A Charlie Brown Christmas

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” airs Thursday ..... so get ready. A few thoughts:

*This is the first of the holiday specials, and it’s the best, if you ask me. I think that mainly because of the Vince Guaraldi score. I especially like the weirdly sad anthem, “Christmastime Is Here.” That’s the music of my childhood.

*There’s tension throughout the episode between crass materialism and a wish for something transcendent. Sally writes to Santa: “Just send money.” A Christmas decoration contest has ads that start with this line: “Win money, money, money!” It’s worth noting that Charlie Brown, in his resistance to all of this, is genuinely irritating. He is drawn to neurotic self-sabotage. When he buys a crappy tree, and the tree falls apart, he more or less admits, “I *knew* this was going to happen.” It’s the resident philosopher Linus--less crazy than Charlie, at least in this half hour--who saves the day and reminds everyone about “peace and good will toward men.” (A useful reminder when you are contemplating hours and hours of potentially stressful social performing, this holiday season.)

*”Christmas” assigns a substantial role to Schroeder, who isn’t very prominent in “Great Pumpkin” or “Thanksgiving.”

*The climactic Linus speech--linking today’s struggle to world-historical events--was so effective, it generated an encore in “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.” As is often the case with leftovers, the encore didn’t work quite as well as the original idea.

*I wonder if the animators studied Laurel and Hardy, who derived comedy just from certain wordless movements. Again and again, "Charlie Brown" relies on silent interludes--setting a table in an eccentric way, dancing in a school gym--to make you laugh. Less is more. I love these interludes.

Enjoy the show.....

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