Confession: I Was Wrong About "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

I was about ten months old when A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired on CBS in December 1965. I can't say for certain that I was propped up in front of the television set for that premiere, but it's entirely possible and maybe even likely.

I would then watch that special every Christmas season, whether it involved clearing that night on my schedule, or pulling out a VHS or DVD, or in the most recent years finding it on the particular streaming service that now holds the broadcast rights to it. I'm not proud; we subscribe to that service mostly (at least from my point of view) for A Charlie Brown Christmas and other Peanuts titles they hold. (OK, so I also watch Major League Soccer matches on that service, and sometimes Ted Lasso.)

This season I've gotten to watch the special three times, and wasted nothing about any of those viewings. I can tell you about how the musical shifts in Vince Guaraldi's score for the show give away so much about what Charlie Brown is going through at different stages of the show. I am always ready for Shermy's one line: "Every year it's the same. I always end up playing a shepherd."  I will tell you which of the lines spoken by any of the characters weren't quite understood by those speaking the parts (clearly the one who voices Lucy's "real estate" line doesn't know what real estate is, and that's exactly as it should be). And yes, I get as choked up as anyone when Linus says "Lights, please" to no apparent character, those lights go dark nonetheless, and Linus begins with the narrative from Luke 2 that he had memorized under threat of physical violence from his sister.

And for all these years, I thought that was the turning point in the show. 

It was certainly the dramatic climax, as unexpected and kind of shocking as it was. Even by 1965, saying or doing something so overtly religious in a network television broadcast was not at all expected or encouraged. You can find a number of sources that will point out how CBS foofs were convinced the show was going to be a disaster, with that very recitation a big part of the reason why. 

Yes, even in 1965 television executives had no idea what they were doing.

So yes, that recitation, with Linus's voice suddenly echoing all around the auditorium, was the dramatic climax of the show, punctuated by his simple statement afterwards, "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

Dramatic climax, yes. Turning point? I don't think so, not anymore.

After all, what happens next? Charlie Brown picks up the barely-there Christmas tree, heads for home (skipping at least part of the way,) gets to Snoopy's first-prize doghouse with some lament and then resolution, and finally plucks an ornament off the doghouse, and then tries to attach it to the tree - and in so doing, by his own description, kills it. With great wailing ("everything I touch gets ruined"), he exits to drown in his sorrows once more.

The rest of the gang shows up. Linus, seemingly a day late and a dollar short, decides that the tree isn't so bad, he kinda likes it, and all it needs is "a little love." And then he wraps his blanket around the base of the tree, which somehow is able to stand up straight.

There's your turning point, almost at the very end. Linus wraps his blanket around the base of the tree.

Linus wraps his blanket around the tree.

Already twice in the show Linus has had to defend his blanket against Lucy's machinations to get rid of it. In the final case, as Lucy is yet again ready to commit violence to get her way, Linus somehow whips it into part of his shepherd's costume to thwart her plans. "See? You wouldn't hit an innocent shepherd, would you?" Also, at the very beginning of the show, he has had to hold on to his blanket despite Snoopy's running grab-and-dash. 

Thinking across the broader history of Peanuts, how often does Linus willingly give up his blanket? Not very often at all. Those times when he does he seems to be in critical condition, something like this:

And yet, in this moment, Linus wraps that blanket around the tree seemingly without hesitation, and doesn't appear to pass out over the strain. 

Charlie Brown heard Linus's Luke 2 recitation, but it didn't seem to sink in quite right. In his head it was still about using the tree to do something right. How that tree, alone amidst all those aluminum trees (side query: were aluminum Christmas trees ever a real thing?), had survived all that time, seemingly losing more needles than it actually had every time Charlie Brown picked it up; I have no idea. But still, for all that, CB was still trying to do something for himself; make the tree be the "right" tree for the Christmas pageant.

Whether or not it came of some of that Luke 2 passage sinking in on him, Linus saw what needed to be done for the tree. He wrapped his blanket around it, the rest of the gang stripped Snoopy's doghouse of Christmas paraphernalia, and then came the Miracle of the Fully-Greened Tree. The kids start to hum, CB returns and sees the Miracle of the Fully-Greened Tree for himself, they all sing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," and the credits roll.

Charlie Brown tried to use the tree to prove something to the other kids, and it didn't work. Linus gave up his blanket to support the tree (remember, "it just needs a little love") and it lived. 

<puts pastor robe on>

In the end, it isn't just hearing the word, or the Word, that changes things. It's what you do with it that matters. 

[Note: as I write this it's only the fourth day of Christmas. You have time to watch the special at least two or three more times, minimum.]