The Miscellany News

Although I cannot remember my first interaction with “Peanuts,” it was probably watching 1965’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on TV. The opaque whimsy of the holiday special’s first scene, synchronized skating over a frozen lake set to the choral version of the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s gentle “Christmas Time Is Here,” remains emblazoned on my mind’s eye. Motes of pearlescent snow falling, the cast tracing figure-eights in graceful sweeping glides, set to the thistly fuzz of the soundtrack’s brushes over snare and the melancholy croon of “Olden times and ancient rhymes/ Of love and dreams to share”—it is hard to separate the haze of nostalgic memory from the legitimate beauty of the scene.

The “Peanuts” holiday specials are an indelible cultural touchstone firmly embedded in my mind, a core element of growing up with TV and public broadcasting. Peanuts are a form of early indoctrination—child-friendly and yet reckoning with modern societal ennui’s adulteration of childlike joy. We can grow up with “Peanuts” in a way few other media relics permit, and the contrast of tender sentimentalism and acrid critique in the holiday specials grows more potent as we grow up and yearn for the simplistic beauty of holidays past. We can attribute the perennial beauty of “Peanuts” specials to three visionaries—namely, “Peanuts” comic strip creator and one-person industry Charles Schulz, who, according to the Charles M. Schulz Museum, continuously ran the strip from 1950 to 2000 and created 17,897 individual comics, spawning the characters, themes and tone. As significant to the “Peanuts” specials were animation titan Bill Melendez, whose direction and production across the specials gave them a high benchmark for passion and consistency, and master empath and jazz composer Vince Guaraldi, whose playful, tender compositions provide the specials with their cozy atmospheric and emotional core. 

The degree to which we let “Peanuts” impact our adult lives varies. Personally, “Peanuts” has followed me throughout my life; every holiday is paired with a household viewing of that holiday’s “Peanuts” special, memories of the day transposed onto Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang’s misadventures. Yet, there has been a lurking dread within this practice—the cognitive dissonance that, despite my love for this media franchise and its myriad iterations, I have been neglecting the more obscure and unloved specials condemned to live in a Best Buy bargain bin. Over this small break, I both revisited my childhood through enjoying beloved “Peanuts” specials and broadened my horizons by exploring the untended specials released after the iconic holiday season crop (1965’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” 1966’s “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and 1973’s “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving”). Here are my findings from a deep dive into the “Peanuts” holiday specials, presented as a ranked list from worst to best. Listicle time!

9. “It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown” (1992)

Hopping back on the (well-worn) Christmas hobby horse and attempting to replicate the 1965 special’s cultural singularity, “It’s Christmastime Again” falls short of the ephemeral warmth of its Christmas predecessor. Linus sermonizes on the Nativity story, Snoopy tricks Woodstock in Santa garb and Charlie Brown mopes on the oddly steep brick bridge; all elements fans recognize, regurgitated in a jumbled, plodding and saccharine pastiche. It goes without saying that there is an aching hole in the soundtrack where Guaraldi’s light touch once graced the specials. Nonetheless, authentic “Peanuts” charm peeks out in small moments of genuine levity, humor and heart under the amalgamated gristle of franchise DNA. Good grief. 

8. “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!” (1974)

This special rehashes the theme of holiday commercialism done better by earlier specials and takes several detours with pleasant but pointless gags between Snoopy and Woodstock. On the plus side, the short features some groovy mid-’70s Guaraldi. By far, the best moment is when Linus’ dream of an “Easter Beagle” is acted out by Snoopy, who dances across the frame, giving out Easter eggs stolen (à la Robin Hood) from Lucy. The scene is set to a great Beethoven reorchestration, but the rest of “It’s the Easter Beagle” falls flat.

7. “I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown” (2003)

“I Want A Dog For Christmas” is achingly inauspicious. Being another Christmas installment made after the turn of the millennium, I fully expected to come out of this special disappointed. Yet, although it lacks a strong narrative and much connection to Christmas, “I Want A Dog” turns out to be a winsome and cutesy story about late-series addition Rerun Van Pelt trying to adopt Snoopy’s desert-faring brother Spike. Great visual gags (Snoopy collecting Schroeder’s piano notes from the air) and archetypical Schulz jokes (Snoopy panhandling as a Salvation Army Santa) override any of the special’s lack of clarity or narrative thrust. Moreover, “I Want a Dog” proves that good “Peanuts” media can be and is still being made. 

6. “Happy New Year, Charlie Brown” (1986)

This entry represents a turning point in the rankings. As we move up the list to better (and older) specials, their gaiety and emotional potency seem more evergreen and a product of cohesive artistic vision by creatives at the peak of their power. “Happy New Year” is a product of this synchronicity, as a focused story honing in on Charlie Brown’s struggle to complete his winter break reading assignment: Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” His battle with the novel (and constant distractions from it) undergird this jubilant special, structured as a jukebox musical with triumphant singalong numbers and dance sequences. It is surprisingly innovative for a later Charlie Brown special, and the cast’s camaraderie only heightens the humor when contrasted with Charlie Brown’s abject literary misery, making it a surprisingly solid entry.

5. “It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown” (1976)

Perhaps the most underrated holiday special. “It’s Arbor Day” is unassuming yet excellent, taking a relatively obscure holiday and thrusting it into absurd circumstances when a baseball field is chosen as the site of a community garden raised by Sally and Lucy to celebrate Arbor Day. It is a brilliant premise, and the ensuing game between Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown’s respective teams is “Peanuts” at its most fevered and charismatic. At the center of the pitcher’s mound is a sapling, which prevents Peppermint Patty from throwing; sentient ivy ensnares Snoopy while he is at bat; between the bases are narrow rows of tulips and gardenias which prevent the runners from getting too far. It is an innovative concept that stretches the holiday premise to its furthest extent, subverting the traditional environmentalist narrative with a quintessentially “Peanuts” situation. “It’s Arbor Day” is the final special Guaraldi scored—the special is dedicated to him—and while his soundtrack is perhaps a little misplaced, its somnolent, introspective dreaminess is a fitting coda to his career as a virtuoso of atmospheric composition. 

4. “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” (1966)

This placement could be blasphemy to many, but I firmly stand by it. It was revelatory watching “Great Pumpkin” again, not only because it is a wonderful special, but because it is surprisingly threadbare. Linus’ grappling with faith and the existence of The Great Pumpkin is a potent plot line—compelling, fun and existential, while remaining approachable—and the trick-or-treating scenes remain littered with iconic costumes and quotables (Charlie Brown’s many-holed ghost outfit and deadpan delivery of “I got a rock” are timeless). Linus’ scene writing to The Great Pumpkin, disparaged by all parties but remaining earnest in his conviction, is my favorite scene across all “Peanuts” media. It is scored to perhaps Guaraldi’s greatest “Peanuts” composition, “The Great Pumpkin Waltz,” defining autumnal wistfulness and beauty in musical form. Yet, a vacuous Snoopy interlude as the Red Baron occupies much of the special. While seeing Snoopy duck and crawl across the French countryside is in its own way brilliant, it is jarring, unrelated and detracts from the fantastic humor and thematic content of the rest of the special. Though uneven, it is a classic. 

3. “Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown” (1975)

“Be My Valentine” is the product of mechanical consistency from all parties conspiring to form a wickedly solid special. Schulz’s charm and incisive look at sociality is so present here, featuring Charlie Brown accepting a pity Valentine because “it was my first valentine… even if it was a used one.” He is then swept into a delusion of grandeur, exclaiming: “Maybe this is the start of a trend for ol’ Charlie Brown!” This is Chuck at peak schlimazel, a wretch suffering the full human condition at eight years old and still finding hope to keep trying. Melendez and Guaraldi are firing on all cylinders, with crisp, well-animated production and a melodic feast of a soundtrack. The tracks feature beautifully hazy electric piano and synth–a fuzzy and soothing sonic rendering of lovesickness. Check this one out if you have not seen it. 

2. “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” (1973)

“A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” always hits and remains consistent from year to year, from the hallmarks of mid-’70s jazz codified in the delightful vocal track “Little Birdie” to its accompanying sequence featuring Snoopy battling a sentient lawn chair. Equally delightful is the playful, subversive reinvention of Thanksgiving dinner as buttered toast, pretzels, jellybeans and popcorn; every constitutive element combines to make this special classic by all metrics. It also brought Peppermint Patty and Woodstock to the fore of the “Peanuts” canon, two essential cast members largely immortalized through their inclusion in “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.” This one feels like home to me. 

1. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965)The original. Eminent and miraculous, this special was produced on astronomical time and budgetary constraints and was projected to be a flop with audiences for its edgy anti-commercial stance, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Nevertheless, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” proved to be an unprecedented seismic success. It captured the minds of its generation, firmly entrenched itself within popular culture and echoed the discontent among young people yearning for greater meaning within modernity. Most wonderfully of all, it is scathing without being morose in its melancholia or nihilistic in its criticism of commercialization. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is the perfect confluence of wonderfully makeshift art design, iconic existential themes and a consummate soundtrack which forever cemented jazz as a hallmark of Christmas music and “Peanuts” as part of holiday culture.