Line #62 Main/TheAntiGrinch


1	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tumblr_lu6wqxoqj91r5d1tgo1_500.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"...I bet I could improve it too, and that's exactly what I'll do!"]]
3
4	-> '''Malcom:''' My god! I didn't think you'd need to travel to another dimension to prove your love of Christmas!\
5	'''Nostalgia Critic:''' Well, this is set to be the dimension that loves Christmas the most, and I have to let my love for this holiday ''destroy them all.'' Nobody loves Christmas more than me... ''to death.''
6	-->-- ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'' review of ''WesternAnimation/RapsittieStreetKidsBelieveInSanta''
7
8	There are [[TheGrinch people who hate Christmas]]; those who want to see it end in flames and screams and sad faces. But one cannot accomplish such a thing as ruining Christmas so easily, as the spirit of Christmas is often too powerful for one person to ruin it so thoroughly.
9
10	[[ObliviouslyEvil But sometimes the road to Hell is paved with good intentions]]. Enter this guy.
11
12	The Anti-Grinch, alternatively known as the Anti-Scrooge, ''loves'' Christmas. Loves it in the "going out of their way to make it special" kind of way. They might even want to add to it and share it with the world. This usually involves [[MallSanta playing Santa Claus]] as he or she brings presents to all of the good little boys and girls.
13
14	This has a history of backfiring, as usually [[BadSanta what they bring to the table isn't really something appropriate]] for the occasion, poisoning the season and those warm-fuzzy feelings. This is mostly out of ignorance of their actions, the Anti-Grinch realizing their mistake and [[SavingChristmas fixing it at the very last second]].
15
16	A variant of this is a character's overzealouness for Christmas driving them to [[ChristmasEveryDay wish for it to come every day]], but eventually learn that [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor way too much of a good thing can ruin it for everybody.]]
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18	Consider the opposite of TheGrinch and [[HowTheCharacterStoleChristmas how he failed to steal Christmas]]. The Anti-Grinch, by contrast, doesn't set out to steal anything, but otherwise pulls off exactly what TheGrinch deliberately set out to do.
19
20	----
21	!!Examples:
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23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
26	* ''WesternAnimation/MickeysTwiceUponAChristmas'' has Mickey over-decorating his house so much that he ends up scaring Pluto away after getting irritated when [[StuffBlowingUp everything goes wrong]]. It takes Pluto ending up at the North Pole and serving as part of Santa's Workshop for him to come to his senses.
27	* Jack Skellington from ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' stumbles upon Christmas Town one day after getting bored with Halloween, and instantly falls in love with the idea of Christmas. He loves Christmas ''so'' much that he tries taking over for the year, only to terrify the ignorant masses with his gifts mail-order from HalloweenTown. It gets so bad, the human authorities shoot Jack out of the sky, literally knocking Jack to his senses about [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone how badly he messed up the holiday]].
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
31	* Depending on how you interpret ''Film/ChristmasWithTheKranks'', it's a bit ZigZagged. The Kranks' neighbors don't seem ''meant'' to be seen this way, but they badger the Kranks into conforming to the big over-the-top neighborhood celebration, leaving us with the {{aesop}} that TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong. Many viewers observe that StrawmanHasAPoint -- the Kranks just wanted a quiet family getaway, but the neighbors' forced holiday cheer ruined their plans.
32	* [[PosthumousCharacter Kate's father]] in ''Film/{{Gremlins}}''. According to her story, he dressed up as Santa to slide down their chimney to surprise her and her mother with gifts, but broke his neck and got stuck in the chimney instead. He wasn't discovered until days later. The experience traumatized Kate and understandably ruined her outlook on the Christmas season.
33	* In ''Film/TheGuardiansOfTheGalaxyHolidaySpecial'', Mantis and Drax want to give Quill a proper Christmas, since they don't think he's had one since he was abducted from Earth. For reasons that ''almost'' make sense at the time, they decide this means kidnapping Creator/KevinBacon and giving him to Quill as a present. Needless to say, Quill points out that they're just committing ''another'' abduction.
34	* ''Film/TheMagicalChristmasTree'': Strickling hates Christmas until he is visited by magical ghosts of Christmas, so he decides to change his ways, and bring peace and joy to everyone. It does not go well.
35	* Clark Griswold on both ''Film/NationalLampoonsVacation'' and ''Film/NationalLampoonsChristmasVacation'', where his over-zealousness to give his family the best experience ever come hell or high water overrides said family's desire to enjoy a simpler experience and completely makes their lives a living hell (to not mention wrecks their car/house). Clark's son Rusty follows the tradition in the 2015 ''Film/{{Vacation}}'' remake-slash-continuation.
36	* After the opening origin story stretch of ''Film/SantaClausTheMovie'', the plot is driven primarily by one of his elves, Patch. He is a forward-thinking inventor who believes he can bring the North Pole into ThePresentDay with an automated toy production system, but while it initially works, ''everyone'' realizes too late that many of the toys it produces are defective, spoiling an entire Christmas season. Guilt-ridden and believing Santa no longer likes him, Patch becomes determined to prove he can get Christmas right and descends into the human world to [[StartMyOwn produce, market, and distribute]] (via a FlyingCar) a lollipop that temporarily induces flight. Unfortunately, as he is a WideEyedIdealist he puts his trust in a crooked toymaker, B.Z., who agrees to bankroll him so that he can exploit his inventions for cold hard cash and become a VillainWithGoodPublicity. Patch's project is so successful come the next Christmas that it '''upstages''' Santa, sending Santa into a blue funk. When Patch realizes via a young human friend of Santa that he not only didn't need to win back Santa's favor but actually made things worse, he decides to return to the North Pole with the next treat he was designing for B.Z. -- candy canes that are even more powerful than the lollipops -- and give them to Santa to distribute, figuring it will be a "best of both worlds" situation. Unfortunately there's the little matter that the candy canes [[MadeOfExplodium explode when exposed to high temperatures]] (something only the villains know of at the time), leading to a climactic ChaseScene as Santa and his reindeer pursue the car...
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Literature]]
40	* The short story ''Christmas Every Day'' is about a little girl who likes Christmas so much that she writes to the old Christmas Fairy, asking for it to be Christmas every day. Her wish is granted for one year. During that year, everyone except the confectioners, the storekeepers, and the book-sellers is left poverty-stricken from the constant gift-shopping, and all the woods and orchards are cut down for Christmas trees.
41	* Death standing in for the Literature/{{Hogfather}}, in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel of the same name, has elements of this, such as very nearly giving a girl a real sword rather than a wooden one, and putting a pony in a second-floor flat. However, it's ultimately subverted, as it turns out Death's brand of {{Literal Minded}}ness means he grasps what Hogswatch is supposed to be about much more clearly than most people, and worries at the things everyone else accepts as part of the season, but which are actually a bit off (little match girls dying in the snow, smug kings offloading their leftovers onto bewildered peasants, and the Hogfather only giving children the sort of presents the family could have afforded anyway.)
42	* The short story ''Our Crafty Little Christmas'' is told from the point of view of a father who is sick of having a CommercializedChristmas every year and talks his wife and three boys into doing it differently. All gifts are to be handmade and cost no more than a dollar, and they buy a tree that can be planted outside after Christmas. When it's time to exchange gifts, no one is happy with the plastic flowers and handmade jewelry, and the tree is a spindly thing, scarcely three feet high, which dies three months after it's planted. In the father's words, "All of our self-conscious attention to the staging of Christmas had only succeeded in almost killing the magic of the holiday."
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
46	* In the ''Series/SesameStreet'' special ''Film/ElmoSavesChristmas'', Elmo wishes that it was Christmas every day. Cut to a year later, and everyone is broke because they have to buy Christmas presents every day, the Fix-It shop is out of business because they can't be open on Christmas, carolers have lost their voices, Big Bird is despondent because Snuffy is away for the holiday (forever!), and the Count is [[RadishCure tired of counting Christmases]]. Santa himself is a wreck. Elmo gets a chance to press the ResetButton, therefore saving Christmas -- when he was the one who ruined it.
47	[[/folder]]
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49	[[folder:Web Comics]]
50	* Good Girl from ''Webcomic/LeagueOfSuperRedundantHeroes'' always goes ''totally nuts'' over Christmas and tends to go overboard, so much that her friends delay reminding her of the date as long as possible.
51	[[/folder]]
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53	[[folder:Web Original]]
54	* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic has turned this into a RunningGag for the start of each December, eventually becoming MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds due to just how ''much'' he loves the holiday.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Western Animation]]
58	* ''WesternAnimation/TheCupheadShow'': In "[[Recap/TheCupheadShowS3E6AVeryDevilChristmas A Very Devil Christmas]]", the Devil is shown to love Christmas. And he loves it because it gives him so many joyous holiday moments... to ruin and cause mischief. And he loves the idea of being given Christmas gifts. The only thing he hates about Christmas is actually being nice and jolly, which he is forced to do as Santa, in order for him to be on the Nice List to be given a toy train.
59	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Timmy Turner wishes for Christmas to occur every day (365 straight days of Christmas). This backfires as after about 15 days, everyone had grown tired of neverending Christmases, and the fairies are unable to cancel the wish as their magic was sent to empower Santa Claus. Only by Timmy convincing children all over the world to write letters to Santa and have him end the neverending Christmas is the wish finally broken.
60	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E21Hearthbreakers Hearthbreakers]]", Applejack, along with her family, visits Pinkie Pie's home in Hearths Warming Day. Noticing that Pinkie's family tradition differs from Applejack's, to the point that it was literally dull as rocks, she vamps up the place using her traditions to enlighten the Hearths Warming spirit. It backfires spectacularly when the Pie family landmark, a giant egg-shaped boulder, falls off the edge of a cliff and gets stuck at the bottom of a quarry.
61	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E7TisTheFifteenthSeason "Tis The Fifteenth Season"]], Homer decides to change his ways and become the nicest person in town. When he gets told there's too much commercialism in Christmas and that everyone is better off without presents (by [[SoapboxSadie Lisa]]), Homer decides to to the "ultimate good deed" by stealing Christmas. Needless to say, [[TorchesAndPitchforks this doesn't work]].
62	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': One Christmas special has [=SpongeBob=] learn about Christmas from Sandy, and proceeds to get the entire town excited about Santa, [[SubvertedTrope mostly succeeding]]. For everyone except Squidward, who of course only dislikes Christmas more for [=SpongeBob=] liking it.
63	* ''WesternAnimation/WinnieThePoohAndChristmasToo'': Christopher Robin writes to Santa, saying what he and his friends would like for Christmas. When Pooh realizes that the letter never arrived, he decides to make the presents his friends asked for, then dress up as Santa to deliver them. Unfortunately, the hastily made presents fall apart, and his friends decide to go after the fake Santa, not realizing it's Pooh until moments later.
64	[[/folder]]

Context Main / TheAntiGrinch