Charlie Sheen -- Denise Richards RUINED Christmas

EXCLUSIVE

Denise Richards is the Grinch who stole Christmas ... at least according to Charlie Sheen -- who's pissed at his ex-wife for pulling the plug on his holiday plans with their daughters.

Sources close to Sheen tell TMZ Denise informed Charlie this weekend she didn't want him to join her, Sam, and Lola on their family Christmas trip -- and didn't really explain why.

We're told the news sent Charlie into a tailspin since he's already not seeing twins Bob and Max this year for Christmas -- they'll be with temp guardian/Brooke Mueller's brother Scott.

Sheen lashed out at Denise by tweeting a pic of a chopped up baseball bat -- a souvenir from their wedding -- with the caption, "The lie is over. I'm done being treated like a relative with a one-way ticket. #DuhNeese."

Our sources say Denise is confused about Charlie's anger -- because as far as she's concerned ... he's still welcome to join her and the girls on the trip.

Clearly, that's not Charlie's understanding of the situation.

It's unclear how there could be such a huge communication gap, but our guess ... we're talking about Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards.