t need to have someone say that the Grinch used to be like a Who and went through some Smeagol-like transformation into a monster. That’s all a waste of time. Moreover, it’s restrictive to the imagination. In fiction, you want to get your point across using as few words as possible. If something isn’t really necessary to the story, it needs to get cut. Especially in a kids’ movie, it’s much more enjoyable to let the audience draw their own conclusions on the extraneous details if they are that interested.

As far as truly good homages of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the best one out there isn’t even in a Christmas special. It’s from an episode of The Simpsons called “Last Exit to Springfield,” better known for the running gag of, “Lisa needs braces…DENTAL PLAN! Lisa needs braces…DENTAL PLAN!”

That episode came out in 1993, and yet it remains one of the most memorable Simpsons episodes ever, thirty years later.

As the Christmas season moves closer, I’ll be breaking out my copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! to watch once again. There is simply no beating it.