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A Charlie Brown Christmas

Someone once told me that it wasn’t Christmas for them until they saw A Charlie Brown Christmas. I heartily concur. I am incapable of even signing my Christmas cards until I hear those sweet strains of Vince Guaraldi’s piano and the children’s choir singing “Christmas Time Is Here” while the kids skate and Charlie Brown explains his existential malaise while walking with Linus in the snow.

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What I love about A Charlie Brown Christmas is its gentle honesty. True, it’s a cartoon about a bunch of kids with an advanced vocabulary worthy of high verbal SAT scores; but it doesn’t try to dazzle us with spectacle. It’s not loud or shouty. It’s not cloying. The kids are played by real kids and the dialogue is the sweet, funny conversations that made Charles Schulz’s Peanuts the greatest comic strip on earth.

It has a message to be sure; a kind of motherhood truism that Christmas is too commercial. In Charles Schulz’s world in 1965 this was exemplified by an aluminum Christmas tree. The gag has dated somewhat in an age where Department Store ads co-opt the language of values, but it still works as a metaphor.

The best moment in the whole program is when Charlie Brown, exasperated by everyone choosing commercialism and rejecting the tatty little tree he bought exclaims “Isn’t there anybody who knows what Christmas is all about?” and Linus says “Sure, Charlie Brown” and steps to centre stage and says “Lights please.” Under the spotlight he does a letter-perfect rendition of Luke’s nativity story.

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What I love about that scene is, again, its low-key honesty. Charles Schulz, who wrote the script based on his comic strip, doesn’t preach. There is no imperative, no call to action to Linus’ statement--just a very humble recounting of the scripture, beautifully (but simply) read by a seven year-old named Christopher Shea. That doesn’t mean that Schulz toned down the message; in fact, the whole climax of the story hinges on it (and Schulz had to fight to keep it in even in 1965). The result is a statement of Christian belief that feels respectful but not watered down.

If someone more evangelical had made this, the response would have been for Charlie Brown and the kids to convert en masse. They don’t. Instead, Charlie Brown, and eventually everyone else, simply and elegantly decide to accept what they have--whether that’s the poor tree Charlie Brown picked out or the lovable ol’ blockhead Charlie Brown himself-- rather than the more commercial trappings of Christmas they want. They choose authenticity.

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I know atheists who love A Charlie Brown Christmas because they respect its convictions, and even agree at least with its message about Christmas being over-commercialized, even if they disagree with the gently-put dogma. It’s a sign that we’re seeing something very special and very nuanced--the sort of thing we need more of these days.

For me, A Charlie Brown Christmas is a dear old friend I love and admire all the more every year. And I’m man enough to admit I get misty eyed every time Linus says, “Lights please”.