History Main / TheGrinch

* The Miser Brothers in ''WesternAnimation/TheYearWithoutASantaClaus'' have this attitude in the sequel ''A Miser Brothers Christmas'', where they are shown to not be fond of Christmas because they never got any presents from Santa Claus. They get better after they learn that the reason why they never got anything for Christmas was because they were on the naughty list for their SiblingRivalry.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SantaClausIsCominToTown'' (which features Santa Claus as a young man, then called Kris Kringle) the villain is the grouchy mayor of Sombertown, Burgermeister Meisterburger. He outlaws toys after he [[DisproportionateRetribution breaks his foot by tripping on one]], and Kris later becomes an outlaw for trying to give them as gifts. Kris' solution to this is unusual for children's cartoons: nonviolent protest (growing a beard and changing his name to Santa Claus helps too). And it works. It is implied that Meisterburger's family eventually died out, and his silly ideas are rejected, Santa being revered as a hero.
* The '90s cartoon ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' had a ChristmasEpisode where ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} took on this role.
* Bowser Koopa, [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]'s nemesis, is this kind of character in ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' ChristmasEpisode. He doesn't reform at the end, though oddly in the later ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld'' Christmas episode, he doesn't seem to hate the holiday as much (although he does rip off the {{Trope Namer|s}}).

* Bushroot in the ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' Christmas episode. His motivation for being a Grinch, though, is that he has great difficulty doing his Christmas shopping and swears to make everyone else feel his pain.
* Herman the Hermit and Snively in ''WesternAnimation/YogisFirstChristmas''.
* [[Franchise/{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown's]] [[SadistTeacher teacher]] definitely qualifies for making him read ''Literature/WarAndPeace'' during Christmas vacation in ''WesternAnimation/HappyNewYearCharlieBrown''.
** This was actually an exaggerated version of a storyline that ran in the comic strip, where his teacher assigned ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' during Christmas break (not as long, but still ''way'' too advanced for grade school) and Charlie Brown didn't help matters by procrastinating.
* Cousin Mel from ''WesternAnimation/GrandmaGotRunOverByAReindeer'' is a nasty one, attempting to bump grandma off and frame Santa for it, [[{{Greed}} simply to gain ownership of Grandma's store.]] Not to mention her AmoralAttorney of a lawyer, [[NamesToRunAwayFromreallyFast I.M. Slime.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Homer Simpson steals gifts in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E7TisTheFifteenthSeason 'Tis the Fiftheenth Season]]", accompanied by a variation of the Grinch song. The twist is that Homer [[WellIntentionedExtremist believes he's doing a good thing]] by getting rid of excess materialism (he TookALevelInKindness after watching ''A Christmas Carol'' all night and Lisa ended up giving him the idea when wondering how else to help people) which would allow people to have [[TrueMeaningOfChristmas a more emotionally meaningful holiday]]. Not surprisingly, it just pisses people off.
** The Simpsons family also attempt to steal some Funzos before Christmas Day. Subverted in that they actually have a very ''good'' reason for doing so, as apparently, the toy company that created Funzo also programmed it to destroy any and all toys that are not part of its own line, meaning allowing them to survive would have made Christmas worse.
** In one episode, Mr. Burns is also stated to have stolen Christmas in 1986. In one [[DistantFinale future episode]], a character again alludes to Mr. Burns having stolen Christmas, this time apparently permanently.
** Another episode has Skinner showing kids at the school his favourite movie about "a Grinchy little character who tries to steal Christmas". [[BaitAndSwitch To the surprise of the kids]], it turns out to ''not'' be the Grinch, but instead an interminably long and terrible movie featuring "the Christmas hobgoblins" as antagonists who try to ruin Christmas.
* Mr. Plotz is like this in an ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' ChristmasEpisode that's a parody of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' (him taking the role as Scrooge).

* Must be common for ghost hunters -- turns out ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' is also a Grinch. Growing up with two erratic parents who spend their holidays too busy arguing about Santa's existence gave him a deep hatred of Christmas and probably the only child negligence story involving possessed turkey and the one time a dog peed in his face when he was a baby. Unfortunately, he takes his aggression on the wrong guy and is forced to learn the real meaning of the holidays.

* The Beast in ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeastTheEnchantedChristmas'', due to Christmas being the day he and the castle was cursed by the enchantress.
* Eddy from ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' hates Christmas because all he ever gets is clothes.
* Princess Morbucks in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' Christmas episode.
* Hank may not truly fit this role in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', but in one episode he says "Santa Claus is for babies" causing Bill to tell him "Well ''you're'' a mean one, Mr. Grinch."

* Joe Swanson from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' was a bit of a Grinch since it was during the Christmas season that he was paralyzed. He eventually got over it, mostly. Ironically the one who caused his injury was in fact, the TropeNamer, who was stealing toys from the orphanage. [[spoiler: Though in "Joe's Revenge", he admits the story was all just a cover-up.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Sheila Broflovski in "Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo" and Saddam Hussein in "It's Christmas in Canada".
* Professor Membrane of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' swore eternal revenge on Santa Claus after once getting socks for Christmas instead of the uranium he asked for. He doesn't seem to have a problem with the holiday in general, but he ''does'' keep a fully stocked armoury with Santa's name on it.
* [[RunningGag Repeatedly]] subverted in ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'', where [[BigBad General Specific's]] comments sound like they're expressing a hatred for Christmas, but actually aren't in-context. For instance, he keeps saying "humbug", but is actually being bothered by [[VisualPun a bug that is humming]]. When he orders someone to make "these idiot" stop celebrating happily, he specifically meant to get rid of ''these'' idiots (some random, half-naked men who had wandered into the base) and didn't care when his soldiers started celebrating.
* Batman is presented as such both in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' and ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold''. In the latter, the explanation given is that his parents were killed on Christmas and he was mean to them for not receiving the gift he wanted hours earlier, but he learns to love Christmas at the end of the episode.
* ''[[WesternAnimation/GadgetBoyAndHeather Gadget Boy's Adventures in History]]'' had a ChristmasEpisode where Spydra despised Christmas so much that she tried to erase the traditions of the holiday from history to eliminate Christmas entirely.
* ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons'' featured a ''Super Santa'' short called "Naughty" where the villain was Elmer Scrooge, a descendant of [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Ebenezer Scrooge]] who planned to ruin Christmas by using a gas to make all the children naughty, having grown to hate Christmas because Santa gave him coal all the time.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': Scrooge [=McDuck=] is seems to grumbly angrily about Christmas, but later reveals to Dewey that it's all an act he puts on so he has a day to himself to cut loose, hang out with the [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol Ghosts of Christmas]], and crash Christmas parties throughout history. [[spoiler:He realizes that Christmas is better with family, though.]] He does genuinely hate SantaClaus though, which is later revealed to be because [[spoiler:they used to be business partners until Santa started giving away presents instead of selling coal on Christmas Eve]].
-->"That churlish chimney chaser is ''not'' to be trusted!"
* Starlight Glimmer in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic's'' take on [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol A Christmas Carol]] starts out as TheScrooge, but actively turns into this mid-episode when she plots to erase Hearthswarming Eve for good. Unfortunately, celebrating the holiday also keeps the destructive Windigos at bay and in doing so she nearly destroys the whole world. ''Again''. The events of the episode were Twilight's ImagineSpot while she was reading an in-universe fairy tale to Starlight.
* Quillgin from ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow's'' Christmas special [[VileVillainSaccharineShow is perhaps one of the darkest and most evil examples of this trope.]] He was once an elf who worked for Santa, who came up with an idea for a gift, which was an empty box that could give to anyone who opens it whatever they want. However, after it proved too dangerous since it used black magic that brought out the worst in people, Quillgin sought revenge against Santa for ruining his life's work, deciding to do so by retrieving the box so he can use it to destroy Christmas by ''spawning dynamite on every house in the world so he can kill everyone who celebrates Christmas.'' Unlike most examples, [[BeyondRedemption he's considered irredeemable]] and dies at the end of the special.
* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'': In "[[Recap/RockosModernLifeS2E6RockosModernChristmas Rocko's Modern Christmas]]", Mr. Bighead hates Christmas, and Mrs. Bighead wishes that he could try and enjoy it for once instead of complaining about it. Mr. Bighead hates elves even more than Christmas, and ruins Rocko's Christmas party by spreading rumors about the elves who moved in across the street from him. His dislike of Christmas is because he never got invited to a Christmas party (being the NiceGuy that he is, Rocko invites him to his, but the invitation got lost in the mail).
* ''WesternAnimation/WorkItOutWombats'': A rare non-Christmas example. In "Summerweenie Halloweenie," Mr. E reveals that he hates Halloween, but he later goes trick-or-treating with the wombats. The truth is that he doesn't hate Halloween, he just doesn't know it. Later on, he declares that he loves Halloween.

* ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'': The 19th issue of the Creator/PeterMilligan series had Shade deal with an insane man who assumed Shade to be the messiah and attempted to kill him due to hating Christmas and believing the celebrations would end if he murdered enough people in horrible ways.

* The aptly-named Mr. Myzer in ''Manga/TheNightmareBeforeChristmasZerosJourney''. A cynical elf stuck in Christmas Town, he hates Christmas because [[spoiler: he lost his puppy, One, to a tragic sledding accident]]. Aside from a little gingerbread man companion, he seems to have no one else.

* In 'WesternAnimation/SantaClausIsCominToTown'' (which features Santa Claus as a young man, then called Kris Kringle) the villain is the grouchy mayor of Sombertown, Burgermeister Meisterburger. He outlaws toys after he [[DisproportionateRetribution breaks his foot by tripping on one]], and Kris later becomes an outlaw for trying to give them as gifts. Kris' solution to this is unusual for children's cartoons: nonviolent protest (growing a beard and changing his name to Santa Claus helps too). And it works. It is implied that Meisterburger's family eventually died out, and his silly ideas are rejected, Santa being revered as a hero.

* In the animated special ''WesternAnimation/SantaClausIsCominToTown'' (which features Santa Claus as a young man, then called Kris Kringle) the villain is the grouchy mayor of Sombertown, Burgermeister Meisterburger. He outlaws toys after he [[DisproportionateRetribution breaks his foot by tripping on one]], and Kris later becomes an outlaw for trying to give them as gifts. Kris' solution to this is unusual for children's cartoons: nonviolent protest (growing a beard and changing his name to Santa Claus helps too). And it works. It is implied that Meisterburger's family eventually died out, and his silly ideas are rejected, Santa being revered as a hero.

* In the animated special ''Santa Claus is Comin to Town'' (which features Santa Claus as a young man, then called Kris Kringle) the villain is the grouchy mayor of Sombertown, Burgermeister Meisterburger. He outlaws toys after he [[DisproportionateRetribution breaks his foot by tripping on one]], and Kris later becomes an outlaw for trying to give them as gifts. Kris' solution to this is unusual for children's cartoons: nonviolent protest (growing a beard and changing his name to Santa Claus helps too). And it works. It is implied that Meisterburger's family eventually died out, and his silly ideas are rejected, Santa being revered as a hero.

* Joe Swanson from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' was a bit of a Grinch since it was during the Christmas season that he was paralyzed. He eventually got over it, mostly. Ironically the one who caused his injury was in fact, the TropeNamer, who was stealing toys from the orphanage. [[spoiler: Though in "Joe's Revenge", he admits the story was a all just a cover-up.]]

* Joe Swanson from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' was a bit of a Grinch since it was during the Christmas season that he was paralyzed. He eventually got over it, mostly. Ironically the one who caused his injury was in fact, TheGrinch, who was stealing toys from the orphanage. [[spoiler: Though in "Joe's Revenge", he admits the story was a lie.]]

* In the 1967 film version of ''Literature/TheManchurianCandidate'', as Raymond and Ben are listening to a record of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," Raymond comments "Twelve days of Christmas? '''One''' day of Christmas is loathsome enough!"

* ''Franchise/DCAnimatedUninverse'': Batman is presented as such both in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' and ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold''. In the latter, the explanation given is that his parents were killed on Christmas and he was mean to them for not receiving the gift he wanted hours earlier, but he learns to love Christmas at the end of the episode.

* [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]] stole gifts in "'Tis the Fiftheenth Season" accompanied by a variation of the Grinch song. The twist is that Homer [[WellIntentionedExtremist believed he was doing a good thing]] by getting rid of excess materialism (he TookALevelInKindness after watching A Christmas Carol all night and Lisa ended up giving him the idea when wondering how else to help people) which would allow people to have [[TrueMeaningOfChristmas a more emotionally meaningful holiday]]. Not surprisingly, it just pissed people off.
** The Simpsons family also attempted to steal some Funzos before Christmas Day. Subverted in that they actually had a very ''good'' reason for doing so, as apparently the toy company that created Funzo also programmed it to destroy any and all toys that are not part of its own line, meaning allowing them to survive would have made Christmas worse.
** Mr. Burns in one episode was also stated to have stolen Christmas in 1986.
*** In one [[DistantFinale future episode]], a character again alludes to Mr. Burns having stolen Christmas, this time apparently permanently.
** An episode has Skinner showing kids at the school his favourite movie about “a Grinchy little character who tries to steal Christmas”. [[BaitAndSwitch To the surprise of the kids,]] it turns out to ''not'' be The Grinch, but instead an interminably long and terrible movie featuring “the Christmas hobgoblins” as antagonists who try to ruin Christmas.

* Prior to the [[WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters Ghostbusters']] accidental TimeTravel detour where they meet Scrooge and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, Peter Venkman was ''not'' a fan of Christmas, due to his dad never being around for it when he was a kid.
** In a rare non-Christmas example, the episode ''The Halloween'' features a character who hates Halloween.

* Batman is presented as such both in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' and ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold''. In the latter the explanation given is that his parents were killed on Christmas and he was mean to them for not receiving the gift he wanted hours earlier, but he learns to love Christmas at the end of the episode.

* ComicBook/TheJoker takes on the role of the Grinch in ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween''; complete with his own version of the poem.
* ''Franchise/GreenLantern'': Larfleeze once went on a rampage against {{Mall Santa}}s and tried to melt the North Pole after he waited all Christmas Eve. After Hal Jordan convinces him that the spirit of Christmas was about giving, Larfleeze decided that he hated the Christmas spirit. [[spoiler:What he really wanted was for Santa to [[JerkassWoobie give him his family]].]]
* There was a Franchise/SpiderMan villain called the Black Tarantula who got [[BerserkButton very angry]] when his henchman put up a Christmas tree and told him to take it down (then ''knocked'' it down before he could) saying that he didn't want it because Christmas was a children's holiday and "there are no children here!" (Of course we later learn there was a [[HiddenDepths deeper meaning to this.]] [[spoiler:The title of Black Tarantula was [[LegacyCharacter a tradition passed down from father to son over many centuries]], and when his wife found out about his criminal activities and that he intended for their son to inherit the title, she ran away, taking their son with him. The loss of his wife and son caused him inner turmoil that made him lash out at anything that reminded him of it.]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Archie}}'''s teacher Miss Grundy did the same thing as Charlie Brown's teacher (see below) in December of 2013, assigning ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov'' over Christmas break.
* In Marvel's "Gwenpool Holiday Special", the normally-cheery [[ComicBook/MsMarvel2014 Kamala Khan]] has a short story based around this, appropriately titled "Ms. Grinch". She's a Muslim whose culture doesn't celebrate Christmas and she doesn't like feeling left out during the holidays, but gets to vent by punching [[BadSanta a robber dressed like Santa]].
* The 22nd issue of ''ComicBook/Hitman1993'' had a Christmas-hating janitor named Bob Smurd as the villain, who falls into a nuclear reactor and ends up becoming a [[NuclearMutant radioactive]], [[BadSanta murderous Santa Claus]].

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', Jessie has a serious grudge against Santa Claus for a long time, believing he stole something from her when she was a child (It was a misunderstanding that he is eventually able to explain; unfortunately, this doesn't stop her and James from trying to rob him).

For the animated feature film adaptation of the TropeNamer, see ''WesternAnimation/TheGrinch2018''.

* In the live-action version of ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'', [[TropeName the Grinch]] still fits. ''However'', in this version, he's portrayed as somewhat of a sympathetic character, while most of the Whos are depicted as sadly materialistic. In a way, his actions are slightly justified. (And while ''he'' learns the true meaning of Christmas at the end, you have to admit, stealing Christmas does a good job teaching the same lesson to the people he stole from.)

* The Grinch in ''Literature/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' is the TropeNamer. He learns the TrueMeaningOfChristmas when his heart suddenly grows three sizes.

* In ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' [[YouMeanXmas Wintersday]] celebrations, Grenth and his followers work to spoil the holiday for everyone else. There are a pair of {{Shout Out}}s to the TropeNamer: Grenth has minions called Grentches, and one Dwayna-supporting quest is called "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grenth."

* Bowser Koopa, [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]'s nemesis, is this kind of character in ''Series/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' ChristmasEpisode. He doesn't reform at the end, though oddly in the later ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld'' Christmas episode, he doesn't seem to hate the holiday as much (although he does rip off the TropeNamer).

* The Chinese government views Christmas as a pro-Western/religious holiday and [[BannedInChina tries to suppress it accordingly]].

* Christmas is likewise suppressed in some majority-Muslim countries. For example, the Somali government [[http://www.firstpost.com/world/nothing-to-do-with-islam-somalia-bans-christmas-and-new-years-celebrations-2557660.html outright outlawed Christmas (and New Year's) celebrations]] in 2015, claiming the holidays "had nothing to do with Islam". How they plan to enforce this edict is unclear at present. (Almost every citizen of Somalia itself is Muslim, but there are thousands of non-Muslim African Union peacekeepers in residence.)

* The Chinese government sees Christmas as a pro-Western/religious holiday and tries to suppress it accordingly.

* In ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', Jessie has a serious grudge against Santa Claus for a long time, believing he stole something from her when she was a child (It was a misunderstanding that he is eventually able to explain; unfortunately, this doesn't stop her and James from trying to rob him).
* The main character in ''Manga/ItsudatteMySanta'' hates Christmas due to his tragic childhood, as well as being born on December 24th and named Santa.

* Hanukkah version with Davey from ''WesternAnimation/EightCrazyNights '', it was revealed that [[spoiler: his parents was killed on their way to see him in his basketball game.]]

* WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}} starts out as one of these in ''Shrek the Halls''.

* Quillgin from ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow's'' Christmas special [[VileVillainSaccharineShow is perhaps one of the darkest and most evil examples of this trope.]] He was once an elf who worked for Santa, who came up with an idea for a gift, which was an empty box that could give to anyone who opens it whatever they want. However, after it proved too dangerous since it used blackk magic that brought out the worst in people, Quillgin sook revenge against Santa for ruining his life's work. And decided to do so by retreiving the box so he can use it to destroy Christmas by ''spawning dynamite on every house in the world so he can kill everyone who celebrates Christmas.'' Unlike most examples, [[BeyondRedemption he's considered irredeemable]] and dies at the end of the special.

* A tie-in storybook based on the film ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' called "Mater Saves Christmas" has Chick Hicks play the Grinch character (he's even painted green!).

* ''WesternAnimation/WorkItOutWomabts'': A rare non-Christmas example. In "Summerweenie Halloweenie," Mr. E reveals that he hates Halloween, but he later goes trick-or-treating with the wombats. The truth is that he doesn't hate Halloween, he just doesn't know it. Later on, he declares that he loves Halloween.