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?