Has the Grinch stolen Christmas from Santa Claus?

One of the things I was lucky to learn in journalism school was to pay attention to details others might miss.

As a reporter, that means looking for changes in expression when talking to people or sitting in a meeting, and noticing that the street signs have changed on my usual route to work. Or if the road itself has changed — like several new potholes have popped up after a storm.

One of the things I’ve noticed lately is a change in a few things around Christmas.

No, not the ridiculous “War on Christmas” or more people saying “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.” Not the fact that we had our Christmas decorations up at our house before both Belen and Los Lunas had theirs up. It was only a week before, but I did notice it.

I’ve also noticed that Santa Claus has taken a backseat to the Grinch. Yeah. The Grinch, the guy who stole Christmas. Twice!

(Technically, he only stole it once, but the TV cartoon and the movie are so different they might as well be telling us about two different times he did it.)

Here’s the situation: I went to several holiday events over the weekend for work — the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office Toy Run, the Los Lunas Christmas Parade and the Rio Communities Police Department’s event.

Santa was a no-show at the Toy Run. Sure, people wore the Santa hats but St. Nick, himself, did not turn up at all. But not the Grinch. That ol’ shrunken-hearted Grinch guy, he showed up — he walked around, shook hands, took pictures. OK. No big deal.

I went to the Rio Communities Police Department’s Grinch-themed event on Friday night, and again, no Santa, but that was to be expected. They showed the Jim Carrey movie. A guy in a Grinch suit was there for pictures. No surprise that Kris Kringle took the night off.

Come Saturday night, I noticed that Santa suits were nowhere to be found in the parade. Sure, there were plenty of blow-up Santas. They were riding in cars, they were hanging from bars. They were on the backs of floats. They might have been riding in boats.

But a person dressed as Santa? Nowhere to be found.

I found out Monday morning that Los Lunas doesn’t allow randos to dress up as the fat guy with presents. There is only one Santa Claus and he rides the fire truck that comes at the end of the parade.

That leaves the Grinch to fill in the void of Santa suits. And he did. There were at least half a dozen people dressed as that green-furred, sour-faced hater of the Whos in Whoville, who celebrated Christmas after the Grinch and his cute little dog stole all their presents and decorations.

(If the Whos had made tamales, they might not have been as jolly the morning after the Grinch’s larceny, but that’s a column for another day).

So yeah, lots of Grinches. Not so many Santas. What does it all mean? What does it say about our country that the Grinch has seemingly taken over from Santa Claus?

Is this a crisis? Does this mean we’re in trouble? Have Americans lost the plot? Are we ALL turning into Grinches?

Maybe. I’m not gonna stress about it too much.

In the movie, the Grinch is a lot of fun — especially if you’re a kid. Jim Carrey whirls around in a green-furred frenzy. He’s non-stop with the jokes and the many manic facial expressions. How can Santa compete with that?

Now that I think about it, there hasn’t even been a fun movie starring Santa Claus in a very long time. So, maybe it’s a problem. Or... maybe it’s a fad. It’s hard to say.

At the end of the day, both the Grinch and Santa bring fun and joy to the holiday season in their own special ways. That’s a blessing no matter how you look at it.

Postscript: I woke up Sunday morning and found a comment about all the Grinches out there on a Facebook post about the Los Lunas Christmas Parade.

Commenter Michele Gilman-Angelucci wrote: “Was there anyone dressed as Santa? I went to the ABQ parade and not 1 Santa but over 100 grinches!!”

Seems like I’m not the only one to notice how the Grinch has up and stolen Christmas.