Like the character in its title, A Charlie Brown Christmas didn’t get much respect just before its debut sixty years ago. The CBS network that was about to air the now beloved holiday favorite didn’t have much faith in it.
Executives at the network felt that the pace was too slow, the music didn’t work, and the animation was too simple. Ironically, these are aspects of A Charlie Brown Christmas that have endeared the special to audiences, making it one of the season’s shining stars.
Debuting in 1950, Charles M. Schulz’ Peanuts comic strip had grown to be one of the most popular by the mid-60s. Producer Lee Mendelson had been working with Schulz on a potential documentary about the comic strip when he was approached by the advertising agency McCann-Erickson. They had a client, Coca-Cola, who was looking for a TV holiday special to sponsor.
Mendelson quickly agreed, met with Schulz (known to many as “Sparky”), and animation director Bill Melendez (who had collaborated with Schulz to animate the Peanuts characters for Ford commercials). They hammered out an outline, which was approved, and in six months, they completed A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Anyone who has ever owned a TV is familiar with the story, as the special opens soothingly with images of a gentle snowfall, as the Peanuts characters ice skate on a pond. Over this, we hear the now familiar song, “Christmastime is Here’ (with music by Vince Guaraldi and lyrics by Mendelson). Charlie Brown and Linus walk through the neighborhood to join their friends. As they stop to talk, Charlie Brown confesses, “I think that there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I am supposed to feel.”
And with this line, a reflective, introspective tone for A Charlie Brown Christmas is set. This was much different from what audiences were used to from holiday fare, and Charlie Brown’s quest for that happiness and meaning continues throughout the special.
After visiting Lucy at her “Psychiatrist booth,” where he discusses his problem, she suggests some involvement and puts Charlie Brown in charge of their Christmas play, as director.
This doesn’t improve his mood, as he becomes even more depressed about the commercialism of Christmas, especially as he assists his sister, Sally, transcribe her letter to Santa (“If it seems too complicated, make it easy on yourself. Just send money. How about tens and twenties?”). Snoopy’s lavish decorating of his doghouse doesn’t help, nor does the fact that none of the other kids pay any attention to Charlie Brown when directing the play.
He decides to get a Christmas tree, but when he goes to the lot, there’s nothing but aluminum trees, which Lucy suggested getting.
However, Charlie Brown chooses a live tree – a small, sad-looking twig with only a few pine branches. When he returns, the kids are furious at his choice, and an exasperated Charlie Brown asks if anyone knows what Christmas is all about.
Linus obliges, taking center stage with a spotlight on him and proceeds to recite the Biblical passage from The Gospel according to Luke (2:8-14, King James Version), after which he simply states, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
Charlie Brown then takes the little tree outside, near Snoopy’s doghouse, which has won the first prize for decorating, and he attempts to put an ornament on it. When the tree gives in to the weight, he’s distraught thinking he has killed it, until the entire gang comes along, decorates the tree, and surprises him with a cheer of “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!”
They all then sing a chorus of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” as the special ends.
From its more contemplative tone to its focus on religion, A Charlie Brown Christmas was such a departure from previous holiday specials that it immediately connected with audiences, going on to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Program, as well as a Peabody Award.
Something that set it apart was the music in the special and how it was utilized. Pianist Guaraldi’s jazz score includes “Linus and Lucy,’ which all of the kids dance to in a famous sequence. The upbeat piano jazz music has become a standard and almost part of the season’s soundtrack, playing on radio stations alongside traditional Christmas carols.
Additionally, Mendelson, Melendez, and Schulz decided to have children voice the characters, rather than using adult voice actors who sounded like kids, which was standard at the time. The performances of young actors Peter Robbins as Charlie Brown, Christopher Shea as Linus, Tracy Stratford as Lucy, and Kathy Steinberg as Sally, among others, lent another layer of relatability (like Schulz’ strip) to the special.
While many know these voices, there’s a part of A Charlie Brown Christmas they may not be familiar with. In the original opening sequence, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and Linus are skating. Charlie Brown skids off into a snowbank, knocking snow off a tree, and the title appears. Initially, after this, Linus skid into a sign that reads: “Brought to you by the people in your town who bottle Coca-Cola,” announcing the special’s original sponsor. This portion of A Charlie Brown Christmas hasn’t been shown through the years, as there were different sponsors for repeat viewings.
When it debuted on December 9, 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas was seen by 45% of television viewers, ranking second in the ratings behind the immensely popular Bonanza.
In the sixty years since, it’s become not just beloved by generations who have handed it down, but it’s also now an expectation of the season and a solid part of our holiday lexicon (describe something as a “Charlie Brown Christmas tree,” and most know what you’re talking about).
In the book, A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition by Lee Mendelson, when asked why the special has endured, director Bill Melendez said “This little story and the way it’s told is almost as simple and direct as Sparky’s cartoon strip. The message is so gentle, there’s nothing pompous about the story.”
Celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this month, A Charlie Brown Christmas has rightly become like the return of a welcome friend when we watch it each year, as Time magazine critic Richard Burgheim wrote (almost prophetically) in his review of the special when it first debuted: “A Charlie Brown Christmas is one children’s special that bears repeating.”
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: 
It remains a wonderful special to me. I never grow tired of it, nor do I grow tired of the “Charlie Brown“ specials over the years. Of course, I like the original cast of Young voices. It is ironic how much they seem to represent the characters. The right tone was chosen for each child. And hey almost nothing is lost with Snoopy not having thought balloons like he does in the daily newspaper strip. He is able to meetly pantomime what he is thinking so we follow him very well, even in the specials or movies that focus primarily on the dog. Of course my hope is that this special does show up on a really special edition with all its sponsor mentioned intact, merely because that is the way it premiered. At least I wish that for all the 1960s original “Charlie Brown“ specials. Something for the WarnerArchive to possibly tackle?
The initial criticism that it moved too slowly, I am convinced, explains why the immediate sequel “Charlie Brown’s All-Stars” (which appeared six months later) opens with an action sequence that is so frantic, it looks like Mendelson and Melendez brought in Tex Avery to direct it. Of course, the specials soon settled into a comfortable balance between the two approaches.
Sometime in the ’80s, I saw a TV critic (I forget who) on a talk show (I forget which) give his opinion of the various Christmas specials that by then had become annual traditions. I was surprised by his criticism of Rudolph and the Grinch, but he had nothing but praise for “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. He likened it to a special ornament, an heirloom, that was carefully unwrapped every year to take pride of place on your tree during the Christmas season, then just as carefully wrapped up and set aside until next year. I really can’t improve on that simile.
The Biblical passage quoted by Linus was used by George Frideric Handel in Part I of his sacred oratorio “Messiah”, as a set of four recitatives for solo soprano culminating in the chorus “Glory to God,” the first of the three choruses in which Handel really pulls out all the stops with the trumpets and timpani. In a long orchestral career I’ve played Handel’s “Messiah” as many as three times every year, most recently last Sunday; and every time I do, that passage always makes me think of Linus declaiming the Gospel in the school auditorium.
Another change was made in the ending beyond the removal of the Coca-Cola logo. In the original version, seen here, Snoopy wishes Charlie Brown a merry Christmas and sings “Hark! The Herald Angels” along with the other children. His lip movements were corrected when Dolly Madison started sponsoring the special.
I remember watching this scene as a small child and wondering where the organ music was coming from. My brother pointed out that Schroeder’s hands were in his pockets, so obviously he must have been concealing a keyboard in his jacket.
Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown! Merry Christmas, Snoopy! And merry Christmas, Michael!
Has it ever been determined who animated the dance cycles? To quote one Sally Brown, “He has the nicest sense of humor.”
A real shame 3 and 4’s screen career never took off. They should have been licensed out for a Doublemint Twins commercial, at least.
My family missed the original airing of the special–unusual, because we had caught Rudolph and Mr. Magoo from their first showings. The first exposure I got to the Peanuts characters was the following Hallowe’en when “The Great Pumpkin” debuted. I became an immediate fan, and when the Christmas special re-aired in 1966, we were all on board to watch it.
The timing was perfect. My school, a private Lutheran school, had just staged a Christmas pageant in which all of the kids had been taught to memorize the shepherds and angels passage from the Gospel of St. Luke. So, when Linus quoted this passage at the climax of the story, it was a thrill to hear the same words repeated, word for word, that I and my classmates had so recently learned by heart. That was and is for me the most memorable scene.
The special has a quiet simplicity about it that is unique, both in terms of holiday specials in general but also with regard to the Peanuts empire that followed. Never again would the wonders of Schulz’ world be as fully realized, its heart so perfectly captured, as with “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
Thanks for sharing how your own childhood Christmas pageant matched exactly the special when you saw it for the first time, with a year’s delay and anticipation. What a lovely memory.
I never saw those unnamed girl twins again.
The twin girls are 3 and 4, the sisters of 5 (the kid jerking his head back and forth in the dance scene). The siblings were introduced in the strip in 1963. After their initial appearance, the girls mainly appeared in crowd scenes and, according to Wikipedia, disappeared from the strip in 1968. 5 lasted longer, playing on Charlie Brown;s baseball team.
I never heard them called anything but I know who 5 is, as he was featured in a few strips.
One of the great animated TV Christmas shows.
I love charlie brown and the characters. clean up pig pen could be another cartoon.
Bill Melendez animated the PEANUTS characters for the Ford commercials while he was at Playhouse Pictures. He left it to make his own studio. The Playhouse owner never forgave him for “stealing” PEANUTS from him.
Not sure if I caught the very first airing, but I do remember when Peanuts was booming. Got to see “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” in San Francisco for my birthday. Had a lot of the merchandise, much of which came from something called Determined Productions, with very 60s art direction emphasizing heavy old-timey poster fonts (see “Happiness is a Warm Puppy” and the other little square books).
Oddly, I knew the strip itself primarily from those $1 paperbacks with two strips per page. The San Francisco paper somehow had exclusivity, so down in San Jose it didn’t appear in Mercury News until the 70s.
An irony of the TV specials is that, over time, they got better and better at imitating Schulz’s style while the stories began to drift further from the comic strip. Snoopy has a scary nightmare about being a sled dog, or runs off to join the circus in real life. The Little Read-Headed Girl appears on camera and Charlie Brown, finally a hero, earns a kiss. Aerobics! Suspecting they became an outlet for ideas Schulz was reluctant to canonize in the strip.
I am totally heartbroken that a new generation will never see the magic of this show. Now that it’s in the clutches of megalith Apple, kids without that streaming service will never see it. I’m disgusted that the Apple corporation would do this
Apple has made the holiday specials free to view for a weekend each year since they’ve acquired them.
https://9to5mac.com/2025/12/13/charlie-brown-christmas-free-apple-tv-2025/
Not as simple as over the air TV (or is it simpler? because you need to buy a digital antenna for over the air TV now), but I bet most kids can still see the Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas specials.
This is fine and all, but I still prefer Bonanza.
My grandchildren will never be able to see my favorite, go to Christmas movie because we can’t afford Apple TV.
It’s criminal to take our most beloved Christmas movie from us, Apple!
It was always a special event to watch this growing up at our house. It’s such a shame it’s not on anymore for everyone to watch. Children now are missing out unless parents have apple TV im told and not all parents have it. It’s do disappointing. Im glad I grew up in a different world back then with these shows.
The best bet is to just own the DVD, which I have for many years. That way I can enjoy it anytime I want.
Forget Apple TV. You can buy the blue ray DVD for $10 from the other corporate monster, Amazon. Then you can watch it all year round.
when you have millenials copying the dance routines in tik tok or fb, you know its a well received heirloom that you cant help but join in on the fun!❤️
love our Peanuts gang!
All of you complaining about not being able to show this to your grandkids should own the DVD and a DVD player. It’s the easiest way to enjoy your favorite cartoons without worrying about corporate greed. Trust me, it’s worked for me for 20 years.
I love Charlie Brown and Snoopy and the rest of the gang
Cartoon network is a funny way to get your attention across.
I have very vivid memories of my family going over to my nana’s house to watch this on her color TV in 1965. It was my first exposure to Peanuts and I was hooked for life. I’ve always been an intovert and my own personality is a bit of a mix of Charlie Brown and Linus (I even had a blue blanket from which I was inseperable) so the special hit me on a real emotional level. I definitely felt out of place around other kids and while I didn’t have any emotional issues Schultz’s depiction of chilhood anxiety and depression along still struck a nerve and makes the special, like many of the best Peanuts strips fron that era, timeless.
I think the rough spots of the production, particularly some of the halting dialog of the child voice actors, is what has endeared the special to so many people over the decades. It lends the work a wonderful handmade quality that seems all the more appealing in the modern era of more antispeptic animation.
By the way, my family was a Detroit Free Press family (as opposed to the Detroit News) and that photo of the Sunday TV viewing supplement (that I read cover to cover as a kid) brings back so many fond memories.
Huh. A story about a boy struggling to keep Christmas from being commercialized, brought to you by Coca-Cola.
One of the all time greatest soundtracks. It wasn’t until I got the CD I learned what a lot of us thought was the Charlie Brown theme was actually called Linus and Lucy. I mean, good grief, his own tv special and everyone remembers his co-stars’ theme music more than his.
A childhood favorite of mine my first time seeing it was 2005 on ABC Family and instantly fell in love with it. To this day still do for many years to come, and a very good soundtrack I have on CD.