A Charlie Brown Christmas

Have you ever had the experience of not knowing anything about something, and then within a short period of time you are hearing about it everywhere? This happened to me this last week concerning the movie “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Whenever this sort of thing happens to me, I figure I should take notice, because maybe it’s God trying to get something through my thick head. The first encounter I had was through a newsletter I received from the Christian health share program I’m a member with. The second encounter came through a short reading I read in the free devotional magazine I use. And the third encounter came over the radio as I listened to a pastor on my way to church this morning.

The reason I knew very little about “A Charlie Brown Christmas” before this is because I have never watched it. And now, that I know what I know, I can’t believe I haven’t. The first time it aired was on December 9, 1965. I would have been 11 years old and you would think I would have liked a little cartoon about Christmas. I probably would have, except that it aired on CBS and in the remote area of Nebraska where I grew up – we only got one channel and it was not CBS. I doubt that I would have watched it anyway, because it aired at the same time as Bonanza, which was a weekly tradition in our house. As it turns out, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was the second most watched TV show that evening – second only to Bonanza. Forty five- forty nine percent of households (15 million homes) across the U.S. were tuned into CBS.

The making of the movie was done quickly after Coke-a-Cola called CBS and asked if they had a Christmas movie in the makings, because they wanted to sponsor it. CBS saw this as a good opportunity for them, and Coke-a-Cola was assured by CBS that there would be a Christmas movie for them to sponsor. Hurriedly, CBS contacted Charles Schulz and asked him to write a movie with his Peanut characters. By this time the Peanuts comic strip had become a world wide phenomenon.

CBS and Coke-a-Cola loved everything about the movie, except for when Linus reads the Christmas story from Luke  – and no less – out of the King James Version. They told Charles Schulz he would have to do away with this scene. “It’s too much religion,” they said. Mr. Schulz stood his ground and said “if we don’t tell them, who will?” He also told them if he couldn’t tell the Christmas story, they couldn’t use his characters. Because they were on a timeline and the movie had already been publicized in the TV guides, they had to go on with it. The TV producers were fully expecting it to be a disaster.

Now we know the rest of the story. On top of all the viewers that night, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” earned an Emmy and a Peabody Award.  As Charles Schulz accepted the Emmy he said, “Charlie Brown never wins anything, so thank-you very much.” And now for 50 years, the movie has been aired every year – usually twice a season. It has become a holiday tradition in many homes.

After familiarizing myself with everything I could find on the Internet about “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, I chastised myself that I had turned the TV off the evening I saw it coming on. I had chopped it up to a silly little animation program for children, and obviously, I had done this same thing for the last 50 years.

It struck me that maybe I had not missed the second showing of it. After some googling, I was pleased to find out that it will be shown again on Christmas Eve on ABC. It’s about time to start a new tradition, don’t you think?