A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
“Good grief! My own dog has gone commercial!”
Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown…and thank you for over a half century of holiday spirit.
Released in 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas, has been a mainstay of yule viewing for generations. Deceptively short - at about 25 minutes - the program tackles a question that people have wrestled with for years: what is the meaning of Christmas?
The film begins with a down and depressed Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins) lamenting the commercialism of the season - fueled, in part, by his discovery of Snoopy (Bill Melendez - You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown) decorating his famous dog house in the hope of winning a fat cash prize that will keep his bowl full into the New Year.
Scenes shift between Charlie and the rest of the Peanuts cast (who are far more interested in playing in the snow and writing letters to Santa than contemplating existential matters), before settling in on a stage in the local community center where the kids are preparing a nativity play.
Chuck, despite having been made the director of the play, is still battling with depression and frustration when he and Linus (Christopher Shea - Green Acres) decide to make a pilgrimage to a local tree lot where they find the single non-aluminum tree, (“Gee! Do they still make wooden Christmas trees?”) and bring it back to the play. Once back, Charlie is ridiculed by the gang (Et tu, Snoopy), even after Linus delivers a heartfelt recitation of the story of the birth of Jesus.
Running away in shame, Charlie Brown accidently kills the tree by placing a too heavy decoration on it, only to have the Peanuts kids show up to deliver a sweet carol that brings the tree back to life and transforms it into a real symbol of the season.
So…a little darker than I remembered.
But a good and worthwhile, if sometimes unfocused, story that never really tells us the meaning of Christmas (‘though hinting at it in Linus’ story), but does tell us that it is - or should be - about more than presents, bright lights, and decoration contests.
So where can I catch this?
Although this was a broadcast TV standard for decades, as of 2020 the only places you can catch it are PBS and Apple + (sadly, it isn’t on Amazon/Netflix/Hulu) but…if you want to watch it when and where you want, you can pick up a DVD copy HERE.
Three out of Five Real Wooden Christmas Trees.
🎄🎄🎄
Are you a Peanuts fan? One of these might be for you!
