The holiday season is currently upon us and cable channels are in full competition to see who can cram the most Christmas movies down our throats by the time December 25th comes around. We’re definitely not complaining, especially when those movies include classics such as A Charlie Brown Christmas Special.
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the whole gang of Peanuts give one of their best on-screen performances in this particular special as everybody’s favorite group of blockheads try to find the real meaning of Christmas. Take a look at our list of 10 memorable moments from this very memorable half-hour Christmas special.
Snoopy Ice-Skating
If you’re doing the math here, 10 memorable moments in a special that’s only half an hour-long means at least one memorable moment every 3 minutes - and the Peanuts pull it off, starting with the very first scene.
Vince Guaraldi graces the audience with the opening song of, “Christmas Time is Here,” which all the Peanuts merrily sing and ice-skate along too, but Snoopy decides to come along and cause a mess of havoc as he tosses the entire gang of Peanuts around the frozen pond. The special had barely even started and Snoopy was already doing what he does best. Good dog.
Linus knocking out tin-can
Why isn’t Linus the one on the pitching mound for the Peanuts instead of Charlie Brown? Granted, using his blanket to throw the baseball might be against the official rules, but it doesn’t negate the fact that Linus can absolutely sling it with his trusted blue blanket.
When a few of the Peanuts try knocking a tin can off of a fence with snowballs, they all fail miserably, including the aforementioned blockhead pitcher, Charlie Brown. Then Linus steps up, loads a snowball into his blanket and whips it at the can, knocking it down on his first attempt.
Charlie Brown going to Lucy for therapy
To paraphrase a famous Pixar character, “I don’t believe that woman has ever been to medical school.” Seriously, we want to know who gave Lucy a psychiatry degree, or at least what gives her the right to scam children out of their hard-earned nickels. All Charlie Brown wants this holiday season is to understand the meaning of Christmas, and since he doesn’t quite understand it he naturally looks for a little help.
But rather than just take Linus’ advice of bucking up and realizing that the magic of Christmas isn’t a problem, he seeks out “professional” help from the child who wants real estate for a gift. Charlie Brown needs a real therapist to talk about his fake one.
Sally asking Charlie Brown to write her Christmas letter
Linus may not have liked Sally back, but the two of them were honestly perfect for each other since they were the only members of the Peanuts gang to always keep it real no matter what. Because of her young age, Sally can’t yet write everything that she wants to ask for for Christmas on her list to Santa, so she naturally asks her big brother to fill out the list for her.
She makes Charlie Brown take note that she’s been extra good this year so if the toys she believes she’s warranted are too extravagant, Santa should just send lots of $10’s and $20’s. As Sally very simply put it, all she wants is her fair share.
Peanuts dancing, Snoopy booing Charlie Brown
It wouldn’t be a Charlie Brown Special if it didn’t include the classic Peanuts theme song, but the best part about this particular special is that it shows all of the Peanuts dancing along to the jazzy-riff as they prepare for their Christmas play.
But while the song and the children dancing are spectacular, the best part of the scene is when Charlie Brown enters and cuts the music short. Lucy steps forward and introduces everyone to the new director of the Christmas play and everybody starts to applaud - except for Snoopy who lets out an incredibly obnoxious ‘boo’ instead. Man’s best friend, indeed.
Everybody gets assigned their part
This particular scene is unique when compared to the other Charlie Brown Specials because most of the time the story is centered around a small handful of characters. But in this particular case, Charlie Brown has to hand out the role-assignments for every Peanut member that’s in the Christmas play, and therefore the audience gets to spend just a little bit of time with virtually every Peanut.
While the Halloween and Thanksgiving specials very much focus on just Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy, and Lucy, this scene allows the audience to really feel intertwined with the entire gang.
Snoopy being all animals, mocking Lucy
Snoopy is undoubtedly the G.O.A.T of the Peanuts universe, and it isn’t just because he could play a goat if he wanted too. When the Peanuts set up for the play, Lucy asks Snoopy if he can play every animal for them since he’s the only animal around (Woodstock flew south for the winter). He nails them all perfectly, even the penguin, and then decides to tick Lucy off in typical Snoopy fashion.
It turns out his impersonation skills aren’t restricted to animals as he then decided to mock a ranting Lucy, prompting her to try and slug him. Never change, Snoopy.
Linus tells Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about
Okay, maybe Linus is the G.O.A.T of the Peanuts universe and this particular speech would certainly help make a good case for him. As we stated earlier, Linus told Charlie Brown to cheer up in one of the first scenes of the special when he explains that the magic of Christmas isn’t a problem.
But then the blue-blanket wielding Peanut decided to step it up a notch and enlighten the entire universe as to what the magic of Christmas is truly all about. Even if a person has been living under a rock for the past 50 years, we’d be willing to bet that they’ve heard this speech at least once.
Charlie Brown and Linus pick out the tree
We want it known, here and now, that there is absolutely no reason to get a fake Christmas tree unless it’s due to an allergy/medicinal reason. Otherwise, real Christmas trees are the only acceptable Christmas trees and Charlie Brown was 100% in the right for buying the rinky-dink sapling. Especially since all of the aluminum trees that were in the lot weren’t even green. Seriously, what kind of lunatic buys a purple of yellow Christmas tree?
The Peanuts may have given Charlie Brown a ton of undeserved flak for this blockhead move, but the audience knows that he picked the only acceptable tree in the first place.
Peanuts singing Newborn King
It may take half an hour for the Peanuts gang to finally realize what jerks they’re always being to everybody’s favorite blockhead, but once they do realize it they step up big time and truly make him feel like one of the gang. Charlie Brown himself might need to build up a little more confidence since he hung one ornament on his little tree and thought he killed it (and claimed that everything he touches gets ruined).
But thanks to Linus and the rest of the Peanuts (and a little help from Snoopy’s decorations) they help Charlie Brown see that it never really was such a bad little tree. Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!
