The Grinch is a beloved character known for his attempts to ruin Christmas for the Whos of Whoville, with his green fur and bad temper making him instantly recognisable. Sadly for one family, the costume they ordered online was less Grinch and more Gremlins.
Angie Dickinson purchased a £40 Grinch costume from Amazon which she was hoping to wear to festive parties and events throughout the Christmas season. But when she put the costume on, complete with Santa hat and coat, her daughter was left horrified - and accused her of looking like an alien.
The 43-year-old said: "What we thought was coming was this nice Grinch outfit, but what turned up was like something off 'Scream’.
"The baby was actually playing with the mask and actually loving it but my 17-year-old said: 'Oh my god, mum, get away from it. Get away from it, it’s awful’.
"She didn’t like it at all. She was a bit traumatised. It is a scary mask, and it’s more Halloween than Christmas. I think I might get lynched by parents if I walked around with the alien-looking thing on."
The mum from Blackburn, Lancs, usually dresses up as an Elf to appear at local events and has done so for five years but ordered the Grinch costume this year instead, thinking it would be "brilliant".
However, when it arrived on Thursday, November 29, she was equally angry and tickled by the daft costume, which she said looked "nothing like" the seller’s picture.
She said: "We thought: 'We’ll get The Grinch’. It’s getting more popular.
"I was expecting it to look like the picture on Amazon. When I opened it, I looked at it and put it on and I was laughing but I was actually a bit mad.
"But how can you be that mad when you see something like that? It wasn’t even the same colour. It was nothing like I had ordered. It looks like an alien. It’s bizarre. I can’t even get over that they would send that out."
"I thought it would be brilliant, but I could not walk around a Christmas fair in that. People would be running scared."
Angie said she had messaged the seller after she received the outfit, who had agreed to offer her a full refund on the condition that she removed her online review.
But she said she wasn’t too worried about getting her money back and said she had ordered a new "Grinch" mask for £24, which was an improvement.
She said: "I message him and left feedback on the Amazon page. He’s asked me to remove the feedback, he’ll refund me and I don’t have to send the outfit back apparently.
"But I wasn’t really that bothered because I just ordered another mask. That’s not like the picture, but it is a lot better.
"I should have looked at the reviews – stupid mistake on my part – because the reviews showed pictures of what it actually looked like.
"You don’t expect it to come any different than the picture shows."
Amazon have been approached for comment.
