Ask yourself: "What is the appeal of Peanuts?" Hallmark still manufactures porcelain collectors' vignettes, plush dolls, ornaments, and cards in great quantities, although new segments of the comic strip are no longer being created, at the strip's creator's (Schultz') request. I believe that for most children, beyond the animated characters, the music, and short, comedic skits, much of the depth of Peanuts and its holiday specials is lost.
Today, the specials are increasingly dated both in their look and content. I doubt that I would watch them now were I a child. I recall the first time I saw the original Charlie Brown Christmas special in the 1970s. Even then it seemed out of date. The storyline was too fragmented for easy comprehension, and the concept of an aluminum Christmas tree simply too strange for words for a child who had known only real trees. I took it as some left-over joke from the nineteen fifties.
The original Charlie Brown Christmas special's message seemed to assert the pretense of philosophical depth, but spoke more to the trials of a lonely child seeking the approval of his peers. What I recall most is thinking how much I loved the music, and that it would be fantastic to be able to play some of it myself. (I memorized "Linus and Lucy" on keyboard many years later, and manage to produce a version of "Christmas Time is Here" on flute.) I saw the Thanksgiving Day special in its time, and now reminisce about the old station wagons, and how the manufacturers were always rearranging the way the back seat(s) would fold down to try to create buyer interest. I still enjoy the final scene of the Thanksgiving special, and permit my own dog to join me for Thanksgiving dinner. In today's SUV/mini-van era, the scene at the end of the Thanksgiving special probably makes children wonder what type of vehicle Charlie Brown's parents' could possibly own.
I have been forced to conclude that what the Charlie Brown specials offer most poignantly is an opportunity to look back at children living in a place of idealized innocence that never was a part of life in America, and to induce an element of whimsy and longing for this version of childhood re-made through the eyes of an adult. Even the neighborhood, with its relatively small and boxlike houses near an area sufficiently rural for a pumpkin patch and a Christmas tree farm to be accessible to small children is a thing of the past that is unknown in today's sprawling cities with high crime rates and an inclination toward large, upscale, and often cookie cutter housing.
The original Christmas special incorporated religious themes, which was expected to sink its ratings. That has never happened. This latest version avoids such ties, and seems to reflect Schultz' own journey toward humanism, which he himself acknowledged. By casting off the deeper emotional and cultural underpinnings of the holiday season, it was inevitable that what would result would be less a classic holiday special than a cartoon for children.
I don't rent or await the broadcast of this special. The original, with its pure Guaraldi soundtrack and courage to be different, even religious, although I am not a religious person, still strikes at deeper, human chords than most cartoons. It is a story about the journey of a group of "wee folks" toward a better comprehension of each other, the season, and their own motivations, amid a flurry of Yuletide activities. They come together at the end better than they were before. In that ending, with its symbolic chorus, the meaning of Christmas is communicated. That was an ending for the Christmas season that is impossible to top.
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