The Power of Charlie Brown

Everyone loves Charlie Brown, the central character of the Peanuts world. Well, perhaps after Snoopy. 

There have been many Peanuts TV specials, in the area of 50 if memory serves. The best loved one is surely A Charlie Brown Christmas. I get chills at both Linus retelling the Nativity story, and especially when the gang leaps into Hark the Herald Angels Sing at the end. The show is rightly viewed (heh, heh, I just had to get the pun in) as a classic.

Did you know it single handedly destroyed the aluminum Christmas tree industry? Those of us old enough to remember recall the metal Christmas trees of the 1960s. 

As Linus and Charlie Brown are walking through a Christmas tree stand (right before discovering the sad little real tree) they lamented all the artificial trees available. One of them, I think it was Charlie but no matter, tapped an obvious metal one. It sounded like an empty oil drum. And on that scene alone, people virtually quit buying aluminum trees. 

Charlie Brown. He has the power of life and death over entire businesses.

Christmas Favorites

I mentioned my favorite Christmas novelty songs awhile back. I think I got into trouble over Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. I would have thought Christmas at Ground Zero might have been the one to draw ire. Oh well.

But as to my favorite straight out Christmas song, one which takes Christmas seriously, that's a tough call. Schubert's Ave Maria always brings tears to my eyes; what a glorious, glorious tribute to the Mother of Christ. It's beautiful in Latin, and the thing is you don't have to understand the language to comprehend the profound beauty of the song. 

Midnight Mass at old St. Dominic here in Detroit always ended with Joy to the World, and as such meant Christmas, to me, had begun. That would have to be near the top of my list. I've always had a soft spot for O Little Town of Bethlehem, and I love Adeste Fideles too.

Yet I would have to say my favorite is likely (I say likely because our feelings for songs do tend to ebb and flow a bit) Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. And I mean precisely how the Peanuts gang sings it at the end of the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Maybe that's too sentimental of a choice. But when the kids all yell, "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!" then launch into that hymn, well, I still get chills no matter how often I've seen the show.

So, it's Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. But I may be open to suggestion.

Tis the Season

I like Christmas. I really do. But I am one of the grumpy ones who could stand to see it back off a little.

Christmas commercials are already inundating the world. Buy! Buy! Buy! You need New Wonderful Thing! You can't live without it!

I bet you can.

The decorations are nice, and I do like seeing them. I'm still old school enough to look forward to Midnight Mass. Indeed, Midnight Mass and the quiet half hour I'll spend watching A Charlie Brown Christmas would do me fine, to be honest. Turning on the radio or listening to a CD of traditional Christmas music is quite enjoyable. I find the greatest happiness is in the small, sublime aspects of life. The commercialism I can certainly do without.

So on the whole I'll be happy enough. I'll likely even watch one Hallmark movie: flashy three piece suit city guy ought to lose the girl to red flannel shirt small town bumpkin. I do take far too much delight in that. 

Save The Date

For all of you who are interested, Sunday December 19 at 7:30 on your local PBS station will be this year's free showing of the classic Charlie Brown Christmas special. Even though we have it on DVD and can stream it (though streaming, whatever that is, is still something I can't seem to wrap my head around let alone manage to do efficiently) I still make the effort to watch it on free TV.

Part of it is only the old school guy in me coming out. Many if not most of us remember, and quite fondly, how the TV Guide served as our entertainment schedule way back when. If you missed a special you were out of luck for an entire year as to catching it again. I'm not, or at least don't intend to, argue in any way that this 'streaming' thing is wrong or bad. On the whole it really is good. Still, sentimentality...

So anyway, I'm going to watch Charlie Brown, the good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, on PBS in thirteen days. The childhood vibes come shining through until yet watching a revered show at a scheduled date such as that. Undoubtedly I will watch it again with family on Christmas Day via DVD or stream. But if you want to experience something as it once were, mark December 19 on you calendar.