Cousin Mel

Melanie Spankenheimer, or Cousin Mel for short, is the main antagonist of the 2000 children's animated Christmas special Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer (which features the song after which it is named). She’s the older granddaughter of Grandma and Grandpa Spankenheimer, the niece of Frank and Rita Spankenheimer and the older cousin of Jake Spankenheimer and Daphne Spankenheimer.

Mel is a golddigger who wants to sell Grandma's store to Austin Bucks, the wealthiest man in the town of Cityville, but Grandma refuses to sell. After Grandma disappears following Santa's sleigh crashing, Mel discovered a letter revealing Grandma's whereabouts, but decided to hide it for about one year to keep her family and the rest of the town in the dark about it. She also tries a scheme to force the sale of Grandma's store by tricking Grandpa into signing over his power of attorney to her, but Jake tries to stop her.

As it turns out, Mel hated the Christmas spirit as she became the cause of Santa's arrest when she frames him for Grandma's disappearance. To that end, she got an unscrupulous attorney named I.M. Slime to assist her in her scheme to kidnap Grandma after she returns and to frame Santa for the crime and sue him to get all his money. She's eventually found out by Jake when he finds the missing letter in order to prove Santa's innocence and she's forced to confess her actions during Santa's trial when she's confronted with the evidence against her. With that in mind, Mel is disowned by the rest of the Spankenheimer family and arrested for her crimes while Santa is cleared from all charges, with even Bucks commenting that she would look great in stripes. It's implied that Mel will be permanently put on Santa's naughty list as punishment for her actions.

Mel is a trim, beautiful, Caucasian woman with an hourglass figure and has shoulder-length red hair. Mel wears pink lipstick and she has light blue eye shadow. She also has a small beauty mark under her left eye. She wears a chartreuse short sleeved top with a maroon skirt tied with a white belt, white heels, a golden necklace, golden bracelets and a white scarf tied around her neck. When she’s outside, Mel wears a long blue coat with gold buttons down the front with a white scarf and a pair of white gloves.

Bitch gotta pay (BTW Merry CHRISTMAS!!!)