A Charlie Brown Christmas

I will watch this show this week…it’s not Christmas without The Peanuts and watching them all dance to “Linus and Lucy.”

The Peanuts were my favorite cartoon growing up and I would never miss their Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Christmas specials. Everyone can relate to Charlie Brown because we all lose more than we win in life. He doesn’t get to kick that football, his dog has more things than he does, and he is forever trying to get the elusive little redhead girl to notice him.

The Peanuts inhabit a kid’s world where grownups are felt but not heard. At least not in English. I’ve said this before but… Charlie Brown, one day when you grow up… I hope you end up with the little red head girl that you like so much and win just for once…for all of us.

Little Red-Haired Girl | Charlie brown characters, Charlie brown and snoopy, Charlie brown cartoon

This 1965 special has everything good about them in one show.

The gang is skating and Charlie Brown is telling Linus that despite Christmas being a happy time he is depressed. Linus tells Charlie that is normal and Lucy pipes in with “Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you’re the Charlie Browniest.” That sums it all up.

Charlie gets to direct the Christmas play and his main job was to get a spectacular Christmas tree under Lucy’s orders. …He picks the only real tree there…more like a branch but he is sure it will do the job. Most of the gang do not agree when he comes back with the tree but Charlie persists. Linus gets up and reads from the Bible and the inflection he lends to the reading is great.

After that, you will need to watch because it will be worth it.

Aluminum Christmas trees were marketed beginning in 1958 and enjoyed fairly strong sales by eliminating pesky needles and tree sap. But the annual airings of A Charlie Brown Christmas swayed public thinking: In the special, Charlie Brown refuses to get a fake tree. Viewers began to do the same, and the product was virtually phased out by 1969. The leftovers are now collector’s items.

Actors and Actresses The early Peanuts specials made use of both untrained kids and professional actors: Peter Robbins (Charlie Brown) and Christopher Shea (Linus) were working child performers, while the rest of the cast consisted of “regular” kids coached by Melendez in the studio. When Schulz told Melendez that Snoopy couldn’t have any lines in the show—he’s a dog, and Schulz’s dogs didn’t talk—the animator decided to bark and chuff into a microphone himself, then speed up the recording to give it a more emotive quality.

Love the Christmas Dance.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

35 thoughts on “A Charlie Brown Christmas”

    1. The tackiest (and therefore now most valuable) were the aluminum trees with a floodlight with a rotating colored gel so your silver tree alternated between primary colors.

      Vinve Guaraldi had a career as a jazz pianist before and after Peanuts, but most folks only know him for the work on these specials.

      Maybe Arlo Guthrie was thinking of Charlie Brown when he said, “But think of the last guy. For one minute, think of the last guy. Nobody’s got it worse than that guy.”

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      1. I want one of those rotating color wheels… I remember seeing those silver trees…
        I always thought of Brown as us… we will lose more than we will win in life usually on ever day things…. but yea Arlo could have.

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  6. I agree, it’s not Christmas without it! Truly a perfect Christmas special, great message, funny bits and Vince G did such a great – and for a cartoon, revolutionary – soundtrack. I got the CD of it last year…. not many cartoons I’d be buying discs of the music from! And the dancers… man, I wish I had moves like those back in school, LOL

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  13. The pinnacle of Christmas specials. Before Schulz, who would have dared to touch on depression or crass commercialism on a show “for kids”, much less an animated one? Trailblazing in every way. And the music. I have this soundtrack on vinyl, cassette, CD and oh yeah, I’ve streamed it a few times too. There’s never been a better marriage of music to video in my opinion. Vince Guaraldi was a genius.

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    1. I agree about the marriage of music to video… He always had something for the adults and never talked down to kids.

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      1. I agree and say it’s a DVD worth buying so you don’t have to worry about if it will show up on a network when you’re home or buy Disney’s over-priced service

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      2. I would not give Disney one dime…they have the new Beatles 64 that I want to see…my cousin got it and I got it from him.

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  17. Pingback: Repost From PowerPop…An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture – Notes From The Cactus Patch

  18. My absolute Christmas favorite, especially the Linus scene explaining the meaning of Christmas. The creators had to fight the network to keep the scene in, and it is the very essence of this classic! 💕

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