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"A Charlie Brown Christmas"

On this day in 1965, the classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas" premiered on TV.




It was based on the Infancy Narrative of St. Luke. In the plot, Charlie Brown tries to find the true meaning of Christmas. He is assigned the pick out the Christmas Tree. But, as usual, his choice of tree is met with much dislike. Charlie Brown once again feels like a failure. Until Linus recounts the story of the birth of Jesus. Then Charlie Brown declares "I won't all this commercialism ruin my Christmas"!. "I'll take this little tree home and decorate it and I'll show them it really will work in our play." He headed home and came upon Snoopy's prizewinning doghouse. Charlie Brown grabged a large red ornament from the roof and hung it carefully on the top branch of his little Christmas tree. But when he placed the one large ornament on the little tree it bent over. Charlie Brown thought he had killed the little tree, but then Linus and the rest of Charlie Brown's friends came along and Linus said, "its not a bad tree at all, maybe it just needs a little love", and wrapped his blanket at the base of the tree. All the others without a word went over to Snoopy's doghouse and removed all the decorations and placed them all on the little tree. They even placed a Star at the top! Charlie Brown could not believe it, his friends' efforts had transformed it into something truly special. Surrounded by his friends, Charlie Brown realized that Linus had been right about the true meaning of Christmas. This was the Christmas spirit he had been looking for all along.





The program won an Emmy and a Peabody Award, and led to more than 30 additional Peanuts shows.


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"I said if we're going to do a Christmas show, we have to use the passage from St. Luke about the birth of Christ" - Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip.