Tag Archives: A Charlie Brown Christmas

A Charlie Brown Christmas

The opening scene from the 1965 classic

My favorite special. And the only one that mentions the point of Christmas. The artwork I thought was simply wonderful. This and the Halloween Special kept the original crew together that knocked it out of the park. I watched the Thanksgiving Special again on Christmas Day. The graphics again were very good, though maybe dropped off just a bit. I think the voice actors dropped off some too, maybe a little ‘professional’. But the first one, the Christmas Special, was running on all cylinders. The Vince Guaraldi score, the “graphic blandishment”, the voice actors, the storyline. That’s where the Thanksgiving Special fell off some, they wrapped it up strong, but it had a weak middle. Snoopy and Woodstock were possibly the strongest segment. In the Christmas Special the voice actors are what standout to me. Charles Schultz had to fight to get children instead of adult voice overs. The weakest link for me was at the play rehearsal when the dance scenes went on too long. The sad part is this year it was not shown on TV. And when it is, it is criminal the amount they cut off the original 25 minutes to insert additional commercials.

Charlie Brown explaining to Linus he’s just not feeling it this year, the “Christmas spirit”
Charlie seeking advice from the local mental health professionals on his holiday depression
Lucy’s advice was to get involved as director of the play
“That’s what this play needs! Is a great big shiny aluminum Christmas Tree!
I never thought it was such a bad little tree

“A Charlie Brown Christmas for 50 years and counting”

a-charlie-brown-christmas-abc-11302015-1276x850

Patrick Ryan for USA Today had a fun little piece about my favorite Christmas special. The music, the animation, the voices, it all came together for a wonderful bit of nostalgia. Ryan notes that:

“An overt religious message from the blanket-carrying Linus, who quotes the Bible…”

I was taken aback by that line. Christmas concerns the birth of Jesus. That “birthed” Christianity, so I would imagine there would be an overtly religious message. Christmas is a religious holiday, or more precisely, a Christian holiday. Putting Christ in Christmas so to speak. Secondly, it therefore follows that “quoting from the bible” would be a good fit as the bible is the revealing of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, to man. The bible tells us what He is thinking. And, through Christmas, God revealed himself to us in person for 33 years. In fact, I would be so bold as to say the Charlie Brown Christmas, is the only special that does convey that message.

The better question might be, shouldn’t the other specials be called “holiday” specials?