Taylor Momsen is stepping back into Whoville — but this time, she’s bringing distortion pedals and a full-fledged rock band with her. The Pretty Reckless have released the music video for “Where Are You Christmas?,” the centerpiece of Taylor Momsen’s Pretty Reckless Christmas, their holiday EP out now via Fearless Records. What unfolds is a rare pop-culture loop: Momsen, now a platinum-certified rock frontwoman, reinhabiting the role that first put her on the map 25 years ago — Cindy Lou Who from the 2000 film How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
The video opens with a jolt of nostalgia: an archival Jay Leno broadcast announcing Momsen’s childhood appearance on The Tonight Show to promote the original Grinch film. It’s a clever bit of time travel that sets the stage for the video’s emotional core — a literal meeting between Momsen’s past and present selves. As the clip shifts into modern day, Momsen appears as her current incarnation: dark, electric, and fully in command, performing alongside footage of her younger self before she takes over the melody entirely.
What follows is a reimagined, rock-leaning version of the holiday favorite — equal parts sentimental and snarling. Momsen prowls a stage drenched in Christmas lights, surrounded by festive décor that nods to classic holiday specials while grounding the aesthetic firmly in The Pretty Reckless’ world. Her performance is equal parts warm and weathered, capturing the band’s signature blend of vulnerability and grit.
Midway through, the video pivots into “When We Were Young,” another track from the EP, slipping into the arrangement with a surprisingly gentle transition. It’s here that Momsen leans further into reflection — turning what could have been a simple holiday cover into a meditation on childhood, memory, and the strange ache of revisiting who we used to be. From there, she moves seamlessly into “Christmas, Why Can’t I Find You?,” a song she hasn’t performed since she was a child actor stepping into Whoville’s snow-covered streets.
The final scene lands its emotional punch: Momsen takes the stage alone, dressed in a striking bright-red Christian Siriano gown, delivering the closing notes with a maturity and control far removed from the wide-eyed Cindy Lou Who audiences first met a quarter-century ago. It’s both a reclamation and a transformation — a holiday homage that’s tender, theatrical, and unmistakably Pretty Reckless.
With the release of this video, Momsen doesn’t just revisit her past — she reframes it, using the iconography of a childhood role to underline just how far she’s traveled. The result is a holiday release that feels bigger than a seasonal one-off: it’s a moment of full-circle clarity, wrapped in distortion and lit with Christmas lights.