Seven Christmas Villains

Ebenezer Scrooge
If there was to be a number one Christmas villain it has to be Ebenezer Scrooge. The Scrooge archetype is essentially what every other Christmas villain strives to become. Charles Dickens creation was first published in 1843. Since that publication the story has never been out of print and has spawned at least 22 official stage variations, 2 operas, 4 recordings, 10 radio broadcasts, 49 television show adaptations, and 20 film versions. Among notable actors who have take on the mantle of playing Scrooge have been Kelsey Grammar, Albert Finney, George C. Scott, Patrick Stewart, Reginald Owen, Alastari Sim, Jim Carrey, Bill Murray, and let's not forget Mr. Magoo.

Most Heinous Villainy: Wishing there were more poor houses and orphanages.

The Grinch
Popular children's author Dr. Seuss first brought the Grinch to life in his 1957 book, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." The story had all the Suessical elements of the Whos living in Whoville, but it was the Grinch's story. It's also a perfect example of a Christmas villain finding redemption. For the 1966 cartoon adaptation, famed horror actor Boris Karloff was hired to narrate and provide the voice for the Grinch. At first, Dr. Suess objects to Boris because he thought his voice might scare the kids too much. Thankfully, he was overrled and a classic Christmas villain was brought to life. And we got a new word for a grouchy and stingy type of person.

Most Heinous Villainy: Stealing all the Whos' toys and decorations.

Marv and Harry
Back in 1990, the brat pack's favorite director John Hughes crafted a simple story about a little boy accidently left behind for the holidays while two inept burglars attempted to rob the house. The rest is film history. "Home Alone" went on to gross $533 million, making it the number one comedy film of all time. Marv and Harry were played by Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci. For the filming, Joe Pesci had to be constantly reminded this was a family film and he couldn't drop the F bombs like he was used to. Director Chris Columbus got him to say "fridge" instead. When it came time for Daniel Stern to have a tarantula crawl on his face, he agreed to do it just once. He had to pretend to scream otherwise he would have scared the spider.

Most Heinous Villainy: After robbing houses, Marv would flood them.

Gremlins
Don't shine a bright light on them, don't get them wet, and whatever you do, don't feed them after midnight. Those were three simple rules to follow to make sure this one of a kind Christmas present wouldn't go all wonky. Of course we know what happened in Gremlins. Gizmo got wet and the Mogwai Stripe was born who begat hundreds of other evil gremlins that wrecked havoc on Christmas night. In the first draft of the script, mean gremlin Stripe was actually supposed to be the Mr. Hyde to Gizmo's Dr. Jekyll. Luckily, executive producer Stephen Spielberg nixed that idea. If you look closely, the small town in this film was the same small town used in Back to the Future. In fact the movie theater that went up in a fireball at the end of Gremlins is the same one Marty McFly crashed into in his first adventure.

Most Heinous Villainy: Sending an old lady shooting out of her home on her electric stair chair.

Heat and Snow Miser
Following up the success of Santa Claus is Coming to Town the stop motion elves at Rankin and Bass delivered The Year Without Santa Claus and introduced us to two nasty brothers by the name of the Heat Miser and Snow Miser voiced by George Irving and Dick Shawn respectively. The Misers were the epitome of sibling rivalry and it was only through the intervention of their mom Mother Nature, that Santa was able to get back to business.

Most Heinous Villainy: Using their weather powers for evil instead of good.

Burgermeister Meisterburger
This grumpy Gus made his appearance in the animated classic Santa Claus is Coming to Town. As part of Santa's supposed back-story, the Burgermeister was the mayor of the small village where Kris Kringle first passed out his toys. When the Burgermeister tripped on errant toy duck he banned toys. Even a brief flirtation with a yo-yo wasn't enough to convince him to change his ways. By making Kris an outlaw he forced Santa to go down chimneys. See how important Christmas villains are? The Burgermeister was given life by venerable cartoon voice artist Paul Frees who also provided the voice for the other cartoon villain Boris Badenov.

Most Heinous Villainy: Making Santa a Most Wanted Criminal

Hans Gruber
As long as there have been movies there have been movie bad guys, but on baddie stands alone: Hans Fruber from Die Hard. He counts as a Christmas villain because Hans and his crew picked an office Christmas party to raid. Unfortunately for them, John McClane was on the guest list. What happened next became the standard by which every subsequent action film would be judged. Making his feature film debut in the role of Hans was Alan Rickman. His reputation for playing a Hollywood heavy landed him several more roles right up to Professor Snape in the Harry Potter franchise. For the scene when Hans was supposed to take a death tumble from the tower, Rickman was actually dropped 21 feet to an airbag. To get the right reaction, he was let go on 2 instead of 3.

Most Heinous Villainy: Killing Mr. Takagi in cold blood