Grinch-worthy Meal: The new Grinch Meal at McDonald’s spreads consumerism with its mediocre fast food

As I hurry inside from the cold, a wall of warmth envelops me as my senses are overwhelmed with the smell of grease and the feeling of the dirty plastic that covers every surface.

I’m only in this grungy McDonald’s to get one thing: the new Grinch Meal. 

The limited edition $13 Grinch Meal was released on Dec. 2 and has recently gone viral on many social media platforms, like TikTok, for its original fry-flavoring design and Grinch-themed socks. 

The Happy Meal-style box resembles a present, and inside it contains the choice of a Big Mac or the 10 piece chicken nuggets — I chose the nuggets, a medium drink, medium fries, dill pickle fry salt shaker and Grinch-themed socks. 

I was immediately drawn to the small plastic package inside the McShaker fries bag labeled ‘grinch salt.’ I ripped open the salt package and quickly dumped the green powder and half my fries into the shaker bag. After a few seconds of shaking, I opened up the bag to find my fries coated in a thin layer of white powder, sporadically broken up by specks of green. 

As I reached into the bag, I was hit with a unique smell that was somewhere in between garlic, onion and dill. Taking a tentative bite, my mouth was overwhelmed with a flavor that made me scrunch my nose against the hard garlic taste and overpowering dill. The fries didn't taste at all like pickles, and I would prefer to eat regular fries. 

While the fries themselves are an imaginative invention that makes the meal an interactive and entertaining affair, they are paired with the same copy-and-paste fast foods you can get at any fast food joint for a fraction of the $13 Grinch-worthy price.

Some might argue that the wallet-beating factor is because the meal also comes with socks. I would argue back that sweat-shop-made synthetic tubes of nylon built from consumerism and a failing economy aren't worth the extra bucks.

Despite all this, I found myself giving in to the guilty pleasures of consuming fried fast food in a very American fashion. The nuggets I got were the same nuggets I remember getting when I was a kid going on road trips, and I found myself comforted by the warm mouthfuls of familiar food. 

According to NPR, fast food is a way of life in the United States, and that’s not something I would change. However, the increase in social media has made consumerism skyrocket as everyone clamors to get the next viral and cheaply made product that will inevitably end up in a landfill. The Grinch Meal is one of many examples of this robust overconsumption that has become frighteningly normalized.

The Grinch Meal is the holiday special of a Happy Meal, but the added socks and unique fries put it in a conspiracy to shatter the piggy banks of any customer. The flavors were tried and true, with the only exception being their dill pickle fries, which, unfortunately, weren’t enough to make the meal worth it. 

The only person I would recommend to try the meal would be someone who’s never had McDonald's before, because everyone should have at least one unique fast food experience. 

Even with the imaginative fries, it was an expensive Happy Meal with a Christmas theme that failed to put me in the holiday mood.