You’re an old one, Mr. Grinch

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/12/2016 (3305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Second only to Scrooge as the season’s most cherished holiday grouch, the Grinch has been beloved from his first appearance in the Dr. Seuss book How the Grinch Stole Christmas 59 years ago, to the cartoon TV special marking its golden anniversary this year, even to the Jim Carrey feature film version 16 years ago that also gets seasonal TV replay.

When the tale was adapted into a stage musical by Jack O’Brien for San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre in 1998, it gained its longest title yet (as well as an exclamation point). Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical then toured to dozens of cities, including a stint on Broadway a decade ago.

Some numbers:

53: Age of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, when he wrote How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Coincidentally, it was the same age as the Grinch.

1957: Year of the December issue of Redbook magazine when the story was published, simultaneously with the book.

2: Number of times by which the Grinch’s heart is “too small,” according to the book.

2: Maximum age of Little Cindy-Lou Who, who asked the Grinch why he was stealing her family’s tree.

1: Speck of food the thieving Grinch left in the Who household, a speck that was “even too small for a mouse.”

3,000: Height, in feet, of Mount Crumpit, from which the Grinch descended to steal the WhovilleChristmas.

3: Sizes that the Grinch’s heart grew, after seeing the Whos’ reaction to Christmas even without its toys and gifts, according to the book.

10: Number of Dr. Seuss books on the National Education Association list of Top 100 Books for Children.

3: Number of Dr. Seuss books that won Caldecott Honor for most diswtinguished American picture book for children: McElligot’s Pool, Bartholomew and the Oobleck and If I Ran the Zoo.

50: Number of years since the first airing of the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas TV special, in 1966.

79: Age of Boris Karloff when he narrated and was voice of the Grinch in the TV special. It would become his second-best-known role behind Frankenstein’s monster.

25,000: Estimated number of drawings it took to complete the How the Grinch Stole Christmas special, one of the first made for TV with full animation.

2: Lines of dialogue by Max the dog in original special: “Yipe!” and “Raaahhh!”

5: Rank of the Grinch in 2002 TV Guide list of 50 greatest cartoon characters, ahead of Fred Flintstone and Charlie Brown.

5.2 million: Number of people in the U.S. who watched this season’s first airing of How the Grinch Stole Christmas on NBC on Nov. 25, according to Nielsen.

US$345 million: Worldwide gross of Ron Howard’s 2000 feature-length version, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, starring Jim Carrey.

87: Age of Theodor Seuss Geisel when he died in 1991.

— The Washington Post