Grinchmas through the years at Universal Studios Hollywood – DePaoli on DeParks
During the 2000 holiday season, the much-anticipated movie “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” starring Jim Carrey hit the big screen and became an immediate holiday tradition for many. As part of the promotion for the film, Universal Studios Hollywood threw their first ever Grinchmas.
Editor’s Note: This column originally appeared in our Winter 2020/2021 issue, but was significantly shortened to fit for print. It is presented here in its entirety, featuring cut content that didn’t make it in the magazine.
The 2000 event featured a Mount Crumpit Snow Plummet and a 100-foot-long sledding hill made of real snow. It also featured The Grinch’s Cave Maze with scenic elements and actual props from the movie as well as a Whoville Whobilation.
After that initial year promoting the movie, it seemed as though Grinchmas would simply be a memory of what once was at Universal Studios Hollywood.
But in 2008, to everyone’s delight, Grinchmas returned in what would then become an annual tradition. This festive event has seen many changes through the years, but it always leaves guests with their holiday hearts growing three sizes. The 2008 return was built in the now defunct Nickelodeon Blast Zone, a water play area for kids. A giant Christmas tree was built around the oversized Nickelodeon water rocket and was the centerpiece for the tree lighting ceremony each night. The area also featured real snow for children to play in and Whoville citizens were sprinkled throughout to interact with guests.
Perhaps one of the coolest things about Grinchmas was the fact that actual set pieces from the Ron Howard film were displayed on the backlot as part of The World-Famous Studio Tour throughout the year. During Grinchmas, these set pieces were put to good use as Who performers along with The Grinch would put on a show for guests as part of the tour. The show would change through the years, but it was part of the Grinchmas celebrating through 2016.
With the success of the initial relaunch, Grinchmas was relocated in 2009 to the much larger space that once held the Wild Wild Wild West Stunt Show, which closed in Hollywood back in 2002. With the bigger footprint, Grinchmas now had the opportunity to grow into an even larger event with a full-fledged tree lighting stage show. It would continue to have a snow area for children to play, citizens of Whoville, the show stop on the studio tour and more.
2010 brought an even bigger event, and arguably one of the best years of Grinchmas in Hollywood. If you’re familiar with the 2000 movie, you’ll remember that The Grinch would use a trash chute in order to get from his home in Mount Crumpit down to the Whoville town center. This detail was added to the performance down at the Grinchmas sets on the studio tour as it was used for The Grinch’s entrance and exit.
We would then meet up again with the Grinch and his chute at the top of Mount Crumpit. If you’re familiar with the studio tour, you may remember the finale once being a large spinning tunnel with different themes throughout the years including a glacier avalanche, Dante’s Peak, and Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb until it was demolished in recent years to make way for the new finale, Fast & Furious: Supercharged. During the 2010 Grinchmas, the spinning tunnel was cleverly rethemed to Mount Crumpit as The Grinch (portrayed by a live actor on the Studio Tour as well as on tram screens) caused an avalanche that the tour guests experienced in the spinning tunnel. This was a fantastic addition to the tour that was done so well, and I wish it had remained for longer.
2010 also saw the introduction of having different celebrities read aloud the book, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Some readers throughout the years included Jeffrey Tambor (who played the Mayor of Whoville in the 2000 film), Fred Willard, Yvette Nicole Brown, Joey Lawrence, Fred Savage, Mario Lopez, Molly Ringwald, and many others. For numerous years, Universal Studios Hollywood even gave different celebrities the “Who-manitarian of the Year Award” for their work with charitable causes. Some of the recipients included Betty White, Florence Henderson, and Fran Drescher.
The next year to see big updates to Grinchmas was 2013, when Universal Studios Hollywood built Universal Plaza – which would become the new home of Grinchmas. They also started to put on small performances throughout the day on the tree stage instead of simply using it for the tree lighting ceremony. One of the show offerings included “Story Time with Cindy Lou,” where she would read the story of The Grinch, which would replace the celebrity readings. They also had Who-ltide Carolers (a traditional caroling group), The Who-liday Singers (a boy band and my personal favorite) and eventually Martha May and the Who-Dolls.
With the addition of these performance groups and the new Universal Plaza, Grinchmas did lose the real snow play area and the tree lighting ceremony was heavily abridged. What was once a stage show around 12 minutes long was now cut down to just a few minutes. The stadium seating that was once available was removed, as it didn’t fit properly inside the new Universal Plaza. Although 2013 brought some nice additions, it was unfortunately the year that signaled the downsizing of Grinchmas.
When 2017’s Grinchmas arrived, it no longer featured the performance on the Whoville movie sets during the studio tour. This regrettably will never be part of Grinchmas again, as the sets were demolished this past April. The mini shows throughout the day remained, but the tree lighting ceremony changed once again, making it an even smaller production.
In 2018, there was some discussion among theme park fans as to whether or not Grinchmas would return in the way that we knew. In November 2018, a new feature-length animated feature from Illumination and Uiversal Pictures called “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch” hit theaters. Would Universal Studios Hollywood stick with their Grinchmas celebration themed around the 2000 Jim Carrey movie, or would they reinvigorate the event with a new look and style to promote their latest iteration of the classic story?
Ultimately, they stuck with the 2000 movie. That version of the film is now a classic and is shown many times on television throughout the holiday season, but it would have been nice to see some new life inserted into the event. Especially considering what was to come for Grinchmas.
In 2019, there were no trace of the performers that once entertained guests on the Whoville tree stage, as they had all been replaced by a Whoville DJ. Grinchmas still continued to offer kid crafts, photo opportunities with The Grinch and Max the dog, specialty merchandise, food, and more, but the overall event had been scaled way back.
Grinchmas truly is one of my favorite holiday offerings every year. Has it been bigger and better in the past? Yes, but I still love seeing the giant, curved Whoville Christmas tree with all of its fantastic lighting, the consistently entertaining improvisation performers taking on the various roles of Whoville citizens (with fantastic special makeup effects), the wonderful antics of The Grinch and so much more during this annual celebration. I hope Universal Studios Hollywood decides to keep Grinchmas around and perhaps some day make it bigger and better than ever before.
Jeff DePaoli is a producer and voiceover artist living in Los Angeles. He can be heard as the voice of Disney Trivia on Alexa as well as the host of “Dizney Coast to Coast,” the ultimate, unofficial Disney fan podcast. Get your free gifts of “America’s Hidden Mickeys,” “On the Rohde Again,” “Theme Park Comfort Kit” and more at DizneyCoastToCoast.com.
