ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Students at Osuna Elementary School in northeast Albuquerque were greeted Monday morning by a real-life Grinch.

“There is no Santa Claus, little girl!” he yells. “There is no Santa Claus. Christmas is about Jesus. Your parents put all the gifts under the tree.”

Parents and students had no choice but to walk past him on the way into the building.

“Trying to take a kid’s imagination away, in my mind, is sick. It’s twisted,” said Matthew Harlow, the parent of a fifth-grade student at the school.

David Grisham is the man behind the Grinch mask. He is a preacher from Amarillo, Texas, who was just passing through town. He says it was the calling of Jesus Christ to provide so-called “ministry” to the children on the way to class.

“We want to provoke the kids to ask their parents the questions,” Grisham told KOB 4.

Grisham calls it an “opportunity” for families, although parents disagree. Families tried blocking the signs and steering their children away – at one point, the sign was ripped from Grisham’s hands.

“They’re actually convincing their children that Santa Claus is real and that crowds Jesus out of Christmas,” Grisham said.

Grisham is on his way back to Texas. Unlike the Grinch, he won’t have a change of heart.

Brittany Costello: Why can’t Christmas be about both?

David Grisham: Because it’s hypocrisy!