The Grinch Tries (and Fails) to Stop Christmas!
In the Annual Greenville SC Christmas Parade
December 2023
As a new bicycle taxi driver for the Greenville Bike Taxi company in 2023, I made a marketing suggestion to the company owner: We should ask the City of Greenville if they would allow us to have a bike taxi (a “pedicab”) in the extremely popular annual Greenville Christmas parade on Main Street, and have one of our drivers be dressed as The Grinch. And have Cindy Loo Who be his passenger.
One of the famous lines from The Grinch original movie is Cindy Loo Who catching The Grinch, dressed as Santa, stuffing the Christmas tree up the chimney. “Why??” asked Cindy Lou Who. “Why are you taking our Christmas tree?”
I figured at a minimum the children watching the parade would love seeing The Grinch and Cindy Loo Who on a bike taxi and beg their parents to get a ride with The Grinch.
To the great surprise of the owner, when he called the City, he was told it would be a wonderful idea! The owner then told me since it was my idea, I had first dibs on being The Grinch in the parade.
Maggie then bought us costumes, and we were excited to report to those we know that we would be in the annual downtown Greenville Christmas parade starting at 6 pm that coming Saturday!
As a result, on Saturday, December 9, 2023, we arrived at the Bike Taxi shop with our costumes.
Maggie, dressed as Cindy Loo Who, would be getting a bicycle taxi ride from Dom, dressed as The Grinch, in the Greenville Christmas Parade on Main Street downtown. Our company president, who bicycled behind me during the parade, estimated the parade spectators numbered at least 100,000 people.
We had a great time.
Countless people watching seemed to love the wonderful Grinch costume that Maggie bought for me.
What a humbling, joyous event. See this video capturing Dom as The Grinch in the parade.
Coincidentally, I've spent most of my life being unfairly accused of having a "grinch" persona. 🙂
And yes, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED being in this parade! I never, ever had more fun in my life! I already cannot wait for the 2024 parade!
It was so heart-warming for me to see so many little children squealing with glee when they saw me. Like The Grinch, my heart "grew three sizes."
I'm planning to wear my Grinch costume for each of my bike taxi shifts between now and Christmas.
When I wore it the day before the parade, I must have had over 200 people take a picture of me. When riding my bike down the street, motorists in the opposing direction could not resist waving or using their cell phones to take a picture. In fact, the company president wants me to consider an upcharge if someone wants to take a photo with me and then in the photo.
I need to add some theatrics next time, like looking down at spectators with my arms grinchily folded, and attempting to "stuff the Xmas Tree up the chimney" (we carried a small tree in my cab).
Today I learned that the news photo of me dressed as The Grinch in the Greenville Christmas Parade of 2023 also appeared in the December 9th edition of USA Today. See photo below.
After the parade, a few friends encountered me giving bike taxi rides on Main Street and shot this video of me.
December 2024
In 2024, Good Housekeeping ranked Greenville SC as one of the best Christmas towns in America. Their promotional video shows a cameo appearance by Dom as The Grinch.
The annual 2024 Greenville SC Christmas parade was held on Main Street in Greenville on December 7, 2024. For me, like last year, it was another overwhelmingly fun, festive event. Like last year’s parade as The Grinch, I had an astonishing amount of fun. Giddy, energizing fun.
SHOUTING FOR JOY fun.
I get a huge kick out of seeing how thrilled all the spectating kids are when they see The Grinch (and even more thrilling – to slap hands with The Grinch!).
The night started with a terrible event. As I was driving the cab with my two riders (Cindy Loo Who and another friend from Whoville), I had a first-ever catastrophic failure (first ever for the owner of the taxi company, too!). My bike handlebar snapped in two (!!!!), which required me to return the bike and use another. We were already running late to get to the parade start point! We had to transfer a large amount of holiday decorations from the broken bike to the backup bike. Fortunately, we arrived at the parade start point in plenty of time.
Whew!
I'm proud to say that it appeared I was making thousands of kids joyously happy—kids thrilled to see (and often slap hands with) The Grinch. See this video. The Grinch and Cindy Loo Who were shown live by a local TV news station (WYFF).
Here is another video of The Grinch and Cindy in the 2024 parade.
After the parade, there was a huge demand for The Grinch to provide Grinchy taxi rides. Never before in my career as a bike taxi driver did I find it so easy to get riders. I was able to provide 3 or 4 consecutive rides back to back. Each time I ended a ride, I almost immediately had new riders.
Unfortunately, I was not dressed for the frigid weather and had to end my shift early. I would have surely had a banner night as a taxi driver. But regardless, the night was a massive success that has put a big smile on my face for a long time.
The next day, I gave ten rides dressed as The Grinch on the night after the WILDLY fun Christmas parade I was in (as The Grinch). As is always the case when I am dressed as The Grinch, many people insist on taking my picture (especially with them in it). Near the end of the shift, I had the immense pleasure of giving four ladies a ride (in two separate rides). For the second set of women, I convinced both of them to dance with me -- informing them that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dance with The Grinch. One was videotaping the other during one dance, and she lost her balance and fell on her back on the concrete stairs she was perched on -- laughing hysterically when she fell.
The Greenville Bike Taxi company, 2023 Year in Review.
Dom’s Bike Taxi service website.
If you've never attended, the Greenville Poinsettia Christmas Parade on Main Street is one of the very best Christmas parades I’ve ever seen.