EAST AURORA, N.Y. — What’s your favorite holiday movie? While most of us just watch them repeatedly because we love them, one Western New Yorker watches "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" so he can recreate it.
David Howes says at one point he had the largest collection of movie set pieces from Jim Carrey's version of the Grinch. His love for the movie could make your heart grow three sizes (as the Grinch's heart did in the story).
You know the book, and you certainly know the movie, but did you know pipe cleaners are involved?
“This would have been a baby Who pumbersellas,” Howes said.
Howes is part of the Orchard Park School District maintenance department by day. He's a movie set aficionado the rest of the time.
“I have probably watched the movie close to 1,000 times,” Howes said. “I don't know if we can ever get things absolutely exact, but with having the original pieces, it definitely makes a big difference."
You read that right.
He said he is "probably down to about 200" pieces at the moment. At one time, he had a lot more.
“I never truly, really counted,” Howes said. “But I believe at one time I had probably close to about 600 to 700 pieces from the movie.”
Howes has always loved the Grinch. Carrey’s version only made his love for the holiday classic grow, he said.
“It's kind of like the underdog story when he actually wins,” Howes said.
Then there was an opportunity.
“Just about 2003, and on eBay, some of the props started coming out,” Howes recalled. “When I got one ... it's like, well, I tried for another piece and then another, and then another, and it just kind of took on a life of its own,” he smiled.
Howes has window displays from the Whoville department store and the mayor’s bed.
“Of course, the prized possession is one of the Grinch's sleighs,” he said. “And mine is the most complete out of the two sleighs I know of that exists.”
Another rare item is a stop light.
“This is the only piece that I know of like this that ever survived from the movie,” Howes said.
So what is it doing along East Aurora’s Main Street?
“He didn’t get me last year as a volunteer,” Don Vidler laughed.
The pieces have a temporary home in four of the windows at Vidler’s. This is the second year Howes has recreated Whoville and more at Vidler’s.
“We’ve always decorated our windows for Christmas, but this is just above and beyond,” Vidler said. “I saw the Jim Carrey movie, but not like 2,000 times like Dave has."
Vidler's family’s five-and-dime store is 94 years old this year.
“And you get those mouth-drop-open moments,” Vidler said. “The little kid just looking at the thing because I'd never seen it.”
That’s why Howes worked more than a week to set up the displays.
“It's like, you can own anything you want, but if you don't share it with people, what good is that?" Howes asked.