A Charlie Brown Christmas 1965

[7.5/10] It’s funny how far away and yet how close these specials from so far in the past seem. It speaks to a certain universality of the human condition. As much as this special looks and sounds like a product of the 1960s, ideas like not feeling like you think you’re supposed to at the holidays or fretting about the overcommercialization of the season are still very much with us fifty-five years later. It speaks to the way that Charles Schultz really touched on something real when he came up with his sad sack, pushy, and loony characters who have made such an impression on generations of kids.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is more a cul-de-sac than a full-blown story, but it has a solid emotional throughline in Charlie feeling let down by the holiday, and trying to celebrate it in a way that will leave him fulfilled by the team New Years has come and left. That means plenty of time for Snoopy’s amusing impersonations and cartoony antics, and chances for Lucy to rattle off phobias and threaten to beat people up. But it also means the special can spend time just watching the kids be kids, enjoying their silly interactions that carry Schultz’s well-observed, sardonic sense of humor.

Despite the unhurried pace of the special, it makes the Peanuts Gang enjoyable to just hang out with as they strain to put on a play, throw snowballs, or grouse about and eventually rescue the last real life Xmas tree in town. Therein lies the message -- that Xmas has become about aluminum trees and lights displays and other things that depart from the spirit of the season. A Charlie Brown Christmas gets a little more explicitly religious than I might like, but the theme of escaping from the corporatization of the holiday (one that goes back as far as 1947’s A Miracle on 34th Street) is still a resonant one all these years later.

It’s particularly impressive how direct Schutlz and company are about channeling that through Charlie Brown. You feel for the poor kid, and his sense of the holiday blues is relatable, even and maybe especially through the eyes of an elementary school student. His tale of trying to find the real meaning of the holiday in all this season, and being invigorated and gratified by Linus and his otherwise skeptical chums is a really warm note to end on.

Of course, plenty has already been written about Vincent Guaraldi’s unimpeachable score, which has rightly ascended into yuletide legend for its loose, jazzy feel that manages to neatly balance the merry and melancholy. The designs and animation are a treat here as well, with the opening skating sequence a wonderful demonstration of movement, and the scrappy character looks adding charm to the presentation.

Overall, this one is a classic for a reason. It may be a little too slow and quiet for younger viewers these days, but it’s a surprisingly mature and, decades later, still trenchant look at the holiday season.