Are you ready to get your Grinch on? The unprecedented year of 2020 seems to call for an early holiday season and many companies are eager to help us get there. Hallmark Channel is bringing their holiday movies out early and even has some special Hallmark Channel wine to go with the movies. Well, now you can get into the holiday spirit early with a special Halloween-themed prequel to “The Grinch.” Typically, “The Grinch” is all about hating Christmas, but he apparently has some strong opinions about another important holiday: Halloween. As it turns out, there’s even a little-known prequel to “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” that dates back to 1977.
I’m not sure how so many of us missed this prequel, but indeed, there’s a show called “Halloween is Grinch Night” and it aired for the first time in 1977 as an animated TV Halloween special. Similar in tone to the Christmas version, “Halloween is Grinch Night” tells the story of the grumpy Grinch terrorizing the villagers of Whoville, known as Whos. However, in this tale, the Grinch’s evil plot is foiled by a young lad named Euchariah Who, whereas in the Christmas tale, the heroine is Cindy Lou Who. And in case you’re wondering, yes, the prequel was also written by Dr. Seuss.
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” was published as a book in 1957 and Dr. Seuss wrote “Halloween is Grinch Night” as a prequel 20 years later. As it turns out, the Halloween story was so popular and well-received that it won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Program in 1978. That’s not too shabby! But that’s not all. Dr. Seuss also wrote another Grinch tale, “The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat,” a show that premiered in May 1982 as a TV special. That version also won Dr. Seuss an Emmy.
In 2000, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” was remade as a feature film and starred comedian Jim Carrey as the Grinch. Watch “Halloween is Grinch Night” in the video below.