"Hark, the Peanuts Children Sing..."

There isn’t a Christmas for me without there being Charlie Brown.  Even though nowadays tv stations don’t do a showing of A Charlie Brown Christmas more than once (if at all), it was guaranteed to be on plenty of times a decade or so ago.  Once again that may lead to the fact of Schulz’s heavy Christian influence in his cartoons.  A Charlie Brown Christmas is special for this reason.  Besides that it’s the whole endearing gang celebrating the most popular holiday of the year, it goes far enough to make the point that Christmas exists because of religion and that the birth of Jesus Christ is the “meaning of Christmas”, as Linus points out in his speech, a speech that is entirely the highlight of the special.  Even during the 60’s, such a strong deliberate Christian message was controversial and made CBS executives worry, but Schulz stood firm on the matter and said “If we don’t do it, who will?”  And clearly it didn’t stop the cartoon’s popularity.  To try to completely separate Christianity from what is fundamentally a Christian holiday is absurd, and despite how commercial Christmas becomes, religious aspects can’t be vanquished and tv shows and movies shouldn’t back down to display it.

To backtrack, A Charlie Brown Christmas is also special in that it was the first cartoon special based off of the comic strip, which then led to the multitude of specials created over the following three decades.  Also, it was the first cartoon of its time to have the children characters actually voiced by children, hence why the character’s speeches are so static.  But it gives it a more genuine juvenile feel, and since then it had become a trademark for the Peanuts corporation.  Besides that signature pathetic little Christmas tree, a highlight for me is the credits at the end when the whole gang sings “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” in their high, slightly off pitched voices.  So sing on Peanuts, sing on!

Another special included on the disc is Its Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown.  Created nearly thirty years after A Charlie Brown Christmas, its not nearly as good or well-known as, but it still holds the Peanuts charm.  There isn’t a direct plotline, just multiple excerpts of the gang doing their own preparations for the holiday.  It does lead-up to the school’s holiday pageant, which was a little random, leadless, and Peppermint Patty makes a complete ass out of herself.  Marcie was on the ball though.  To me, this cartoon seemed more like an episode of the Peanuts’ show “Charlie Brown and Snoopy” than an actual special.

Merry Christmas Peanuts!

For more info on these specials, click on the links below:

A Charlie Brown Christmas: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059026/

Its Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104534/