Real-life Grinches who are stealing Christmas
THEY’RE ruining photos, stealing presents and even banning Christmas altogether. As we celebrate, these people have forgotten their festive spirit.
FORGET Christmas, a number of people are apparently celebrating a new holiday — Grinchmas.
We all know the Grinch from the classic Dr Seuss story, and while green-faced villains and Whoville don’t actually exist, it doesn’t mean there aren’t absolute bah humbugs running loose during the festive season.
Stealing Christmas presents isn’t the only thing that makes you a Grinch and news.com.au has compiled a list of the 12 Grinches of Christmas 2015.
12. A CHRISTMAS CARD FROM THE GRINCH
And the award for most adorable christmas card photo goes to... #auspol ht @ALeighMP pic.twitter.com/VsdWN9mw1R
— Labor Herald (@LaborHerald) December 1, 2015This is easily the cutest Christmas Grinch you will ever lay eyes on. Federal MP Andrew Leigh gathered his family in a garden to pose for a Christmas card. His young son strayed away from the smiling family and is captured in the background looking very unenthused.
With his hands crossed and his eyebrows angry, three-year-old Zachary was looking less than festive.
Mr Leigh told Today.com the family had been doing the photo shoot for about 20 minutes.
“Our three-year-old enjoyed it initially, but then found it rather frustrating that we were all standing still and looking at the camera man,” he said.
11. THE TREE STEALING GRINCH
It’s hard to think how or why he did it, but a man stole a Christmas tree from a festive display outside a business in Philadelphia in the US.
In surveillance video, the thief was captured walking up to the Christmas tree a number of times and he was seen unhooking it from a wall.
Maybe he just couldn’t be bothered to decorate his own tree because he dragged it across the street with festive baubles attached and all.
Or maybe he just really has something against Christmas trees? Either way, it’s certainly not in the spirit of the holidays.
The business owner, who was from New York, told ABC6 he just wanted to bring part of the Rockefeller Centre to Philadelphia.
10. THE GRINCH NEXT DOOR
A Melbourne man with an iconic light display was told he couldn’t put on the 30-minute show due to a “Grinch” neighbour complaining, according to the Herald Sun.
His show usually attracts about 500 guests, and about a week before the annual festivity, Banyule City Council informed organisers the show must not go on due to the complaint.
A permit to close the street was suspended and the organiser certainly did not believe it was in the spirit of Christmas.
The neighbour later spoke out and said the light show, which costs $1000 a year to maintain, was a public safety concern.
9. THE RANGER GRINCH
Parents who proudly watched their children celebrate at a preschool Christmas party received a rude shockwhen they went to go home.
A Melbourne Leader newspaper found a parking inspector fined more than a dozen people who were partying at the preschool in Melbourne’s east.
They were slapped with a $91 fine and the preschool said it didn’t align with a festive spirit.
8. THE GRINCH THAT WANTS TO KILL RUDOLPH
Who would want to kill a deer named Rudolph, especially at Christmas time? The Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, that’s who! Andrew Foots rescued the deer from bushland near Mansfield and named it, nursed it back to health and even let it sleep in his bed.
News.com.au reported that despite Mr Foots finding an animal sanctuary for Rudolph to live in, the department still wanted to put the deer down and it won a court order to do so. It looks like the Christmas Grinch in this scenario is both the department and the magistrate.
7. THE GREEDY GRINCHES
People hired to collect money to buy presents for needy children in California were suspected of being the Grinches who stole the cash.
ABC7 News reported the two people had disappeared with the money collection boxes.
The Spread the Miracle of Christmas charity was relying on the money to buy 800 Christmas presents for underprivileged children.
It was estimated at least $4000 had been raised for the cause.
6. THE GRINCH WHO STOLE ALL THE LIGHTS
HOW low can you go? For the third year running, thieves stole the Christmas lights put up by a man in Adelaide’s south specifically for his disabled brother to enjoy.
Ben, who only wanted to be known by his first name, told the Southern Times Messenger he spent a day installing 300m worth of bulbs on his Morphett Vale house, only to return home later that night to find they’d been taken.
The latest theft had left his disabled brother devastated, he said.
“He loves the lights and we used to go around as kids and look at them. It brings a smile to people’s faces, but when this happens it turns that smile upside down.”
5. THE COUNTRY THAT BANNED CHRISTMAS
Usually Grinches are individuals but in one case an entire country has taken on the mantle by banishing Christmas altogether.
Imams in the tiny nation of Brunei, whose small size belies its massive oil wealth, have banned Muslims from taking part in any Christmas traditions, even those far removed from the Christianity, saying it could damage their faith.
Religious clerics in the country, in northern Borneo, singled out the lighting of candles, making Christmas trees sending Christmas greetings and putting up decorations as being against the teachings of Islam, reported the Borneo Bulletin.
“Some may think that it is a frivolous matter and should not be brought up as an issue. But as Muslims … we must keep it away as it could affect our Islamic faith,” the Imams said in Friday prayers earlier this month.
Those of other religions were given a get out clause to celebrate the festive season but under the strict condition that “the celebrations are not publicised or displayed openly to Muslims”. So, that Christmas tree in the window, take it down!
4. EL NIÑO, THE WEATHER GRINCH THAT STOLE ALL THE SNOW
In Europe, the weather stole Christmas with unseasonably warm temperatures putting pay to hopes for a white Christmas Day across the continent.
In Scotland, daffodils, usually a sign of spring, have bloomed in midwinter while a skating rink in Lincoln, England, melted into a giant puddle.
Artificial snow has had to be sprayed into the ski fields of Alpine snow resorts and citizens of Moscow, used to sub zero temperatures in December, are having to peel of the layers as the mercury reaches a toasty 7C.
The El Nino phenomenon seems to be to blame. Caused by the Pacific become exceptionally warm it has led to changed weather patterns around the world, according to the BBC.
With no chance of a white Christmas in the UK, Frosty the snowman may have to wait until early 2016 to make his debut.
3. THE MINISTER OF GRINCHMAS
Motorised “hoverboards”, this year’s must have Christmas gift, have been banned in NSW with Roads Minister Duncan Gay warning anyone caught using the toy on the streets will be whacked with a big fine.
Riders direct the toys — which cost about $500 — by leaning in the direction they want to travel and the boards can reach about 25km/h, reported The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Gay said the “contraptions” are illegal on NSW roads and footpaths — and anyone caught breaking the law would cop a fine of up to $637. “I don’t want to be the Christmas Grinch but I want people to know and send a message that these new toys have real safety concerns.’’
The boards are also banned in Western Australia.
2. THE GRUMPY GRINCH WHO CRACKED A SMILE
Irishman Gareth Neary is no fan of Christmas and after travelling 30 hours from Sydney to Dublin was certainly not in a festive mood.
So what did his friend John French do for this seasonal Scrooge? Only wrap his entire bedroom in festive paper, that’s what.
In a video posted online, and now seen by 100,000 people, a stunned Mr Neary opens the door to find every inch, from the wardrobe to the pillows and sheets, delicately wrapped in Yuletide paper. Luckily, he managed to see the funny side.
1. FINALLY, THE GRINCH THAT GAVE BACK
When Larry Williamson, from Paradise Point in the Gold Coast, woke to find his screen door jemmied open and all the presents gone, he knew he needed a Christmas miracle.
The presents, his jewellery and his livelihood — a limousine sedan — were all gone.
Devastated, Mr Williamson called police who found the stolen car not long after, about 1km from Mr Williamson’s home, with all his presents inside, still neatly wrapped. Two men, aged 21 and 27, have been arrested.
“I wouldn’t have been able to afford to replace the presents and I would have been without a job,” Mr Williamson told the Gold Coast Bulletin.
“It is a good omen for this Christmas that’s for sure.”