Via Peanuts Worldwide LLC
Charlie Brown is a classic during the holiday season. Whether that’s because of seasonal depression, family tradition, glee for Lucy and Charlie’s dynamic, or for Linus’s gospel message, we all have different reasons that “Charlie Brown Christmas” appeals to us. There are a few things I appreciate about the Peanuts when going into each holiday season, but the reason “Charlie Brown Christmas” is the best Christmas show is because the characters are super relatable.
Hear me out! Although we don’t entirely connect to the situations that the whiny toddlers are in, we can relate to their struggle surrounding the holidays (even in light of those struggles being more of a childlike innocence). The Thanksgiving special is when everyone's Thanksgiving plans are turned upside down, and Charlie Brown is left responsible trying to appease his friends with a variety of culinary choices, which leave his friends disappointed. Or the Halloween special when Linus’s friends go trick-or-treating, leaving him in a field celebrating the great pumpkin. The most recognizable Peanuts holiday special relays Charlie Brown's trouble with Christmas spirit—feeling excluded and alone.
Charlie Brown may be the focus of the show, but there are other characters that provide a more giggly relatableness. Wanting to help friends solve their problems, Lucy gives Charlie Psychiatric help and the director’s role in the play (is humorous). Sally asks her big brother for help in asking Santa for gifts. Snoopy is both man’s best friend and man's greatest pain, and Linus manages Sally’s crush (let’s be honest, we all have that aunt whose goal in life is to set you up with her co-workers kid). The happy and sentimental side of the Peanuts does not detract from the more powerful message throughout the Christmas special.
The Christmas Peanuts special shows Charlie Brown feeling hurt because he didn’t receive any Christmas cards, locking him into the belief that Christmas has turned into an economic booster. As a result, he searches for the true meaning of Christmas because surely he shouldn’t feel as empty as he does this holiday season.
This struggle of Charlie Browns is relatable, and although it may fly over some people’s heads, it’s a struggle we all have around the holidays. The wonderful reminder from Linus of the gospel message is what carries us through the season of Christmas with all its stresses of changing dynamics, changing expectations, new traditions, new family and everything in between. Charlie Brown Christmas is the most relatable Christmas show out of the wide array of options because of the characters and the message.
Now, you could argue that the message is very common to all Christmas films, and you would be correct, but the delivery is what renders this comment defenseless. The cute toddlers discuss the true meaning of Christmas through their struggles with being excluded, materialism and self-interested helping hands, which is the foundation of every Hallmark movie I’ve ever seen. Yet, it’s the Peanuts who soften the story and make it more digestible with their loveable stature, the background Jazz music, and the removal of overt romance as a goal. The Peanuts bring the truth of the gospel message center stage.