'You’re a mean one:' The Grinch surprises, scares children during photo shoot

The Grinch Frightens Children During Photoshoot

The holidays are the time of year when families make trips to the mall or schedule personal photo shoots with Santa, but one photographer did something different -- giving some kids a scare from The Grinch -- with parents’ permission, of course.

Autumn Cleek came up with the idea when she was driving home from her day job as a pediatric nurse in Palmer, Tennessee.

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“I was driving home from work kind of bummed out that I wasn’t able to do Santa Claus sessions for my clients and the idea of The Grinch popped into my head,” she told the Cox Media Group National Content Desk. “Because although not just anyone can be Santa Claus, anyone could be The Grinch.”

So Cleek bought pieces to make a Grinch costume and worked with her mother to put it together before setting up sessions with her own photography business.

Related: Photos: The Grinch surprises, scares children during photo shoot

To set up the photo session, they used Cleek’s grandparents’ front yard. The photographer decorated the tree with green and red ornaments, but she needed someone to be The Grinch.

“(I) did some sweet talking to my sister to get her in the costume,” Cleek said.

The Facebook post has thousands of comments and shares.

“It was truly a thrown together session that has become epic,” Cleek said.